When market insight never reaches authority

The company was the market leader for a product.

That position rested on dominant distributor partnerships.
The model had worked for years.

A new analyst joined the FP&A team.

His remit was reporting.
Not commercial strategy.

While preparing a routine monthly report, a pattern stood out.

No one asked him to pursue it.
He did anyway.

He consolidated internal sales data.
He pulled external market data.
He analysed distributor share trends.

On his own initiative.

The signal was clear.

The distributors underpinning the product’s leadership were already losing share.
The decline was recent.
The acceleration was visible.

If the trend continued, distributor dominance would erode within two years.

He included the analysis in the report. He added recommendations.

He flagged it to his FP&A manager. Nothing happened.

He escalated to his N+2.

Both understood the insight.

Neither owned commercial outcomes.
Neither was accountable for the product’s results.

Ignoring the insight carried no personal cost.
Raising it would create discomfort upstream.

The choice was rational.

The insight was acknowledged.
Labelled “interesting.” Filed.
Not escalated.

It stopped there.

Acting early would have challenged the distribution model.
It would have disrupted entrenched partnerships.
It would have forced uncomfortable decisions.

Waiting was easier. So the system waited.

Within a year, distributor sales collapsed. The product’s market share followed.

Leadership was lost. It never returned.

This was not a failure of intelligence.
The insight was correct.

It was not a failure of effort.
The work was done.

It was a failure of design.

The insight existed.
Authority did not.

Those who saw the risk bore no consequence for inaction.

When insight creates discomfort but not obligation, it does not travel upward. And the organisation pays for what it chose not to confront.