Dr. Alex Kokkonen
Consulting Partner Strategy, Advisory & Research, DXC Technology
Paper | September 10, 2026
FROM DISCUSSION TO ACTION | PART 2
Introduction
Across the FMCG sector, organisations consistently face the same challenge: They have strong commercial plans and significant investment in analytics and technology, and yet they find persistent value leakage between what is planned and what is ultimately delivered in the market. Pricing decisions, promotional strategies and customer commitments that appear compelling during planning cycles frequently fail to generate their anticipated returns once execution begins.
This paper, the second in a two-part series that begins with From Insight to Impact: Closing the Gap Between Commercial Strategy and Supply Chain Execution, sets out a practical response to that challenge. Drawing on insights from the DXC and ISG FMCG Executive Round Table — which brought together senior leaders across Revenue Growth Management, Commercial, Sales, Supply Chain, Operations, Finance and Technology — the content presents a focused 90-day programme designed to close the gap between commercial intent and operational execution.
The plan does not require large-scale transformation from the outset. It is structured around three 30-day phases — Align, Connect and Execute — each with clear actions, named deliverables, and measurable outcomes. Progress is judged on decision quality and value realised, not on activity completed. The plan is designed to be shared across functions and to build the credibility required for wider change.
From Discussion to Action
A 90-Day Plan for Closing the Gap Between Commercial Strategy and Supply Chain Execution
The themes explored throughout this paper point to a consistent conclusion: The FMCG and retail sector does not lack insight, data or growth ambition. What it lacks is a connected operating model that converts commercial intent into operational execution.
The participants at the EPP FMCG/CPG Revenue Growth Management Forum Europe 2026 were clear that incremental improvements will not be sufficient, but equally clear that large-scale transformation pursued all at once rarely succeeds. The most credible path forward is a focused 90-day programme that targets the areas where value leakage is greatest, demonstrates measurable improvement quickly, and builds the credibility required for wider change.
The plan is structured around three 30-day phases: Align, Connect and Execute. It is designed to be shared across RGM, Commercial, Sales, Supply Chain, Operations, Finance and Technology stakeholders. Each phase carries clear actions, named deliverables and measurable outcomes, so progress is judged on decision quality and value realised, not activity completed.
Days 1 – 30
Align. Establish the Mandate and Expose the Leakage
The first 30 days are about creating shared understanding and executive sponsorship, not deploying technology.
• Reframe RGM as an enterprise capability. Secure explicit executive agreement, ideally in a signed programme charter, that RGM is a cross-functional capability spanning commercial, supply chain and finance. This changes the founding question from “How do we generate demand?” to “How do we generate demand that can be fulfilled profitably and consistently?”
• Map and quantify the value leakage. Select two or three areas where commercial and operational disconnects are most visible: major promotional events, high-volume customer agreements, seasonal peaks or categories with frequent stock-outs. Quantify the execution gap (revenue and margin planned but never realised) and have Finance validate the baseline so it is beyond dispute.
• Baseline the decision architecture. Document how the growth decisions in scope are made today: who owns them, what data feeds them, how long reconciliation takes, and where sequential approvals slow responsiveness. Capture elapsed time from insight to approved decision as a formal baseline metric.
• Establish the coalition and cadence. Nominate accountable leaders from RGM, sales, supply chain, finance and technology and agree in writing the shared outcomes they jointly own. Stand up a weekly cross-functional working session and fortnightly executive steering, with checkpoints at Day 30, 60 and 90. Momentum depends on rhythm, not documentation.
Deliverables by Day 30: signed programme charter with named executive sponsor; Finance-validated Value Leakage Baseline Report; decision rights matrix (a simple RACI) for the decisions in scope; agreed pilot scope, success criteria and operating cadence.
Days 31 – 60
Connect. Build One Trusted Demand Signal and Shared Governance
The second 30 days shift from diagnosis to connection of data, governance and metrics.
• Stand up a single trusted demand signal for the pilot scope. Harmonise the data feeding the selected use cases across ERP, TPM, point-of-sale, retailer feeds and supply chain visibility tools, and publish a data dictionary fixing common definitions, data ownership and refresh frequency. The objective is not more data; it is one fact base that commercial, supply chain and finance all trust when decisions are made.
• Replace sequential approvals with a collaborative decision forum. Establish a cross-functional forum with clear decision rights, where promotions, pricing decisions and customer commitments are evaluated jointly against supply realities and profitability before approval. Set an explicit service level (for example, five working days from proposal to outcome). Governance should accelerate decision making, not slow it.
• Introduce shared enterprise metrics. Complement functional measures with shared metrics spanning commercial and operational domains: promotional profitability, executable demand, forecast accuracy, product availability and margin quality, plus leading indicators that surface supply constraints, forecast variances and inventory risks before they impact financial performance.
• Run a dry run, then assess connectivity. Rehearse by taking one recent, completed promotional event back through the new demand signal and decision forum to expose definitional gaps before live use. Evaluate existing planning, forecasting, TPM and analytics platforms against a single criterion: do they connect into an integrated decision flow? Greater value usually comes from connecting existing systems than acquiring new ones.
Deliverables by Day 60: trusted demand signal live for the pilot scope with published data dictionary and named data owners; decision forum operating with agreed decision rights and service levels; shared metrics dashboard including leading indicators; technology connectivity gap assessment with a prioritised integration backlog.
Days 61 – 90
Execute. Prove Value on High-Stakes Decisions
The final 30 days apply the connected model to live commercial decisions and measure the difference.
• Run the pilot use cases end to end. Take a major promotional event, seasonal peak or key customer commitment through the connected decision flow, from demand sensing and joint evaluation through supply planning, inventory alignment and inmarket execution.
• Measure decision quality, not just activity. Compare outcomes against the Day 30 baseline: decision speed, forecast accuracy, product availability during the event, promotional ROI and margin realised versus planned. The test is whether insights changed decisions and decisions improved outcomes.
• Close the loop. Run a structured post-event review within 2 weeks of each pilot event and feed learning directly back into the demand signal, the decision forum and future planning cycles, creating the closed-loop system in which insight, planning, execution and learning reinforce one another.
• Build the scaling roadmap and secure the mandate. Use demonstrated results to define a Finance-validated 12-month expansion path across categories, customers and markets, including the AI readiness agenda: With trusted data, clear decision rights and integrated workflows in place, AI becomes a source of competitive advantage rather than another layer of complexity. Present the Day 90 results to the executive team and obtain a formal decision on the next wave.
Deliverables by Day 90: pilot events completed through the connected decision flow with results measured against baseline; quantified value realisation statement; post-event learning log embedded in the planning cycle; approved 12-month scaling roadmap and business case including the AI readiness agenda.
Measuring Success
A Suggested 90-Day Scorecard
Progress should be tracked on a small set of shared measures spanning commercial and operational domains. Targets should be calibrated to each organisation's baseline.
Stakeholder Roles Across the 90 Days
Executive sponsors (CEO/CFO/CCO/CSCO) set the mandate, remove structural barriers, chair the Day 30, 60 and 90 checkpoints, and hold the coalition accountable for shared outcomes rather than functional ones. RGM and commercial leaders bring the growth agenda, ensure commercial decisions are evaluated for executability and operational feasibility, and champion the shift from revenue planning to revenue realisation. Supply chain and operations leaders step forward as commercial enablers, contributing supply realities, capacity constraints and fulfilment capability into decisions at the point they are made, not after. Finance leaders anchor the single version of truth, validating the leakage baseline and the Day 90 value realisation statement. Technology and data leaders deliver the trusted demand signal, prioritising connectivity, interoperability and workflow integration over new system deployment.
Conditions for Success
Keep the scope narrow: Two or three use cases done end to end will prove more than ten done superficially. Protect the baseline: Without a Finance-validated view of leakage at Day 30, the Day 90 results will be contested. Do not let the programme become a data project: The demand signal exists to serve decisions; harmonise only what the pilot decisions require. Make the decision forum the default, not the exception: If pilot decisions continue to be made in functional silos alongside it, the model is never tested. Communicate results early and visibly: Success creates credibility, and credibility creates support for wider transformation.
How DXC and ISG Can Help You
DXC and ISG bring complementary capabilities that map directly to this 90-day journey and the broader transformation it initiates.
• Advisory and operating model design. ISG's benchmarking and advisory experience across consumer goods organisations helps leaders assess RGM maturity, quantify value leakage and design the decision accountability, governance forums and shared metrics frameworks described in this paper, grounded in what comparable organisations have achieved.
• Data and demand signal engineering. DXC's data and analytics practice helps organisations harmonise ERP, TPM, point-of-sale, retailer and supply chain data into a genuinely trusted demand signal, establishing the definitions, ownership and governance that a technology platform alone cannot provide.
• Connected decision ecosystems. DXC's experience integrating planning, forecasting, TPM, ERP and supply chain platforms links pricing, promotion, demand planning, supply execution and financial visibility into a single decision flow, helping leaders understand the consequences of decisions before they are made rather than reporting outcomes after the fact.
• AI readiness and decision intelligence. Together, DXC and ISG help organisations prepare for AI by fixing the foundations first (data quality, decision rights, integrated workflows) so that AI-generated insights convert into measurable business value rather than accelerating existing fragmentation.
• Execution and scale. Beyond the initial 90 days, DXC provides the delivery capability to scale the connected operating model across categories, geographies and channels, while ISG provides independent assurance that the transformation continues to deliver against its value case.
A Closing Commitment from DXC and ISG
The gap between commercial strategy and supply chain execution is not closed by another dashboard, another platform or another reorganisation. It is closed by connecting data, governance, metrics, technology and ways of working into a coherent enterprise system, and by starting now, with focus and decisiveness.
Ninety days is enough time to prove the model, demonstrate measurable value and build momentum for wider change. Organisations that take this step will begin converting insight into action, planning into execution, and growth ambition into measurable business outcomes. Those that wait will continue to experience the same recurring pattern this paper set out to address: strong plans, significant investment and unrealised value.
DXC and ISG welcome the opportunity to help you quickly move from insight to impact. To explore how this 90-day plan can be applied to your organisation's categories, markets and maturity and to access the practical 90-day programme outlined here, please contact your DXC or ISG representative.
A Final Thought
The leaders participating in the DXC and ISG round table largely agreed on one fundamental point. The future challenge is not generating more insight, as most organisations already have more data, analytics and planning capability than ever before. The real challenge is converting those insights into executable decisions that deliver measurable business outcomes.
The organisations that act now to connect commercial planning, supply chain execution, governance, technology and decision making will build a stronger and more resilient growth engine. Those that continue to operate through disconnected functions and fragmented processes will find that value continues to leak between what they intend to achieve and what they ultimately deliver.
