Beyond Uncertainty in the Middle Market

Here are three strategies for success in 2026.

By Ernesto Jaramillo

PUBLISHED JANUARY 2026

As we start  2026, Kansas City middle-market leaders are navigating a familiar mix of opportunity and uncertainty. In conversations with the private and public companies we serve, we find they’re not waiting for perfect clarity. Instead, they are making targeted, strategic moves to help their companies grow.

Three themes have emerged for continued success in 2026: Expanding digital reach, leveraging M&A for transformation and prioritizing employee financial wellness.

Digital Success Starts with Outcomes, Not Tools

The most successful digital journey starts with the client, not the technology. This includes B2B companies, where clients now expect the same seamless digital experiences in business as they encounter in their personal lives, making client journey mapping a critical first step.  

An effective approach involves clarifying the client engagement moments that matter most: from discovery and buying to onboarding and service. The client experience and data flows should be designed around these critical touch-points. This means defining what data to capture, assigning clear data ownership and standards and providing relevant teams with a single, secure view. When the right people have the right information at the right time, decision-making
accelerates and satisfaction increases.

A good digital strategy will also help improve employee experience, freeing up employees’ time from manual and tedious tasks and creating more room for higher-value, innovative and creative work. This can help attract more digital-savvy employees who can leverage AI, provided data is clean and governed and leaders keep humans in the loop for critical decisions.

Consider Shaping the Future Through M&A

Deal activity is expected to continue in 2026, and mergers and acquisitions can be a powerful tool to accelerate growth and support succession planning. Specifically, M&A offers several strategic avenues for growth and resilience:

  • Diversifying into adjacent products or services can broaden a portfolio and deepen client relationships through additional offerings.
  • Consolidation can strengthen a company’s competitive position by expanding distribution and removing duplicative costs.
  • Cross-border deals offer a path to faster market entry and local expertise. 
  • Employee stock ownership plans allow owners to sell all or part of the business, while keeping stakeholders invested in the company’s success. It’s a familiar cycle—and one that’s costing businesses time, productivity, and sometimes security.  

Prioritize Your Team’s Financial Wellness 

The financial health of your employees can impact the financial health of your overall company. While many employers remain focused on offering traditional benefits—such as retirement and health care—employees are asking for a more holistic approach to their benefits package.

Employers must think of financial wellness benefits as more than a perk; these resources can help quell employees’ financial anxieties. Our 2025 Bank of
America Workplace Benefits Report found that personal debt was a significant source of strain for employees, with 46 percent saying it actively causes them stress and 35 percent saying it interferes with their focus and productivity at work.

In a particularly competitive labor market, offering these benefits can help drive job satisfaction, talent retention, work productivity and more.

To help meet employees’ financial-wellness needs, employers should begin to look beyond traditional benefits. Our research found that employees are looking for unique resources to support their financial health, including:

  • Retirement education and planning
  • Learning how to generate income in retirement
  • Online tools to measure and improve financial wellness 
  • Financial guidance and resources on emergency savings, mortgages and paying for college.

And while nearly all employers feel responsible for their employees’ financial well-being, less than half offer financial wellness programs to support it. Closing this gap could be a critical step toward building a more engaged and resilient workforce.

In the face of continued uncertainty, Kansas City middle-market companies that embrace a customer-centric digital strategy, consider growth through strategic M&A, and prioritize the financial wellness of their employees will be best positioned for lasting success throughout 2026 and beyond.