Why Every CatMan Leader Needs a Vision Reset and How to Get Started
The CPG world keeps shifting. Volume growth is soft, price growth has plateaued, and retailers are feeling the squeeze. Consumers are cautious, inflation lingers, and even strong manufacturers are running out of pricing power.
Retailers expect more from Category Management. They want insights, foresight, and answers that drive category growth.
If you lead a CatMan team, you sit in the middle of it all.
- Retailers expect sharper, forward-looking guidance.
Senior leadership wants proof CatMan is a growth engine.
Your team needs clarity, direction, and motivatio.
That’s why defining a clear CatMan vision and strategy isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s what helps you earn a seat at every table, both inside your company and with your customers.
But here’s the challenge: vision work always gets pushed aside for urgent requests and daily firefighting. It’s important, but it rarely feels immediate.
Let’s be real. When a CatMan leader says, “I need to define my team’s vision,” what they really mean is, “I need to build a presentation.”
Here’s a simple structure for that presentation: three clear sections that bring your story to life: where you’ve been, where you’re going, and how you’ll get there.
Illustrative presentation outline for a CPG company’s CatMan vision & strategy
Part 1: Start with the Big Picture: Where Have You Been
Set the stage by reflecting on your team’s journey.
Celebrate wins.
Remind stakeholders what’s working: your sales growth, category growth, strong launches, awards from retailers, or initiatives with retailers that succeeded.
Acknowledge the gaps.
Point out where improvement is needed. Examples could be:
- Need investment in shopper and consumer insights
Over-investment of time in reporting vs. influencing
Lagging Advantage or Kantar rankings versus peers
Make the case for change.
Show that your team’s category leadership is making an impact: more retailer influence, more collaboration, more trust. Then connect the dots.
The way to keep that momentum is by investing further in capability building. Now’s the time to reset your CatMan vision so your team moves from tactical execution to strategic partnership across the business and with retailers.
Part 2: Paint the Future: Where Are You Headed
Once you’ve set the stage, define the destination.
Articulate your Vision: This is the future state you want, i.e., what your CatMan team should stand for over the next 2–3 years.
Next, build the Strategy: This is your roadmap to get to your vision. It can be as simple as a 3-4 bold pillars that will get you there.
Here’s an illustrative 3-pillar Strategy:
Pillar 1: Lead with Insights: Bring forward-looking insights rooted in shopper, category and retailer trends.
Pillar 2: Achieve Execution Excellence: Provide actionable guidance, from shelf strategy to planogram standards, to drive consistent results for retailers and the category.
Pillar 3: Build Team Capabilities: Build the next generation of CatMan talent by adopting new tools, AI, and analytics that turn data into action.
A strong vision is both aspirational and grounded. It paints a clear picture that motivates your team and earns leadership trust.
Part 3: Activate Your Gameplan and Make Your Ask
Next, turn the vision and strategy into action, and immediate next steps.
Lay out key milestones.
Show what success looks like and how you’ll measure it. e.g., improved retailer rankings, new captaincies, securing top to tops and test-and-learns for category initiatives.
Tailor your ask to the audience.
- For senior leadership: Ask for cross-functional support, better tools and data, and help removing barriers that slow your team down.
- For your team: Rally them to move beyond “rates and dates.” Focus on driving category influence, deepening retailer relationships, and solving bigger business problems.
Expect some resistance from your team as you shift priorities. Give back time by automating or dropping low-value tasks so your team can focus on higher-impact work. Use the Start / Stop / Continue lens to make it real. Here’s an illustrative start-stop-continue for your team:
- Start: Spending more time on customer-specific insights and category growth ideas.
- Stop: Manual, repetitive reporting that can be automated.
- Continue: Building strong sales partnerships and customer collaboration.
To Sum it Up...
Defining your CatMan vision isn’t a back-burner project. It’s a must-have.
It aligns your team, sharpens your reputation, and helps you influence both inside and outside the company.
Use the 3-part story to get a start on your vision presentation. Once you get going, more ideas will come. Adapt it to fit your situation.
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OUTKREATE developes retailer-facing presentations for top CPG Cat Man & Insights teams, equipping them for success — be it Top to Tops, Innovation Selling Stories, Line Reviews & JBPs, and more.
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