Executive Summary
In 2014, Valmet – a new organization born out of a de-merger in a seemingly unsexy, unwanted industry of capital equipment and services for the pulp, paper and energy industries – sought to make the most of its leadership development programs. How? By turning the company into a confident, forward-looking technology front-runner where the leaders truly saw how they could execute their part of the strategy with real impact.
Valmet partnered with IMD, a top-ranked business school, to co-create a unique leadership development journey that helped it build capability and confidence at four levels: individual, interpersonal, cohort and organizational. This journey was developed around six critical design principles: creating two programs in parallel for senior managers and high potentials with connections between the two; mentoring of
high potentials by senior managers; building around the participants’ individual business challenges; addressing or resolving these challenges in each session; ensuring CEO and Executive Team support and sponsorship; and measuring impact on all levels throughout the process.
The journey exceeded the expectations set out at the beginning, not simply based on impressions and testimonials but in terms of real impact. Not only were individual capabilities built, but also 62% of the mentoring relationships continued well beyond the end of the journey; cohort networks improved by over three times because of the program, and substantial financial impact was achieved (between 5 and 167 times depending on the definition). Overall, by early 2018 Valmet had outperformed the Helsinki OMX and Global Industrials index by 62% since the end of 2014, and it was on its way to reaching its stated 8%–10% EBITA targets by 2020.
Figure 1
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Summary
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Reference
IMD-2743
Copyright
©2026
Copyright owner
IMD Copyright
Available Languages
English
Contact
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Flywheel Portfolio Framework: A strategic method for managing core business dynamics
Summary
This technical note presents the Flywheel Portfolio Framework, a systematic approach for diagnosing and managing the reinforcing cycles that drive organizational performance. Building on Jim Collins's flywheel concept from Good to Great, the framework extends beyond single-flywheel models to address the reality that businesses operate through multiple simultaneous reinforcing cycles – some that create value, some that destroy it and some that remain dormant. The note introduces three flywheel types: positive flywheels that build competitive advantage through compounding momentum, negative flywheels that accelerate organizational decline and latent flywheels that represent untapped strategic opportunities. Using a fashion retailer as an illustrative example throughout, the note demonstrates how these cycles interact and compete, with organizational trajectory determined by their net effect rather than individual flywheel strength. The framework provides a four-stage methodology and presents five strategic principles to guide execution. Designed for strategic leaders and executives, it equips practitioners with the tools to identify high-leverage intervention points, execute counterintuitive moves when system structure demands them and manage flywheel portfolios to generate sustainable competitive advantage.
Reference
IMD-2743
Copyright
©2026
Copyright owner
IMD Copyright
Available Languages
English
Contact
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Flywheel Portfolio Framework: A strategic method for managing core business dynamics
Summary
This technical note presents the Flywheel Portfolio Framework, a systematic approach for diagnosing and managing the reinforcing cycles that drive organizational performance. Building on Jim Collins's flywheel concept from Good to Great, the framework extends beyond single-flywheel models to address the reality that businesses operate through multiple simultaneous reinforcing cycles – some that create value, some that destroy it and some that remain dormant. The note introduces three flywheel types: positive flywheels that build competitive advantage through compounding momentum, negative flywheels that accelerate organizational decline and latent flywheels that represent untapped strategic opportunities. Using a fashion retailer as an illustrative example throughout, the note demonstrates how these cycles interact and compete, with organizational trajectory determined by their net effect rather than individual flywheel strength. The framework provides a four-stage methodology and presents five strategic principles to guide execution. Designed for strategic leaders and executives, it equips practitioners with the tools to identify high-leverage intervention points, execute counterintuitive moves when system structure demands them and manage flywheel portfolios to generate sustainable competitive advantage.
Reference
IMD-2743
Copyright
©2026
Copyright owner
IMD Copyright
Available Languages
English
Contact
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Flywheel Portfolio Framework: A strategic method for managing core business dynamics
Summary
This technical note presents the Flywheel Portfolio Framework, a systematic approach for diagnosing and managing the reinforcing cycles that drive organizational performance. Building on Jim Collins's flywheel concept from Good to Great, the framework extends beyond single-flywheel models to address the reality that businesses operate through multiple simultaneous reinforcing cycles – some that create value, some that destroy it and some that remain dormant. The note introduces three flywheel types: positive flywheels that build competitive advantage through compounding momentum, negative flywheels that accelerate organizational decline and latent flywheels that represent untapped strategic opportunities. Using a fashion retailer as an illustrative example throughout, the note demonstrates how these cycles interact and compete, with organizational trajectory determined by their net effect rather than individual flywheel strength. The framework provides a four-stage methodology and presents five strategic principles to guide execution. Designed for strategic leaders and executives, it equips practitioners with the tools to identify high-leverage intervention points, execute counterintuitive moves when system structure demands them and manage flywheel portfolios to generate sustainable competitive advantage.
Reference
IMD-2743
Copyright
©2026
Copyright owner
IMD Copyright
Available Languages
English
Contact
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Flywheel Portfolio Framework: A strategic method for managing core business dynamics
Summary
This technical note presents the Flywheel Portfolio Framework, a systematic approach for diagnosing and managing the reinforcing cycles that drive organizational performance. Building on Jim Collins's flywheel concept from Good to Great, the framework extends beyond single-flywheel models to address the reality that businesses operate through multiple simultaneous reinforcing cycles – some that create value, some that destroy it and some that remain dormant. The note introduces three flywheel types: positive flywheels that build competitive advantage through compounding momentum, negative flywheels that accelerate organizational decline and latent flywheels that represent untapped strategic opportunities. Using a fashion retailer as an illustrative example throughout, the note demonstrates how these cycles interact and compete, with organizational trajectory determined by their net effect rather than individual flywheel strength. The framework provides a four-stage methodology and presents five strategic principles to guide execution. Designed for strategic leaders and executives, it equips practitioners with the tools to identify high-leverage intervention points, execute counterintuitive moves when system structure demands them and manage flywheel portfolios to generate sustainable competitive advantage.
Reference
IMD-2743
Copyright
©2026
Copyright owner
IMD Copyright
Available Languages
English
Contact
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications