The POET Blog

Every CPG board we speak to has a growth plan. It's often a very good plan. Probably (re)written by McKinsey. And yet, far too often, execution stalls - not because the strategy was wrong, but because the business didn’t have the right people in the right roles to deliver it. This is the CPG capability gap. And in 2026, it’s the single biggest constraint on commercial growth across the industry. The Gap Nobody Wants to Talk About Most CPG businesses are running commercial gro

If you work in a CPG commercial function - whether that’s Sales Operations, Commercial Finance, RGM, Commercial Strategy or anything that touches pricing, margin, and go-to-market - you’re operating in a job market that looks fundamentally different from even two years ago. Some roles that were considered “emerging” in 2023 are now non-negotiable hires. Some that were safe bets have been restructured into oblivion. And the skills that get you shortlisted have changed faster

There’s a particular kind of hiring failure that plagues CPG commercial teams. It’s not the candidate who interviews badly and gets rejected because, well, sh*t happens. Nope, it’s the candidate who interviews well, starts strong and twelve months later has made zero structural impact on the business. The role gets quietly redefined. The person then moves on. The problem? Still there. At POET, we see the wreckage of these hires regularly. Not because the candidates were poor

Three years ago, Revenue Growth Management sat somewhere between “innovation project” and “Finance’s side hustle” in most CPG organograms. Today it’s the single biggest hiring priority for commercial leaders under margin pressure - and the single biggest career opportunity for commercially-minded operators who can think beyond the spreadsheet. The shift has been dramatic. And most businesses - and candidates - haven’t caught up yet. What’s Driving the RGM Talent Squeeze The