Summary

It’s no secret that traditional brands and retailers are under siege. Consumer behavior is changing rapidly. Low- and off-price players are moving in. Labor costs are on the rise, while consumers are moving their spend online — and away from tangible goods.

These and many other trends are creating a fundamentally different world for consumer businesses. In this world — the new normal — winning requires a different approach, not only to strategy but to internal structure and operations as well.

Consumer businesses are complex. Many have multiple divisions creating organizational complexity and inefficiency. Some have multiple brands and target consumer groups. There are brands and retailers that participate across various product categories and have varying depths of assortment. There are numerous channels of distribution to consider — for example, retail, wholesale, ecommerce and distributors, not to mention the many variations of each of these. There are consumers as well as commercial customers. And there are operations in multiple countries. Any of these factors, alone or in combination, can complicate the management of a business and create waste.

This Executive Insights is about how brands and retailers can operate in the kind of environment we have today. Simply put, if this is the world we live in, it’s time for the organization to get fit, so that it can be as effective as possible.

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