Three ways CPG can create an operating model that reignites growth

Brand and consumer centricity:

Fragmentation of pricing, product, placement, and promotion across disconnected functions stifles agility and growth. Over two-thirds of executives recognize that siloed marketing, finance, and commercial functions undermine brand performance and operating model evolution. Restoring unified brand ownership, typically under a brand manager or integrated category leader, enables coherent pricing, promotion, and product launches that deliver stronger ROI and faster market response. While some companies have long embraced this model, others are now shifting their focus on it, for example, Unilever’s announced “SASSY” framework under recently appointed CEO Fernando Fernandez and CGMO Esi Eggleston, which clearly aligns product development strategy and consumer engagement under a single point of ownership, to unlock brand potential at scale. This integrated approach shows that true market connection depends on creativity, human insight, and unified brand leadership, working across functions rather than just within them.

Future-ready capabilities:

Value creation in CPG is shifting fundamentally as companies evolve into tech organizations. Technological advancement ranks as the top catalyst for operating model change, 52% of CPG executives name it as the primary driver, a notable increase from five years ago. Roughly a quarter are investing in enterprise-wide digital platforms and value chains to future-proof their organizations.

Key capabilities include:

• Expertise in product lifecycle management and integration of new technologies.
• Advanced MarTech and generative AI (GenAI) adoption driving smarter marketing, driving and evaluating outcomes in real time
• AI-powered demand analytics enabling “lights-out” planning and forecasting.
• Expertise in D2C (not necessarily selling to consumers, but engaging with them) and omnichannel strategies to meet evolving consumer needs, including leveraging paid social media and influencer ecosystems as an extension of their bench strength.

PepsiCo’s multi-year partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a great example of scaling digital transformation. The collaboration aims to migrate much of PepsiCo’s application workload to AWS, integrating its GenAI platform PepGenX with Amazon Bedrock for multi-modal and agentic AI capabilities, strengthening consumer engagement through real-time insights and exploring predictive maintenance across manufacturing and logistics. To make sure these initiatives deliver, governance is built in via mission-based teams, shared KPIs, and monthly value tracking.^{3, 4}

As automation scales, human roles evolve to steer and optimize these systems. Building AI skills and digital fluency across functions is now essential for sustained agility and competitive advantage. This effort needs to be human-led, with AI as a complement. CPG can learn from Pharma and High Tech where HR is taking a leading role in planning and delivering of this new blended workforce.

2. Evolving ways of working for speed and impact

Agile value streams & scenario planning:

Current operating models fall short on speed and adaptability - 63% of executives agree. The traditional one-year budget and five-year plan no longer suffice. Instead, forward thinking CFOs are adopting rolling three-year outlooks paired with 90-day action sprints, enabling continuous course correction and scenario-based planning, essential in today’s unpredictable environment. This adaptability extends beyond processes to people, impacting how C-suites lead and engage talent. 

Fusion teams:

Static organizational charts are relics. Today’s CPG reality demands cross-functional, mission-based fusion teams. These squads bring marketing, supply chain, tech, finance, and analytics experts together with embedded key performance indicators (KPIs), key behavioral indicators (KBIs) and decision rights to solve specific challenges, whether launching new products, improving on-shelf availability, or driving loyalty. This integrated structure brings diversity of thinking, reduces handoffs, accelerates execution, and breaks down functional silos. This shift will test traditional, once world class management programs and requires a new generation of cross-functional, multi-disciplinary and technology literate Manager of the future. 

Human-centric tech integration:

Technology is no longer a back-office tool but the strategic engine of operations. Leading models embed AI, GenAI, and advanced analytics end to end, augmenting human creativity and judgment, not replacing it. Yet only 38% of CPG executives prioritize AI for decision-making today, highlighting a largely untapped opportunity. Fully unlocking AI transforms data into predictive insights that enable fast strategic pivots, not just task automation. A clear illustration of this is how PepsiCo is scaling AI across its operations. In its June 2025 announcements, PepsiCo exemplifies this shift, embedding autonomous agents and real-time analytics into core commercial functions through platforms like Salesforce’s Agentforce and AWS partnerships. It showcases how AI is being used not only to generate predictive insights, but to extend and elevate human impact across the value chain.⁵

3. Shift cultural and leadership mindsets

Leadership & performance mindset:

The future demands a new leadership balance, moving beyond command-and-control toward empowerment, speed, and continuous learning. Nearly 90% of executives agree that strong, change-oriented leadership is key for transformation success. But leadership alone isn’t enough. The operating model must evolve to reward collective performance. With 85% of executives expecting organizational KPIs to shift within three years, shared goals and team incentives are replacing individual metrics. This fuels strategic autonomy and supports agile fusion teams, where collaboration becomes the default. 

Cost conscious culture:

Cost transformation is a cultural journey, not just a finance exercise. CFOs and COOs in top organizations assign cost accountability vertically (e.g., by function) and horizontally (e.g., across processes), creating  embedded cost ownership and sharper trade-off thinking. Leaders live cost ownership alongside their teams, aligning KPIs to strategic priorities. This shared responsibility frees resources for growth, innovation and resilience.

A recent example of this cultural shift can be seen at Reckitt. In 2025, it announced the divesture of its Essential Home unit to focus on higher-margin categories, while its Fuel for Growth program is already cutting fixed costs and redirecting investment into brand, R&D, and digital, supporting a leaner, more focused operating model.⁶

Adaptability & learning:

Static, centralized planning inhibits innovation. Future-ready models embed mechanisms for sensing, experimentation, and iterative learning, creating clear pathways for frontline insights to inform top-down decisions. This culture of “fail fast, learn faster” nurtures curiosity, calculated risk-taking, and accountability, building the agility necessary for ongoing adaptation and swift course correction.

Kimberly-Clark’s Powering Care strategy reflects this mindset, with faster iteration cycles and new product launches, fueling a strong pipeline of category innovation.⁷

Driving value through a new transformation agenda

Rearchitecting the operating model isn’t a one-off program, it’s a leadership agenda. Around 80% of the world’s leading CPG companies have reviewed their operating model and organizational structure in the past two years and like any transformation, it demands clarity of direction, pace of execution, and continuity of ownership. The companies getting it right aren’t doing everything at once, but they’re moving fast where it counts.

Transformation begins with a holistic diagnosis of existing structures, culture and leadership. This not only reveals immediate opportunities but also shapes the roadmap. It guides prioritization, showing where to start, where to double down, and which initiatives will create the most value as the business evolves.

Once you’ve pinpointed where to start and what will deliver the most value, our experience shows that priorities typically involve transforming one or multiple of these key capabilities that unlock growth and efficiency

1. Rewire marketing:

• Shift from traditional “one-to-many” broadcasts to dynamic “many-to-many” engagement. Coca-Cola, for example, built a networked marketing ecosystem through Studio X, enabling local teams to co-create and adapt campaigns, and is now using GenAI to deliver them faster, more effectively, and at lower cost.⁸

2. Reimagine the commercial model:

• Apply advanced Revenue Growth Management (RGM), dynamic pricing strategies, and multichannel sales to optimize revenue, capture market share, and deliver on the perfect shelf promise.

3. Reinvent Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and innovation engines:

• Support iterative development cycles, external co-creation, and faster scaling of new products and services to accelerate time to market.

4. Reshape the supply chain:

• Build a resilient, data- and AI-powered network that enhances demand sensing, logistics, inventory management, and continuous improvement, reducing disruption and improving availability.

5. Realize business-driven technology and AI investments:

• Align core enterprise systems (e.g., SAP S/4HANA) with operating model redesign to deliver end-to-end visibility and real-time decision-making.

Redesigning the operating model is foundational, but real impact comes from keeping everyone engaged, aligned, and moving forward together. Change at this scale takes more than new structures and tech, it requires a culture of agility, consumer obsession, and relentless innovation.

That means empowering the right leaders across levels to turn strategy into action, break down silos, and embed new ways of working. It’s about clear roles, aligned incentives, and practices that drive collaboration and accountability.

By focusing on the human side of transformation, you build a future-ready operating model that isn’t just implemented, it’s lived.