Historically, the market was characterized by high levels of fragmentation and opacity. By and large, success merely required existing. Outsized success was defined by opaque measures of leverage across a disparate universe of stakeholders.
More recently, the driving force in the market has been consolidation. Large groups come together – locally, regionally, and nationally – to pursue the benefits of strategic and operational economies of scale. In this phase, by and large, success has been defined by structural consolidation for the sake of achieving scale.
Through consolidation, the market has become increasingly organized. But the discussion of how to best & most comprehensively leverage this organization to truly capture economies of scale is just beginning. In this next phase, success will increasingly be defined by achieving holistic performance excellence.