The three propelling forces behind a successful GT business are Infrastructure, Investment, and Involvement. These pillars are fundamental to building and sustaining strong GT performance. However, today’s evolving market dynamics are putting unprecedented pressure on all three.

With a rapidly growing economy, more investors are entering distribution and retail, but many lack the operational expertise required to run, scale, and sustain GT businesses effectively. At the same time, political freebies and the rise of alternative earning opportunities—such as Swiggy, Ola, Rapido, Uber, and Zomato—have created a severe shortage of skilled and reliable frontline manpower. Recruiting dependable salesmen, delivery drivers, and support staff has become increasingly difficult.

These challenges are collectively eroding the efficiency, stability, and overall performance of the GT ecosystem, making it one of the most critical issues facing FMCG companies today. As a result, the essence of selling is diminishing, and GT operations are gradually shifting toward mere order servicing rather than demand generation.

Range selling has significantly declined, as the effort and capability of salesmen to influence retail decisions are reducing. This has further impacted innovation performance—the success rate of new launches has dropped sharply, and many companies are struggling to establish new products in the market.

In this environment, the companies that will win are those that recognize these cracks in the GT foundation and act decisively. Reinforcing infrastructure, enabling smarter investments, and rebuilding frontline involvement are no longer optional—they are urgent imperatives. Unless the industry collectively responds, GT will continue to drift from its core purpose of driving penetration, availability, and category growth, ultimately weakening its strategic value in the FMCG ecosystem.