Case: Metsä Group – Identifying growth enablers supports competitiveness in a changing operating environment

The forest industry is undergoing significant change, with growing competition requiring rapid renewal. International players are investing heavily in new, sustainable products and circular economy strategies, challenging the position of Nordic companies. Regulation, digitalisation, the circular economy and supply chain uncertainty are forcing companies to develop their operating models, while responsibility and transparency have become prerequisites for market access. 

Geopolitical changes and technological development highlight the need to anticipate and renew systematically, and only bold, forward-looking innovation can secure competitiveness and leadership in the future operating environment. 

Metsä Group wanted to strengthen its readiness for disruptive change and identified the need for a structured approach that would both anticipate technological disruptions in the next 5–15 years and proactively shape the future. The collaboration projects with VTT increased understanding of the long-term development of process and digital technologies and strengthened the capability to innovate new business based on these developments. 

In the projects, VTT applied the Future Radar method, which addressed Metsä Group’s need to identify long-term technological development in a structured and collaborative way. We built long-term Future Radar views covering both digital technologies and process technologies that are essential for the competitiveness and sustainability of the forest industry. 

The radar analyses were based on a broad knowledge base and discussions with VTT’s deep technology experts. We delved into the signals identified in the radar, and interpreted, structured and prioritised them together with the customer in foresight workshops. On the one hand, the radar views reinforced Metsä Group’s own understanding of technological development, and on the other hand, they also created opportunities to group technical entities in new ways. 

Metsä Group’s committed project team represented the company’s business areas and functions comprehensively. Across the two projects, we conducted a total of five co-creation workshops, for which participants prepared in advance with pre-work and independent reflection on how the relevant technology might affect their own business area. Initially, the work progressed separately within each project. In the end, a joint workshop day brought together the lessons and themes of both projects as a foundation for open future business ideation. 

The workshops enabled participants to learn foresight approaches in practice, facilitated by VTT. The collaboration between VTT and Metsä Group was built on strong mutual trust, and the workshops were marked by an enthusiastic and committed atmosphere. 

“This was an exceptional collaboration. The customer’s openness, enthusiasm to learn and courage to immerse themselves in the foresight journey were important parts of the projects’ success. Foresight momentum is created when the customer is ready to commit to the foresight process, and we were able to witness this during the projects,” says Juuli Huuhanmäki, Senior Solution Scientist and Project Manager at VTT. 

“The collaboration with VTT worked extremely well. With the support of successful facilitation, representatives from different parts of our organisation were able to work together in a way that is exceptional compared to our day-to-day work. This way of working helped us think more broadly than usual and challenge and complement our own perspectives, which is the key to renewal,” say Jussi Hyvärinen, Project Manager, IT and Tero Tervahartiala, R&D Manager, Group R&D, at Metsä Group. 

Radical changes are rarely driven by single technologies alone; they often emerge from the combined effect of many signals. 

“VTT’s Future Radar supports the identification of the building blocks of the future. Interpreting and combining these building blocks create the basis for generating new innovations and enables, for example, the formation of alternative scenarios and a desired future vision. This supports the shift towards proactive action: the future can also be built and guided, not only encountered and adapted to. Creating a roadmap concretises the actions required by the vision,” says Antti-Jussi Tahvanainen, Research Team Leader at VTT. 

In the projects together with Metsä Group, we moved from individual technological findings identified in the radar views towards major transformations through business visioning. As an outcome of the project, we ideated 14 radical new business visions for Metsä Group. We then linked the visions with enabling capabilities and technologies and laid the foundation for concrete pathways forward. The ideation process utilised foresight tools and creative facilitation to identify genuinely bold transformation opportunities. 

The path from technology radars and foresight workshops to business visions: