The Growth Operating System Diagnostic
For fast-moving consumer goods businesses where the numbers aren't moving, despite a strategy that should be working.
Most FMCG performance problems are not located where leadership thinks they are.
A brand team sees a positioning problem. A commercial team sees an execution problem. A CFO sees a margin problem. All three are often reading the same underlying issue from different angles — and none of the fixes address the system. The Growth OS Diagnostic is a structured cross-functional review of the full commercial system: how marketing, commercial, route to market, pricing, promotions, and portfolio interact — and where they are working against each other. The output is a written diagnostic verdict and a ranked set of priority actions, not a strategy presentation. It is designed for organisations that have already tried the obvious interventions and need an honest external assessment of what is actually broken and in what order to fix it.
Start with a conversation →.
What it covers
The full system, not one function
Most diagnostics look at one area. The Growth OS Diagnostic covers the commercial system as a whole: because that is where most FMCG performance problems actually live: not inside a single function, but in the gaps between them.
Marketing & Brand
- Is the positioning commercially executable? Does the investment logic match where demand actually exists? Is brand activity creating commercial pull or running in parallel to it?
Commercial & Sales
- Are the right customers getting the right priority? Is the commercial team structured around where growth is actually achievable, or around where it used to come from?
Route to Market
- Are the distribution model and channel priorities aligned with where the consumer actually buys? Where is reach being confused with relevance?
Pricing & Pack Architecture
- Is pricing creating value or eroding it? Where is the promotional logic subsidising volume without building margin? What is the pack range doing to execution complexity?
Portfolio
- Which brands and SKUs are genuinely driving growth? Which are absorbing disproportionate resource? Where has portfolio expansion created execution drag rather than commercial return?
Promotions & Trade Investment
- Is trade spend generating return or maintaining relationships? Where is promotional activity creating volume that disappears the moment it stops?
How does it work?
Duration: 4–6 weeks
Involvement: Led directly by Filiberto Amati. Not delegated.
Process:
The engagement begins with a structured briefing to understand the situation, the constraints, and what leadership already believes is broken. From there, the diagnostic works across the six areas above, combining document review, stakeholder conversations, and market-level observation where relevant.
The output is a written diagnostic report: a clear verdict on what is actually broken, why previous interventions have not moved the numbers, and a ranked list of 3–5 priority actions with enough specificity to act on immediately.
There are no slide decks padded to justify the fee. There is no prolonged discovery phase. The aim is to reach a clear, honest assessment as quickly as the evidence allows — and to deliver something the leadership team can use the same week they receive it.
Who Commissions This?
This engagement is typically initiated by:
- The person accountable for P&L in that market or region
- The person who needs to explain commercial underperformance to their regional or global leadership
- The person who has inherited a market and needs an honest baseline before committing to a plan
The call usually arrives in one of the following situations:
- A new leadership team has inherited a business where performance has been declining and needs an independent baseline before committing to a direction.
- A board or PE owner wants an external assessment of commercial performance before or after an acquisition, one that goes beyond financial due diligence into operational and commercial reality.
- A leadership team has run multiple initiatives (i.e., agency changes, restructurings, strategy refreshes) and the numbers still haven't moved. They need an honest answer on what is actually wrong before investing further.
- A CFO or CEO is looking at a margin problem and suspects it is structural (e.g., spread across pricing decisions, trade investment logic, and portfolio complexity) rather than a cost issue.
Practicalities
Fees
- Single market: one country, full operating system diagnostic across all six areas Fee: €15,000-€18,000
- Two-market cluster: two adjacent or related markets, shared diagnostic with market-specific findings Fee: €20,000-€25,000
- Three-market cluster: three markets, typically a regional review (e.g. Nordics, Iberia, CEE) Fee: €26,000-€32,000
- Beyond three markets, the engagement moves into a different category and is scoped separately.
Timings
- Duration: 4–6 weeks
- Bottleneck: data availability and resources willingness to take part in interviews
Planning
- Involvement: Filiberto Amati directly, throughout.
- Your resources will need to make time available for interviews
Before you commission another strategy
If your business has been through agency reviews, leadership changes, restructurings, or strategy refreshes — and the underlying commercial performance has not changed — the most useful thing an outside perspective can do is tell you what is actually happening and in what order to address it. That is what this diagnostic delivers.
Start with a 30-minute conversation.
There is no obligation and no predefined programme. The aim is to determine whether this is the right starting point — and whether the fit is there.
Not sure if you need the full diagnostic? The Focused Engagements page covers six specific questions that can be addressed as standalone engagements once the priority is clear.
