Non-linear career paths: The key to finding better executive talent
Debbie Morrison • March 27, 2023

As the business world rapidly evolves, the traditional career paths that were once considered the norm are becoming a thing of the past. Instead, more executives are taking non-linear career paths that involve making bold career choices and pivoting to different industries, ultimately leading to a diverse set of skills and experiences. 


This trend is especially prevalent in the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry, where the need for talent with a broad skill set and an adaptable mindset is essential. 


As FMCG and F&B businesses seek to gain a competitive foothold through the appointment of skilled leadership talent, we look at why hiring talent with non-linear career paths is critical in uncovering the FMCG industry's best leaders.


Why are executives choosing non-linear career paths?

One reason why career diversity among executives is increasing is that people are working longer. As the retirement age increases and life expectancy rises, executives are choosing to work longer, leading to longer career spans. With longer careers come more opportunities to switch paths and explore different industries. This trend is also reflected in research conducted by Deloitte, which found that over 90% of professionals who were surveyed expect to stay in their jobs for three years or less, indicating that job tenure is declining.


Executives' values and priorities have also shifted in recent years, leading to more flexibility in career choices. Younger generations, in particular, place a greater emphasis on work-life balance, meaningful work, and personal growth. These values often lead to more exploration in career choices and increased willingness to take risks. With a focus on personal growth and meaningful work, executives are more likely to take non-traditional career paths, leading to diverse skill sets that can be invaluable in the FMCG industry.



Diverse Skills

The need for greater diversity doesn’t mean that specialist knowledge is of less value in today’s business arena. Specialist knowledge and expertise continue to play a critical role, especially in specialist industries such as food manufacturing where safety, quality, and consistency are essential. For example, understanding food safety regulations, quality control, and the supply chain is a vital component in staying competitive. Leaders and executives who have a deep understanding of the industry's best practices can ensure that products consistently meet safety and quality standards. 


However, rapidly changing business environments demand greater adaptability and innovation to meet changing customer expectations and stay competitive without losing sight of industry best practices, food safety and governance.


New entrants to the market and the introduction of innovative solutions to customers' food preferences such as vegan, meat-free alternatives and non-alcoholic beverages are increasing the pressure for food and beverage businesses to continually innovate. The ability to develop new products that meet these changing customer needs requires leaders and executives who can drive product development and create new revenue streams. For example, a leader with a background in R&D might be better placed to develop innovative new products that cater to specific dietary requirements, such as vegan or gluten-free options.


A survey by Deloitte found that 83% of executives believe that employees with diverse career backgrounds bring a wider range of experiences and perspectives, which leads to more creative and innovative ideas.



The rapid growth of markets such as gluten-free and vegan products highlights the importance of innovation and the need to remain relevant as customer expectations evolve. Alongside this, digitisation, e-commerce and Direct-To-Consumer models are enabling businesses to collect more data than ever before, better-informing decision-making around product innovation.


Leaders with non-linear career paths often result in diverse skill sets, for example, a leader with a background in data analytics might be better suited to leveraging data and technology to improve processes and better meet customer expectations by analysing customer behaviour and choices to create targeted products and inform marketing campaigns around these preferences.


A report by the World Economic Forum found that employees with diverse career backgrounds bring unique perspectives, innovative ideas, and cross-functional skills to the workplace, which can lead to increased competitiveness and better business outcomes. These skills allow them to approach challenges in new and innovative ways, making them valuable assets to any FMCG or F&B organisation.



Skills based hiring

As companies continue to prioritise skills-based hiring, executives with non-linear career paths can help organisations expand their talent pool. In the past, traditional hiring practices focused heavily on industry experience, leading to a limited pool of candidates. However, as companies shift their focus to skills-based hiring, they are opening up opportunities to executives with diverse backgrounds and skill sets. These executives may have skills that are transferable to the FMCG industry, making them a valuable addition to the talent pool.


Moreover, lower levels of loyalty among employees have contributed to the pursuit of non-linear career paths. In the past, employees often stayed with the same company for decades, leading to a limited number of job opportunities and limited exposure to new and challenging environments throughout their careers. However, today's employees are more likely to change careers with greater frequency, with an average of 12 job changes during their working life. Career changes can often be viewed as a negative trait, but they can also be an opportunity for executives to explore different industries, gain new skills, and make bold career moves. These experiences can lead to innovative thinking and a unique perspective that can be valuable in the FMCG industry.


It's essential to note that non-linear career paths should not be confused with job hopping. Job hopping often indicates a lack of commitment, while non-linear career paths demonstrate a willingness to take risks and explore different industries to gain new skills and experiences. 


Executives who take non-linear career paths tend to bring a unique perspective to the FMCG industry, which can lead to innovation and increased competitiveness. Being open to leaders and executives from other industries not only allows organisations to tap into a broader talent pool but according to a study conducted by LinkedIn, employees who had a variety of experiences, such as working in different industries, functions, or countries, were more likely to be promoted to higher-level positions sooner. Specifically, those with diverse experiences were 23% more likely to be promoted within three years than those without diverse experiences.


Furthermore, a study by Harvard Business Review found that executives who had experience in multiple industries had better problem-solving skills, which led to better decision-making.



Greater resilience

The FMCG industry is constantly evolving, and hiring executives with non-linear career paths is essential to uncovering the best talent. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that entrepreneurs who had previously worked in different industries were more likely to succeed than those who had only worked in one industry. This suggests that diverse career paths can lead to better business outcomes.


Longer careers, changing values, and a focus on skills-based hiring have contributed to the rise of non-linear career paths. Moreover, lower levels of loyalty and a willingness to take risks have led to more exploration in career choices. 


As the business world continues to change, it's essential for the FMCG industry to adapt by embracing diversity in career paths and experiences. Unsurprisingly, a report by Forbes found that executives who had diverse career paths were better equipped to deal with unexpected challenges and changes in the industry. This resilience is likely due to their ability to draw on a wider range of experiences and skills.


Organisations seeking to innovate would do well to consider hiring executives with diverse backgrounds and nonlinear careers who can bring fresh perspectives, and innovative ideas, adding cross-functional skills to the workplace, which can lead to increased competitiveness and better business outcomes.


At ELR Executive we have over 20 years of experience helping FMCG and Food and Beverage organisations identify and attract the right talent to help achieve better business outcomes. If you'd like to learn more about how we can help you hire great talent, speak to us today.

Your Culture Report Won’t Show You This

By John Elliott • June 6, 2025
On paper, they were fully resourced. No complaints logged. No formal red flags. Delivery metrics holding steady. But behind closed doors, the signs were there. Delays. Fatigue. Silence in meetings where pushback used to live. And a growing sense that key people were leaning out, emotionally, if not yet physically. When the cracks finally showed, the conclusion was predictable: “We need more people.” But that wasn’t the real problem. The problem was trust. And most organisations never see it until it’s too late. The Hidden Cost of Disengagement In Gallup’s 2023 global workplace report , only 23% of employees worldwide reported being actively engaged at work. A staggering 59% identified as “quiet quitting”, psychologically detached, going through the motions, doing only what their job description demands. Source: Gallup Global Workplace Report 2023 Disengagement is expensive. But it’s also quiet. It doesn’t show up on a balance sheet. It doesn’t send a Slack message. Disengagement isn’t new, just silenced. And in executive teams, it looks different. It looks like polite agreement in strategy meetings. It looks like leaders shielding their teams from unrealistic demands, instead of confronting the system causing them. It looks like performance metrics still being met… while people emotionally check out. The issue isn’t always capability. It’s safety. Psychological, political, and professional. Many senior leaders don’t raise concerns, not because the problem isn’t real, but because they don’t believe they’ll be heard, supported, or protected if they do. And this is where the failure begins. The Leadership Lie No One Talks About We talk a lot about leadership capability. About experience, commercial acumen, execution strength. But we don’t talk enough about context. Every leadership hire walks into a culture they didn’t create. They inherit unwritten rules, quiet alliances, and legacy power structures. If those dynamics are broken, or if trust is fractured at the top, no amount of capability will compensate. According to a 2022 Deloitte mid-market survey, 64% of executives said culture was their top strategic priority. But only 27% said they actually measured it in a meaningful way. We say culture matters. But we rarely structure around it. And so new leaders walk in with pressure to perform, but little real insight into what the role will cost them emotionally, politically, or personally. We Don’t Hire for Trust. And It Shows. In executive search, the conversation is often dominated by pedigree and “fit.” But fit is often a euphemism for sameness. And sameness doesn't build trust, it maintains comfort. We rarely ask: Does this leader know how to build trust vertically and horizontally? Can they operate in a low-trust environment without becoming complicit? Will they challenge inherited silence, or unconsciously uphold it? Instead, we hire for confidence and clarity, traits that often mask what’s broken, rather than reveal it. And when those hires fail? We call it a mismatch. Or we cite the usual: “lack of alignment,” “wasn’t the right time,” “they didn’t land well with the team.” But the truth is often uglier: They were never set up to succeed. And no one told them until it was too late. The Cultural Infrastructure Is Missing One of the most damaging myths in leadership hiring is that great leaders will “make it work.” That if they’re tough enough, experienced enough, skilled enough, they’ll overcome any organisational dysfunction. But high-performance isn’t just personal. It’s systemic. It requires psychological safety. A clear mandate. The backing to make hard decisions. The freedom to speak the truth before it becomes a PR problem. When that infrastructure isn’t there, when the real power dynamics are unspoken, good leaders stop speaking too. And the silence spreads. What Trust Breakdown Really Looks Like Often, the signs of a trust breakdown don’t show up in dramatic ways. They surface subtly in patterns of underperformance that are easy to misread or excuse. You start to notice project delays, but no one flags the root cause. Teams keep things moving, quietly compensating for the bottlenecks rather than surfacing them. Not because they’re careless, but because they’ve learned that early honesty doesn’t always earn support. New leaders hesitate to make bold calls. Not because they lack conviction, but because the last time they did, they were left exposed. Board reports look flawless. Metrics track nicely. But spend five minutes on the floor, and the energy tells a different story. These are not resource issues. They’re relationship issues. And the data backs it. According to Gallup’s 2023 State of the Global Workplace report , just 23% of employees worldwide are actively engaged. Worse, around 60% are “quiet quitting.” That’s not just disengagement. It’s people doing only what’s safe, only what’s required, because trust has quietly eroded. Gallup also found that managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement, a staggering figure that reinforces just how pivotal leadership trust is. When people don’t feel psychologically safe, they shut down. Not dramatically. Quietly. Invisibly. What’s breaking isn’t the org chart. It’s the ability to speak plainly and be heard. And by the time it’s visible? The damage is already done, and someone calls for a restructure. “Low engagement is estimated to cost the global economy $8.8 trillion, 9% of global GDP.” Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2023 So What’s the Real Takeaway? If you’re seeing performance issues, before you jump to headcount, ask a different question: Do the leaders in this business feel safe enough to tell the truth? Because if they don’t, the data you’re reading isn’t real. And if they do, but you’re not acting on it, then they’ll stop telling you. Leadership doesn’t fail in obvious ways anymore. It fails in the gap between what people know and what they’re allowed to say. And the price of that silence? Missed opportunity. Reputational damage. Cultural decay. Sometimes, the problem isn’t who you hired. It’s what you’ve made it unsafe to say.

The Energy’s Gone, But Everything Still Looks Fine

By John Elliott • May 27, 2025
Why Culture Decay in FMCG Is a Silent Threat to Performance It doesn’t start with resignations. It starts with something much quieter. A head of operations stops raising small problems in weekly meetings. A sales lead no longer defends a risky new SKU. A team member who used to push ideas now just delivers what they’re asked. Nothing breaks. Nothing explodes. It just... slows. And from the outside, everything still looks fine. The illusion of stability In food and beverage manufacturing, where teams run lean and pressure is constant, performance often becomes the proxy for culture. If products are shipping, if margins are intact, if reviews are clean, the assumption is: we're good. But that assumption is dangerous. According to Gallup's 2023 global workplace report, only 23% of employees worldwide are actively engaged, while a staggering 59% are "quiet quitting ", doing just enough to get by, with no emotional investment. And in Australia? Engagement has declined three years in a row. In a mid-market FMCG business, those numbers rarely show up on dashboards. But they show up in other ways: New ideas stall at the concept phase Team members stop challenging assumptions Execution becomes rigid instead of agile Everyone is "aligned" but no one is energised And by the time the board sees a drop in revenue, the belief that once drove the business is already gone. The emotional cost of cultural silence One thing we don’t talk about enough is what this does to leadership. When energy drains, leaders often become isolated. Not because they want to be, but because the organisation has lost the instinct to challenge, question, or stretch. I’ve seen CEOs second-guessing themselves in rooms full of agreement. Seen GMs miss red flags because nobody wanted to be "the problem". Seen founders mistake quiet delivery for deep buy-in. The emotional toll of unspoken disengagement is real. You’re surrounded by people doing their jobs. But no one’s really in it with you. And eventually, leaders stop stretching too. We train people to disengage without realising it Here’s the contradiction that most organisations won’t admit: We say we want initiative, but we reward obedience. The safest people get promoted The optimists get extra work The truth-tellers get labelled difficult So people learn to conserve energy. They learn not to challenge ideas that won’t land. They learn not to flag risks that won’t be heard. And over time, they stop showing up with their full selves. This isn't resistance. It's protection. And it becomes the default when innovation is punished, risk isn't buffered, and "alignment" becomes code for silence. Boards rarely see it in time Boards don’t ask about belief. They ask about performance. But belief is what drives performance. When culture begins to fade, it doesn't look like chaos. It looks like calm. It looks like compliance. But underneath, the organisation is hollowing out. By the time a board notices the energy is gone, it’s often because the financials have turned, and by then, the people who could've helped reverse the trend have already left. In a 2022 Deloitte study on mid-market leadership, 64% of executives said culture was their top priority, yet only 27% said they measured it with any rigour . If you don’t track it, you won’t protect it. And if you don’t protect it, don’t be surprised when it disappears. The real risk: you might not get it back Here’s what no one likes to admit: Not all cultures recover. You can try rebrands. You can run engagement campaigns. You can roll out leadership frameworks and off-sites and feedback platforms. But if belief has been neglected for too long, the quiet ones you depended on, the culture carriers, the stretchers, the informal leaders, they’re already checked out. Some have left. Some are still there physically but not emotionally. And some have started coaching others to play it safe. Once that happens, you're not rebuilding. You're replacing. So what do you do? Don’t listen for noise. Listen for absence. Absence of challenge. Absence of stretch. Absence of belief. Ask yourself: When was the last time someone in the business pushed back? Not rudely, but bravely? When did someone offer an idea that made others uncomfortable? When did a leader admit they were unsure and ask for help? Those are your indicators. Because healthy culture isn’t silent. It’s alive. It vibrates with tension, disagreement, contribution and care. If everything looks fine, but no one’s really leaning in? That’s your problem. And by the time it shows up in the numbers,t might already be too late.