The large volume of data that companies need to analyse, combined with a rapidly changing economic and geopolitical environment, is forcing FMCG businesses to make decisions faster than ever. Speed can be a key factor in building a competitive advantage, but not all companies are able to keep up. Industry representatives point to several barriers that slow down decision-making, including centralised processes, complex organisational structures, excessive amounts of information and insufficient managerial competencies.
“Speed of decision-making can definitely be a competitive advantage. At Wedel, we have three strategic principles. One of them is precisely speed and flexibility in action and decision-making. There is an enormous amount of data on the market, and the situation is also changing very dynamically. These two factors have a negative impact on the speed of decision-making,” Maciej Herman, Managing Director of Wedel, told Newseria. “Companies that find a way to continue making good decisions quickly, despite a difficult environment, the amount of data and the scale of volatility, have a much greater chance of winning than their competitors.”
The year 2025 was marked by a stabilisation of consumer sentiment. According to YouGov Poland data, the Polish FMCG market shrank by 1.8 percent year on year in volume terms. At the same time, however, its value increased by 5.3 percent, adding PLN 14.5 billion in market value.
“Decisions in companies are made for many different reasons. On the commercial side, we primarily rely on market data: how the consumer is changing, what they pay attention to and what consumer trends are emerging. The customer market, meaning retail chains and wholesalers, is equally important. This is also constantly evolving, so companies need to keep up with changing customer expectations,” Herman said.
Cost pressures are another factor forcing companies to act quickly and flexibly.
“On the cost side, we also face many challenges. Production and logistics are affected by raw material prices, which fluctuate heavily. Cocoa, for example, has become several times more expensive over the past two years. There is also the area of costs related to energy and fuel prices. All of this requires constant decision-making and a flexible approach,” Herman added.
According to Deloitte’s “Consumer Products Industry Outlook 2026” report, in an environment of economic and geopolitical uncertainty, flexibility is becoming a necessity — and may be more important than operational optimisation. More flexible organisations, capable of quickly adjusting their capabilities and investments to changing conditions, are likely to have stronger competitive potential. All 300 senior executives from the world’s largest FMCG companies surveyed by Deloitte admitted that such adaptive changes are already taking place in their organisations.
“In FMCG companies, decisions get blocked by an improperly structured decision-making process. In many companies, decisions are centralised, while in the current situation, with so many variables, the decision-making process should be as decentralised as possible. Organisations should have aware, mature managers who are empowered to make decisions quickly,” said the Managing Director of Wedel.
Deloitte analysts note that FMCG companies are seeking to simplify their structures in order to reduce organisational complexity and interdependence. This trend was indicated by 74 percent of the managers surveyed. Simpler structures improve transparency, make it easier to assign responsibility and help identify relevant data and technologies. They also support more informed decision-making.
“In large organisations in particular, responsibility is very often blurred. For example, team goals are set in such a way that a group of people is responsible for a single project. It is easy to ‘hide’ within such a group and fail to complete tasks at the right pace. That is why goals should, for example, be individualised,” Herman said.
He added that decision-making can be accelerated through decentralisation and by strengthening managerial competencies. He also emphasised the importance of appointing the right people to the right positions.
“A much bigger problem in organisations is an ineffective decision-making process, meaning either a lack of managerial competence to make decisions or the lack of proper authority given to managers in this area,” Herman said. “It may seem quite obvious, but many managerial mistakes in companies result from the fact that the wrong people are assigned to certain positions — people with the wrong competencies or the wrong attitude. If this is resolved, decision-making processes will become more effective.”
Deloitte’s study also shows that 64 percent of respondents believe artificial intelligence and automation will allow them to reduce management costs, limit the number of management layers and improve decision-making in their organisations.
“In today’s reality, the bigger problem is not a lack of information, but an excess of it. The challenge for organisations is how to navigate through this mass of data, identify what is crucial and what can be ignored,” Herman said. “Technology is obviously of great importance today, including for decision-making processes. It supports them by processing data and delivering it faster. These are critical elements of making the right decisions.”
