Innovation gives Altri a new momentum

The role of the Department of Innovation and Technological Development is to be one the agents of change within the group – change which is systematic and bold, but in which all the departments and management in the group understand and participate in, in order to create more value. This focus could make a strategic difference to Altri’s future.

The world economy is in constant change and with an ever-increasing pace. It’s vital that large companies with global presence, like Altri, can adapt quickly to this context, at same time are the leaders of this ongoing process of change. 

It is required that companies can project a nationwide dynamism and always seeking to create value and to invest in processes of innovation. In these times of change, within a cutting-throat competition environment, companies must not lag behind. They must be pro-active and irreverent, influencing society and economy to achieve new levels of excellence and innovation. 

These companies will be the undisputed leaders of the process of change which is underway. It was within this vision that led Altri to step forward and promote a new dynamic of knowledgeand transforming it into a tradable asset, driving value creation, within a framework of strategic change. 

With this end in mind, Altri created the Innovation and Technological Development Department (DIDT), whose goals are to build new value chains, new products, now businesses, new processes, intellectual capital and new knowledge which can be transmitted and used by other areas of the group. 

It was within this context that Gabriel Sousa embraced the challenge of heading the Innovation and Technological Development Department, having set out the strategies and spheres of interest for the future development of the area. 

As a trained chemical engineer, with a master’s degree in Pulp and Paper, his early career involved working on research, innovation and development at RAIZ, Research Institute for Forestry and Paper. He did an MBA and decided to try new challenges overseas. He moved to London to work in a Finnish Consulting company named Pöyry, now AFRY. 

In May 2018 he returned to Portugal to take up a senior position at Altri. Altri’s DIDT mission is to be the liaison which coordinates innovation from within and from outside the group. In order to complete these tasks successfully, dedicated personnel had to be allocated to work exclusively on them. 

Besides Gabriel Sousa, a valuable member was recruited from inside Altri organisation – João Martins from Celtejo. João Martins has forged a career in Celtejo and Altri, and he is experienced on Altri’s internal production processes and organisation. 

João Martins intimate knowledge is crucial in helping and establishing internal liaison between Altri’s different production units and departments. The next step was to expand the team with a profile that was different and complementary to that of João Martins. 

It was important to choose someone with international experience in the area of pulp and paper. Isabel Sêco fit these requirements. She was invited to the team when she was working in Canada, having worked at Paper Excellence and NORAM, both linked to the Canadian pulp and paper industry. She accepted the invitation to return to Portugal and to work at the DIDT.

Being the innovation accelartor

According to Gabriel Sousa, “The challenge of creating the Innovation and Technological Development Department was an interesting process,” like “painting on a blank canvas.” Nevertheless, he acknowledges that the executive board did stipulate some criteria which dictated the end result of the DIDT. 

One of those criteria is a characteristic which is intrinsic to the Altri group and relates to the efficient application of resources. “The idea was never to create a research and development megadepartment with many own resources. Rather, it was meant to have a fairly limited number of team members, but with senior experience, that would enable them to take leadership of coordinating innovation inside and outside Altri.” 

The name of the DIDT was chosen carefully. “Innovation” means creating new things that create impact and value. It is quite common to find the word “Research” alongside “Innovation”, but in this case it was deliberately not included in the department’s title. Gabriel Sousa regards research as one of the many tools available to support innovation. 

The word “Development”, on the other hand, was included to signal that they do not aim to work in areas relating to basic research, but rather to use knowledge in business oriented applications. 

The DIDT aims to develop innovation to create value via new products, new businesses and new processes. Value creation can also be related to intellectual capital or to new knowledge which may be transmitted to the business. Gabriel Sousa emphasises: “We have to be the accelerators of Altri’s innovation activities.” 

As we speak, the DIDT knows that new economically valuable products can be created from the Pulp and Paper industry. The usual products are pulp and energy. But there are others uses to be discovered. 

Coordination with other altri departments

As always, when something new comes along there is always a period of adaptation. The DIDT was no exception. Altri is a group which is constantly evolving, and which is founded on three different manufacturing companies with different cultures. The message that Gabriel Sousa wants to convey to the group and to Isabel and João, is “the need to be as open and collaborative as possible, as it’s our only way of developing and implementing new things in an organisation which was already moving forward”. It is important to have a close coordination with the group’s main stakeholders, namely the members of the Sustainability Department and the Industrial Department, but generally with all Altri’s Departments. 

Thus, the DIDT executive director tells us that he tried to set the boundaries of what they do and to coordinate as much as possible with other Altri Departments. 

“Everything that we intend to do in these technological areas must be extremely well coordinated with the other Management Departments.” 

An example of this coordination is the creation of a working group (the Innovation Focus Group), spanning the various Technical managements within the Altri group, whose goal is to share information and generate ideas associated with Innovation in the pulp and paper industry. 

The creation of this group supports DIDT’s view that innovation activities are not restricted to a specific department, but rather it’s a responsibility shared by all.