Fast-Moving Consumer Goods

The FMCG sector has an unmatched history of value creation performance—thanks to powerful brands, functionally superior products, and scaled operations. But slowdowns in global customer demand, multiple shifts in the customer landscape, and a loss of traditional scale advantages (due to new, digitally enabled models and the rise of e-commerce) have caused the sector to underperform since 2017.

The pandemic has only accelerated the decline. Looking forward, incumbents will—for the first time—be hit by multiple disruptions simultaneously, including a radical reshaping of shopping and channels, further erosion of scale advantages, and a heightened focus on social impact and purpose. Meanwhile, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence will continue to revolutionize FMCG business models.

How BCG Helps the FMCG Sector Meet Five Strategic Imperatives

Our FMCG consultants work shoulder to shoulder with clients to enable them to meet five strategic imperatives vital for sustaining success. For each imperative, we help clients activate high-impact levers for transformation.

We back deployment of transformational levers with proven approaches and methodologies. For example:

1. Become an always-on portfolio manager

• Reshape your portfolio further and faster by proactively buying and selling assets to build advantaged positions.
• Skew organic growth investment by emphasizing leading brand positions over short-term margin gains.

2. Reinvent the demand model

• Accentuate the superiority of your offering through proprietary technology, targeted products, and personalized customer experiences.
• Advance next-gen demand science to gain unique insights, optimize across brands and SKUs, and battle complexity.
• Engage with consumers on a personal level—including combining new technology and 360-degree customer profiles to target “segments of one.”

3. Digitize end-to-end capabilities

• Deploy hyperflexible go-to-market and net revenue management to drive sustainable volume growth.
• Bring AI to scale across your supply chain by investing in modular, scalable digital platforms to better forecast demand and turbocharge efficiency.

4. Elevate the operating model

• Embrace agile structures and ways of working to make your workforce more responsive, nimble, and innovative.
• Actively leverage the value of ecosystems to unlock new sources of scale, accelerate innovation, and maximize flexibility.

5. Inspire with purpose

• Turn purpose into competitive advantage by anchoring your purpose in the company’s history and sustainability ambitions so that stakeholders keep granting you a “license to operate.”