As a child, Kirsi Seppäläinen would only raise her hand at school if she was 100 % sure she knew the right answer. Nowadays, she often finds herself thrown into unfamiliar situations, but she deals with them very differently.
Seppäläinen credits her varied career at the forest company Stora Enso for boosting her confidence and teaching her that new challenges, even if they appear daunting, are often surmountable.
“At work, I’m often the one who gets thrown into seemingly impossible situations because I always find a way – and the right people – to solve the problem,” she says.
Seppäläinen joined Stora Enso in 2011 as Director of Communications for Latin America and China. Today, she is VP of Commercial Planning and Product Management at the company’s biomaterials division.
“They put me in sales when I was 57. I had never been in sales before. But I had been in marketing, which is close to sales, and I love working with customers,” she says with a laugh.
It is this work history and close connection with customers that helps her to understand their needs for products and solutions.
“When people start opening up and telling you what they want, working with them to solve their challenges is so fulfilling,” she explains. “I also have the product innovation know-how in my team, which is great.”
Seppäläinen’s transformative learning journey with Stora Enso took an unexpected turn when the company shifted its focus from pulp production to biomaterials.
This decision led to the company providing a range of new eco-friendly products and solutions made from trees for different industries.
“We were well-known in the forest and paper industries and were quite large in those sectors. However, outside of those areas, we weren’t as recognized,” she says.
During this period, Seppäläinen traveled around the world, speaking at various conferences to spread the message that Stora Enso was much more than just a pulp company.
“Speaking at these conferences was something that I enjoyed immensely,” she recalls.
She was also participating in a collaborative custom ‘pathbuilder’ program with IMD at that time which was aimed at both working with employees to ease the transition in the company and challenging the board and top management with innovation and digital strategies.
Seppäläinen was one of 16 applicants selected for the first ‘pathbuilder’ cohort in 2012.
“It wasn’t one of those corporate programs where you appoint all the VPs and SVPs – anyone could apply,” she explains.
“We had a very visionary, inspirational CEO at the time, Jouko Karvinen, and he wanted to do something different.”
One of the most significant learning experiences for Seppäläinen was realizing that new challenges and issues, although they might seem frightening at first, can be met and resolved. She found this insight reassuring.
“It has instilled in me the ability to navigate the unknown,” she says.
Her latest challenge is making the fluff used in Stora Enso’s personal hygiene business (diapers, feminine care, and adult incontinence products) more environmentally friendly.
The team questioned why the fluff in the products had to be white, especially since the chemicals used in bleaching the pulp are the main contributors to the company’s CO2 emissions. By keeping the fluff in its natural beige color, they realized they could reduce the carbon footprint by 35%.
“We thought that there must be a demand for lowering CO2 footprints and creating more ecological products,” she adds.
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic and the spike in energy prices threw up a few obstacles for Seppäläinen. The biggest surprise to her, however, was how hard it was to change expectations that personal hygiene products should be white.
“People are somehow so accustomed to hygiene products being bright white, so we need to work more on informing them about the environmental benefits of the beige fluff,” she says.
“I believe, however, that it’s a prime example of an innovation that has the potential to propel the entire industry forward.”
Outside of work, Seppäläinen enjoys being active. A keen ballet dancer from an early age, she says it keeps her “sane in a stressful world” and serves as her “safe haven”. Away from the barre, she also loves horse riding, taking long walks, and skiing during the winter months. She also recently took over as President of the Finnish Alumni Club from Fernando Trolia Slamic.
During her tenure, Seppäläinen aims to build on the successful model established by Trolia Slamic during his presidency – including pairing a local CEO with an IMD professor at events, which has proved popular among members.
“This is the perfect pairing because a lot of the time it’s difficult to get companies to talk openly and candidly about their challenges,” she says. “It’s good to complement this with a professor to discuss the issues and provide a broader view of the topic.”
