And these days?  Across all three industries, routes-to-market head the agenda. It is the growing power of retailers, with their own brands, that keeps P&G and Unilever management awake at night. It is how to get to market most efficiently and so make the very best of a patent in four or five years that preoccupies the boards of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. And it is the success of direct providers that is ripping financial services apart.

All three are pure routes-to-market issues.

I have been consulting on channel strategy for two decades and never before has there been such acute interest from really senior management. These days, go-to-market strategies are formulated and discussed by main board directors in almost all my client companies.  And that is why what was formerly a belt-and-braces art is about to turn into a management science.

Companies are beginning to see that it is becoming increasingly hard for companies to differentiate between themselves and their products.  Back-end efficiencies in manufacturing or supply chains are played out.  Even research and development is increasingly problematic.  And new products can be copied and matched in weeks, or even days.

That is why so many companies are increasingly focusing on the front end – the customer experience of their product or service. And that is why routes-to-market is moving up the agenda, particularly in the bigger multinationals.