Career and Succession Management for FMCG and Consumer Goods
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
What this looks like in fmcg and consumer goods
The parts of career and succession management that are specific to this sector, rather than general.
From Field to Management
The sales ladder, and the specialist routes beside it.
What this coversHide
From Field to Management
The sales ladder, and the specialist routes beside it.
What this coversHideAn FMCG field force has a well-understood ladder and a well-understood problem: the best salesperson is promoted to supervisor, and the business loses a producer and gains a manager who has never managed.
- Sales officer
- Senior sales officer
- Area sales manager
- Regional manager
- National role
- Management capability built before the promotion, not after
- Specialist routes into trade marketing, key accounts and distribution
- Plant and depot career routes mapped alongside field routes
- Area and regional manager succession named
- Criteria for each step stated in observable terms
- Cross-movement between field, depot and plant
Building management capability before the promotion is the single change that most improves both retention and performance, and it is consistently deferred until after someone is struggling.
The general method — what career and succession management covers, the questions it answers and what an engagement produces — is the same whatever the sector, and is set out on the succession and leadership development page. What is above is the part that differs for fmcg and consumer goods.
Other HR topics for fmcg and consumer goods
Where to start
Most engagements begin with a review of how this runs in your business today, then a written process and the sequence to implement it.
See all HR topics for fmcg and consumer goods, or another industry.