Most CPGs have more data and technology than ever - yet still can't improve OSA. The ones actually winning are those that are willing to ask three uncomfortable questions about accountability, alignment, and organizational maturity.
As Q1 '26 comes to a close, we've been reflecting on time spent with our customers over the past few weeks. We wanted to share what we learned from these conversations - because we strongly believe it matters for the wider industry.
The organizations who continue to make real progress in improving OSA aren't the ones with more data or technology. Instead, they're the ones willing to ask themselves uncomfortable questions about how they actually operate.
These aren't questions with easy answers. They're questions that, once asked honestly, tend to change how organizations work.
On-shelf availability touches sales, supply chain, marketing, and finance. Everyone influences it. But influence isn't the same as ownership. And that gap is where on-shelf availability problems hide.
The CPGs we work with that have figured this out have done something that sounds simple but turns out to be difficult: they've made someone clearly accountable for on-shelf availability. They are not responsible for fixing everything alone. But they're accountable for understanding what's happening, investigating when things go wrong, and making sure the organization is progressing forward on the journey to improving on-shelf availability.
This question reveals something about your organizational maturity that you might not want to see.
Most CPGs operate with sales and supply chain working largely in isolation. Sales makes commitments. Supply chain finds out later. Sometimes supply chain can deliver. Sometimes they can't. When they can't, there's tension and finger-pointing.
But the CPGs sustaining improvements in on-shelf availability have figured out what changes this dynamic: they've built a rhythm where sales and supply chain operate as partners, not separate functions. Before sales commits to a retailer, they check with supply chain. Before supply chain makes a plan, they understand what sales has promised. It requires discipline, and both teams caring about the same outcome.
If a key customer has chronically poor on-shelf availability with your products, what happens? Does leadership get involved? Does it affect how you manage that customer relationship? Does it change your customer strategy? Or does it become a project that someone works on when they have time?
The distinction matters. Strategic issues get resources, attention, and accountability. Operational issues get added to someone's to-do list.
For CPGs we partner with, when on-shelf availability drops at a key customer account, it's not just a supply chain problem to solve. It's a relationship issue, a share of shelf issue, a sales issue. Leadership cares because they understand what it means.
Without that signal from the top, on-shelf availability stays in the category of "important but not urgent." And important but not urgent initiatives rarely improve.
The CPGs making real progress on on-shelf availability aren't the ones waiting for a perfect playbook. They've figured out that this is fundamentally an organizational problem. Which means it requires alignment across sales, supply chain, marketing, and leadership. It requires clarity about who's accountable. It requires treating it as an initiative that matters to the business, not just something that happens in the background.
Asking the questions is where it starts. And the ones that follow through on what those questions reveal are seeing real improvements.
The real question for your organization is whether you're ready to ask them about yourself.
