Cartonboard manufacturer, Pankaboard, needed to transform their strategy to meet the demands of a changing market. In Trailmaker it found a partner who would help them turn their internal know-how into actionable commitment to change.
Pankaboard is a Finnish manufacturer of special cartonboard solutions. Its focus is on thick high-performance products used in picture frames, food packaging, cap seals and other specialized end uses. The company operates in a global niche market, serving customers in 60 countries.
The past few years have been a time of transformation for the board packaging industry in Europe. Sustainability regulations from the EU, new global competitors entering the market, and prolonged low demand due to the geopolitical situation are reshaping the landscape.
“The whole packaging board world is in the middle of a major transformation driven by sustainability. Together with a shift in the market, we naturally had to review our strategy”, says CEO Pasi Piiparinen.
Pankaboard’s leadership recognized that they needed to differentiate their offering even further and increase emphasis on innovation and product development. They also needed to become more agile.
“For us, strategy wasn’t just about writing down where we want to be – we wanted a process that would become a real management tool”, Piiparinen says.
With the clarified strategic direction, the challenge shifted to execution.
Piiparinen says that Pankaboard’s management team had extensive experience with traditional strategy processes and wanted to avoid their execution pitfalls.
“Very often, strategy ends up being just a document, and execution is either missing or very incomplete. That is something we wanted to avoid. For a company like ours, everything related to strategy has to be execution oriented.”
The leadership was actively looking for a partner to help them facilitate an intense strategy project that would turn internal know-how into actionable goals and measures.
“We didn’t want a long, heavy process that drags on. We wanted something short and sharp, and Trailmaker’s process fit that demand extremely well”, Piiparinen says.
Through the Trailmaker process, Pankaboard’s management team developed a common understanding of direction and priorities, making strategy an active leadership tool with defined follow-up and accountability.
“We’ve seen a noticeable increase in our execution power. For the first time, I saw a real commitment to this kind of process. We are now systematically operating according to what we agreed on in the process. People really believe that by doing these things, we will achieve our goals”, Piiparinen says.
