It’s been another long but incredibly productive week working with clients to help their managers build stronger business acumen. One theme kept coming up again and again, in every program, every debrief, every reflection: developing a General Manager mindset.

More and more business leaders are turning to their HR Business Partners, looking for development solutions that go beyond teaching people how to “do their jobs.” They want their new and emerging managers to think like owners—to make decisions that balance short-term execution with long-term enterprise value.

That’s not easy. It doesn’t happen through a workshop or a checklist. It takes time, practice, and the right tools. But when done well, it changes everything.

As a kid, pumpkins were basic: round, orange, and typically medium to small in size. Finding a big pumpkin felt like winning the lottery, until you tried to cram it into the back of your  VW Bug. There were really only two options for pumpkins back then: carve them into a jack-o’-lantern for Halloween or bake them into my brother’s famous pumpkin cheesecake at Thanksgiving. That was it. End of story. End of pumpkin.

But somewhere along the line, the pumpkin went "primetime." Maybe Charlie Brown was the catalyst, but who knows? Today, we’ve got elegant white pumpkins for modern décor, "knucklehead" pumpkins with warts for novelty, mini multi-colored pumpkins for city apartments, and massive “Forklift Specials”  for front porches. And of course, what pumpkin post would be complete without the greatest innovation of our age, pumpkin spice,  now turning up in everything from coffee and creamers to beers, cookies, donuts, ice cream, cereals, protein bars, candles, and even dog treats?

So, what happened here? The humble life of an orange pumpkin became a case study in innovative thinking.

Why Global Products Change from Country to Country

Walk into a supermarket in Amsterdam and then into one in Philadelphia, and you’ll notice something curious. The detergents, shampoos, and dish soaps look familiar, but not quite the same. Some brands carry different names. Others use alternate colors. Look closer, and even the formulas inside the bottle may vary.

This isn’t a coincidence. It’s a distinct strategy. Global consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies carefully adapt their products for local markets. The reasons are practical, cultural, and financial, and these choices have a ripple effect on profitability, complexity, and growth.

AI is still in the early stages across many industries, but there’s no question that it has already been
transformational. At Advantexe, we’re seeing firsthand how AI can elevate leadership development learning engagements, especially in the areas of developing business acumen and leadership skills.

One of the most exciting innovations we have recently launched is the AI Board of Directors (BOD) Debriefing Tool. Traditionally, after learners complete a business simulation workshop, we challenge them to present their strategy, goals, objectives, results, and guidance to a fictional board of directors, explaining what they did, why they did it, and where their simulated companies are going in the future, which simulates the real-world process leaders go through every quarter. These presentations help learners solidify their thinking, connect decisions to outcomes, and improve communication skills.

Now, we’ve taken this process to the next level with the support of AI.

When tariffs hit (or don’t hit and then hit again), the impact isn’t always immediately clear, but the consequences can be significant. One of our consumer-packaged goods (CPG) clients recently found themselves in this tough situation. Their supply chain team was dealing with escalating costs from new international tariffs, but they couldn’t fully grasp how those changes were affecting the rest of the business, or how to build internal alignment around the best response.

To bridge that gap, we partnered with them to create a dynamic learning experience that combined business simulation with AI-powered roleplay exercises to emulate having very challenging conversations. The focus was on helping learners gain a clearer understanding of how tariffs impact a business and what it may take to respond to these increased costs.