When facing up to all their biggest challenges, large food companies have a common vulnerability - their size reduces their agility. While smaller businesses - in particular start-ups - are becoming increasingly adept at cornering portions of the market, enterprise-level companies generally lack the same ability to pivot to new opportunities quickly.

And this isn’t the only area where a business’ sheer size can put the brakes on its success. As food businesses grow larger, they are far more likely to experience diminishing returns when it comes to efficiency, their speed in responding to problems, the effectiveness of their core processes and their ability to cater to the specific needs of their staff.