Sappi is a global diversified wood fibre company with more than 12,800 employees and operations in over 35 countries. As market demands continued to evolve, the organisation wanted to prepare high potentials for future leadership roles through a Global Leadership Programme. Before shaping the programme, Sappi sought a deeper understanding of the people it was designed for: their development needs, values, behavioural orientation and ability to handle future complexity.

These insights informed individual development paths and contributed to a leadership programme focused on corporate strategy, change and leadership.

In what industry does Sappi operate?

Sappi is a global diversified wood fiber company, which has over 12,800 employees and operates in more than 35 countries. It produces dissolving pulp, packaging and speciality papers, and graphic papers, as well as biomaterials and biochemicals.

What was the business challenge?

To embrace changing market demands and unleash the full potential of employees, Sappi’s leaders must be agile in their mindset and behaviour. Sappi therefore decided to design a Global Leadership Programme (GLP) to help high potentials develop leadership skills for their future roles. Because such a programme requires significant investment, it is critical to fully understand the needs of high potentials before designing the GLP, and that’s where VALPEO’s methodology came in.

How did Sappi get in touch with VALPEO?

Sappi’s interest was sparked by VALPEO’s assessment model, which is built upon three complementary assessments (Complexity, Values and Behavioural Orientation). A group of senior leaders from Sappi’s global HR Team completed a pilot assessment project to evaluate VALPEO’s approach. They found the orientation surveys to be a valuable source of insights into people and chose it as the ‘core assessment methodology’ to screen participants ahead of the coming GLP. The pilot also allowed senior leaders to gain experience with the new approach, enabling them to provide better coaching to high potentials within their own region.

What exactly is VALPEO’s unique approach?

VALPEO believes that organisations cannot predict the future success of leaders by only focusing on their behaviour. While behaviour can be successful in some contexts, it can be problematic in others. VALPEO’s more holistic methodology considers:

• Complexity Orientation: at what level of complexity will a high potential be able to add value, both now and in the future?
• Values Orientation: to what degree do a high potential’s values match with his/her future contexts?
• Behavioural Orientation: will a high potential’s behaviour be successful in new contexts?

Specifically, how did VALPEO proceed with its methodology?

VALPEO designed the assessment centre as a decision-support process rather than a selection exercise in isolation. Each candidate was assessed against the real complexity of the General Manager role and the value-creation challenges of the printing and supplies business in Belgium and Luxembourg.

A combination of scientifically grounded online assessments and in-depth virtual interviews explored leadership maturity, decision-making horizon, behavioural impact and values alignment. These insights were then integrated into individual feedback sessions led by VALPEO-accredited consultants, creating a clear, evidence-based view of each candidate’s capacity to lead at scale, today and into the future.

What was the outcome for Sappi?

Different career paths were suggested for the participants, ranging from broader operational management roles to an international role at C-level. Candidates also received insights to help them optimize their professional growth.

VALPEO’s insights were used to create a tailor-made Global Leadership Programme that focused on corporate strategy, change and leadership. The programme was organised in cooperation with business schools from different regions.

“Being able to understand people’s values is very helpful when trying to make sense of where someone’s career could be headed,” explains Marina Rubbrecht, Director Organisation & Leadership Development Europe at Sappi. “The same applies to their ability to handle complexity: Sappi’s future is agile, and our future leaders will have to be able to handle the challenges that agility brings. One of the participants in the Global Leadership Programme has already taken up a senior leadership role, so we are on the right track to discovering and developing new talent. Valpeo has helped us to make sure that future Global Leadership Programmes are equally effective.”.

How do the participants themselves look back on the process?

The feedback covered the values and concerns of the candidates. Consultants helped them become more self-aware of how values influenced their leadership style, and suggested ways to adapt certain styles of behavior to become more effective leaders.

Jan Sander van Tuijl, Vice-president Supply Chain & Procurement, was very satisfied:

“VALPEO’s development center provided me with insights into who I am, what level of complexity suits me, and what values drive me. The development center also showed that I was ready for a role with a wider scope and a higher level of complexity. I have since been promoted. My new role suits me well and allows me to contribute more to the success of Sappi.”

When development must support long-term value.