In management consulting, there is a difference between understanding a framework and having lived with the consequences of its execution. As the Chairman and Consulting Division President of ArchPoint Group, Richard Spoon leads a firm of "executives who consult,” a team defined not by academic pedigree, but by previous P&L responsibility at industry titans like Procter & Gamble, Campbell Soup, and Walmart.

Spoon treats OGSM (Objectives, Goals, Strategies, and Measures) as a way to move strategy out of the planning room and into the daily work of the business. By housing management consulting alongside sales brokerage, product development, private label development, and creative services, the firm keeps strategy connected to the realities of the market. In this conversation with The Consulting Report, Spoon discusses the importance of being an “operator first,” the discipline required to find the right “second answer,” and why character remains a prerequisite for high performance. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The Consulting Report: Can you provide an overview of your firm's areas of specialization, whether based on sectors or functional areas? 

Richard Spoon: ArchPoint is an executive-led consulting firm that serves a diverse range of global industries. We bring specialized expertise in Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), leveraging our history as former operators to solve complex commercial and operational challenges facing modern brands.

We are global leaders in the OGSM framework, a battle-tested methodology used by Fortune 500 leaders like P&G and Coca-Cola to drive complete organizational alignment. To drive accountability, our proprietary platform, myOGSM, moves strategic plans into a real-time environment for daily monitoring, ensuring every team is synchronized with the company’s core strategic and financial aspirations.

We also specialize in three connected areas, one being growth. We define the roadmap for expansion by aligning organizational intent through OGSM facilitation. Our work focuses on identifying and developing market, channel, and customer opportunities to build sustainable categories and optimized product portfolios. We don't just plan for growth; we architect the specific strategy required to achieve it.

Another is productivity. We operationalize the strategy by optimizing the efficiency of the entire value chain. This includes assessing and aligning GTM (go-to-market) capabilities, streamlining manufacturing and operations, and optimizing S&OP and supply chain planning. We ensure that sales, trade execution, and route-to-market strategies are as disciplined as financial goals.

The third is people. We build the organizational capability to deliver results. We assess and align talent capabilities and organizational design to the growth roadmap, leading the change management and leadership development efforts required to ensure teams are positioned to win.

ArchPoint Consulting is the strategic division of ArchPoint Group, a collective that manages the entire business value chain in-house. By housing management consulting, sales brokerage, product and private label development, and creative services under one roof, we ensure strategies are never developed in a vacuum. Instead, they are grounded in the real-world operational experience of our sister divisions, allowing us to support clients all the way from initial strategic planning to the final point of sale.

“We offer the perspective of people who have sat in your chair and had to live with the consequences of their decisions.”

The Consulting Report: How does your firm differentiate itself from competitors?

Richard Spoon: First, we are operators first, and consultants second. Most traditional firms hire academic high-achievers and train them in consulting frameworks. We do the opposite. Our team is comprised of senior leaders who have held P&L responsibility at organizations like Procter & Gamble, Campbell Soup, and Walmart. We offer the perspective of people who have sat in your chair and had to live with the consequences of their decisions.

Second, we meet clients where they are. We provide a high-touch, collaborative client experience that focuses on walking the journey together versus pulling you along for the ride. We reject ivory towers and avoid echo chambers by engaging in an open and honest exchange of ideas. By truly listening to our clients, we tailor our frameworks to fit your specific problems and organizational culture rather than forcing a pre-packaged solution.

Third, we believe in a fair exchange of value. Traditional consulting often relies on over-scoping and high-margin, one-time projects. We prioritize building relationships and long-term partnerships—95% of our clients choose to work with us again. Our business model is based on a "fair exchange of value"—we scale our involvement to provide exactly what is needed to drive profitable growth and productivity, ensuring that your ROI is always the priority.

The Consulting Report: Are there one or two major client projects that demonstrate your firm’s capabilities?

Richard Spoon: One project that demonstrates our capabilities involved a global food ingredients and finished packaged goods company operating across both B2B and B2C markets, with annual revenue exceeding $5 billion.

The organization was hampered by a sluggish, fragmented, and inconsistent commercialization process. They lacked the necessary alignment between category planning and customer execution to move quickly, prioritize high-impact offerings, and capture white space in the market. To fuel sustainable growth, they needed a repeatable mechanism for continuous improvement.

Our work focused on translating market data into a clear strategic roadmap and building the specific frameworks and tools required to drive field-level execution. We developed a common, scalable approach to category and customer planning that bridged the gap between B2B and B2C channels.

Through hands-on disruptive growth workshops, we aligned sales and marketing teams on a single vision, ensuring everyone was "walking the journey" together. We built the specific templates and acceleration strategies required to identify market gaps and professionalize the path to market.

The result was a significant go-to-market overhaul, including revised value propositions and go-to-market plans for 12 product categories, along with 18 tailored customer plans across retail and food service. Just as importantly, the work helped align sales and marketing around integrated plans that turned high-level strategy into tangible market results.

“Teams work, together we win and lose.”

The Consulting Report: How would you describe your firm’s culture?

Richard Spoon: ArchPoint is a community of former operators. We prioritize what works in practice over what looks good on paper, drawing on the experience of leaders who have actually run organizations. That creates a very practical nature in how we work and the solutions we develop—we believe in providing “everything clients need, but nothing they don’t.” We genuinely love a good challenge and get energized by the process of solving problems alongside our partners.

We hire for high performance, but we prioritize character—seeking out people who are humble, collaborative, and genuinely good to work with. We believe that a healthy internal culture is the prerequisite for longevity in client partnerships. “Teams work, together we win and lose,” is a company value that we truly believe in and live [by].

“You can’t force the breakthrough—you have to create the conditions for it.”

The Consulting Report: Is there a book, mentor, or mantra that has influenced how you lead?

Richard Spoon: We often look to giants of industry for leadership lessons, but for me, the most profound influence on my leadership philosophy is closer to home—my wife. She sees me when the “executive” mask is off. She is the ultimate cultivator, and has taught me the power of patient, steadfast presence. She is the one who reminds me you can’t force the breakthrough—you have to create the conditions for it. She has taught me that the most effective leaders aren’t the ones with the loudest answers, but the ones with the most intentional ears. 

That belief connects closely to another principle I try to live by: discipline over comfort. As Jerzy Gregorek said, “Hard choices, easy life; easy choices, hard life.” That is true in my life, and it is also true in how I approach consulting. The most effective answers are usually not built on easy choices. There is usually a better “second” answer and getting there requires hard questions, confronting reality, and doing the disciplined work to find that answer. Those choices can make the journey uncomfortable, but they lead to better decisions [and] better execution.