Anil Kaul, CEO of Absolutdata, has outlined five major challenges that CPG companies are facing in dense markets and how using data analytics has proved to be a great tool for CPG manufacturers to address these challenges. 1. Spend Rationalization: In the expansive era of 2005-2007, a lot of “blank checks” were written as investments for growth in EM. However, following the financial crisis of 2008 there has been an increased focus on profitability.