Strategic Renewal study

Shaping the future through strategic renewal
 

In a world where strategy alone is not enough, successful organisations learn to renew continuously. Our Strategic Renewal study, conducted with Hanken School of Economics, reveals how leading companies in Finland are strengthening strategic readiness through future-making, capability development, and co-creation.

 

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Strategic Renewal study

The data has been collected from following sources

2
2
Leading multinational organisations studied
28
28
In-depth interviews conducted
30
30
Research observation sessions
93
93
Feedback reports from the cooperative workshops

The power of strategic renewal

Continuous change demands more than traditional planning. Strategic renewal is about empowering people to imagine, co-create, and shape the future — together. The study offers:

  • A clear view of strategic readiness
    Defining and activating strategic capabilities builds future readiness across the organisation — creating clarity, alignment, and the ability to respond confidently to new opportunities.
  • Practical insights on adaptability and engagement
    Embedding reflection, experimentation, and adaptability into daily work sustains growth and renewal. When people participate in shaping strategy, they understand, own, and live it daily.
  • Future-making framework
    A practical approach that combines the future-making perspective with effectuation theory — helping organisations navigate uncertainty, foster co-creation, and drive lasting strategic transformation.
About image

Three cycles of future-making

Awakening
Strategic renewal begins with dialogue and imagination. It’s the moment when people across the organisation come together to question, reflect, and envision what they truly want to create for the future.
Building
This is the step where ideas come to life. Through co-creation and collaboration, people define the strategic capabilities that turn vision into action — strengthening teamwork, clarity, and confidence across the organisation.
Scaling
The last phase brings strategy to life. Strategic capabilities become everyday actions, embraced across teams and locations — creating a culture where renewal is continuous and shared.

Future-making is an interplay of three

Renewal thrives when structure meets creativity. Effectuation theory reminds us that renewal rarely starts from a blank page — it begins with what we already have: people, skills, and ideas. Like a chef creating something new from what’s in the kitchen, organisations thrive by combining existing resources creatively, experimenting together, and adapting as they go.

When managerial and entrepreneurial thinking come together with human competences — their intersection gives rise to continuous future-making: a space where imagination meets structure and renewal becomes a shared way of working.

About image
Making the future together
In this video, Mari Tasanto, Growth Area Director, Organizational Renewal, at Hanken & SSE Executive Education, explains why traditional approaches to strategy no longer work in a world of constant change. She introduces the idea of future-making — a way of turning strategy into daily action by building it together across the organisation.
Watch video

Reflections from the journey

At first, people spoke about local needs. But in the end, we found a global solution —
and our local engineers were proud to be part of it.

Product Development

The workshops helped clarify how to set the defined strategic capabilities into actionable steps down the road.

Sales

It helped bring high-level understanding to management - - now we have alignment, which was not the case previously.

Product Management

These workshops gave us fuel for making the strategy alive.

HR

Ready to transform your organisation?

Get the Strategic Renewal study report and see how organisations turn strategy into real, people-driven renewal — or connect with our team to explore what this could mean for you.
Image of Mari Tasanto
Mari Tasanto
Growth Area Director, Organisational Renewal
+358 40 048 8004 mari.tasanto(a)hankensse.fi LinkedIn
Image of Emilia Sainisalo
Emilia Sainisalo
Growth Area Director, Career Renewal
+358 45 677 8557 emilia.sainisalo(a)hankensse.fi LinkedIn

Download the Strategic Renewal study