The decline in demand for paper hit Stora Enso hard. By 2011 the pulp and paper giant — the world’s oldest corporation, dating back to 1288 — had laid off over one-third of its 30,000 employees. Though profitable again, the company needed to transform itself into a global renewable materials company.
How the World’s Oldest Company Reinvented Itself
As market conditions change, companies are bound to find themselves experiencing major shifts in demand. What can you do to make sure you’re prepared to evolve with the times? In this piece, the authors describe how pulp and paper giant Stora Enso transformed itself into a sustainable business focused on renewable materials. Specifically, the company created a team called Pathbuilder to source new ideas and present them to senior leaders. Because of the diversity of this small group, it was able to come up with some truly disruptive ideas — ideas that the more homogenous leadership team would never have thought of on their own. This approach helped the company to more than double their share price since 2011, and offers useful insight for anyone considering a major transformation of their organization.