The corporate ladder is being replaced by something else entirely. And if you’re still climbing vertically in a single specialty, you might be heading in the wrong direction.
The Great Restructuring
Over the past 18 months, the FMCG landscape has undergone a quiet revolution. McKinsey’s recent research reveals that 70% of consumer goods companies have restructured since 2022—cutting layers, merging functions, and fundamentally rethinking how work gets done. This isn’t just another round of cost-cutting. It’s a structural shift in how winning organizations operate.The org charts of yesterday, with their neat boxes and clear hierarchies, are disappearing. In their place: leaner, faster teams where titles matter less than impact.
Why Specialists Are Struggling
Here’s the uncomfortable truth that doesn’t get discussed enough in boardrooms: in these new, streamlined structures, deep specialists are finding themselves at a disadvantage.When you’ve spent your career mastering a narrow domain, you become incredibly valuable—until the business pivots. And in today’s volatile market, pivots aren’t occasional disruptions; they’re quarterly occurrences. The moment your specific expertise isn’t the priority, momentum stalls. Projects get delayed. Influence diminishes.It’s not a reflection of competence. It’s a mismatch between skillset and organizational need.
The Generalist Advantage
- Translate between marketing and finance without needing an interpreter
- See how a supply chain decision impacts brand positioning
- Execute cross-functional initiatives without waiting for consensus from ten stakeholders
- Pivot from innovation strategy to P&L analysis in the same conversation
What We’re Seeing in the Market
- A marketing director who spent three years in revenue management
- A commercial leader with a digital transformation on their CV
- An innovation head who understands P&L mechanics better than most finance managers
Range as Competitive Advantage
In an environment where teams are smaller and expectations are higher, range becomes leverage. When your competitor has 50 people and you have 30, you can’t afford leaders who only operate in their lane. You need people who can shift lanes, merge lanes, and occasionally build new roads entirely.This is why generalists are commanding premium compensation right now. They’re not just filling roles; they’re multiplying organizational capacity. One strong generalist can often replace two specialists and do it more effectively because they eliminate the handoff friction that kills momentum.
The Question Every Leader Should Ask
So here’s what matters: if your company halved its headcount tomorrow, would you still be indispensable?It’s not a comfortable question. But it’s the right one.Because the market has already answered it. Companies are getting leaner, not larger. Structures are getting flatter, not deeper. And the leaders thriving in this environment aren’t the ones with the most specialized expertise or the fanciest titles.They’re the ones with range.
Building Your Range (If You’re a Specialist)
- Volunteer for cross-functional projects, especially ones outside your comfort zone
- Learn the financial levers of your business, even if you’re in marketing or operations
- Spend time understanding adjacent functions—not just what they do, but why they do it
- Build relationships across silos before you need them
The Bottom Line
Complexity is out. Speed is in. And in this new reality, the org charts of yesterday simply don’t work anymore.The winners aren’t the deepest experts in the narrowest fields. They’re the leaders who can navigate across functions, think systemically, and deliver without needing perfect conditions.If you’re still betting your career on vertical expertise alone, it might be time to start building horizontally.Because the companies cutting layers aren’t just reducing costs. They’re revealing who actually creates value in leaner environments.And increasingly, that’s the generalists.