From idea to impact: Sascha Butter on driving a global transformation

Strengthening UPM’s market-driven innovation approach, these initiatives work hand in hand with insight generation, trend mapping and expert workshops to ensure we anticipate what customers will need next, not just what they need today.

“The new Product Development framework drives commercial and customer focus from the start, supports sustainable product design, increases execution speed and improves decisions through better use of data.” Sascha explains. By tightening connection points and removing unnecessary complexity, teams can deliver outcomes "faster and more consistently," including sustainability data. This means clearer recommendations, better collaboration, a more predictable development journey – and measurable value for customers.

From expertise to execution

Deep expertise in material science and regulatory compliance gives Sascha's team a strong foundation for solving customer challenges efficiently and responding quickly to new requirements and opportunities.

He shares an example from the chemical industry. A customer needed to reduce the environmental impact of its label material without compromising performance. By building a new sustainable product from existing components, the team was able to confirm and validate performance, verify the material met the brand’s requirements and save a significant amount of time. The result: reduced environmental impact, strong technical performance and faster time to market.

These are the kinds of outcomes Sascha and his team aim for. "A clear strategic strength," he says, “is the ability to create trust and confidence through validation, transparency and technical certainty,"

Leading responsibly through uncertainty

Digitalization can promise a lot but deliver unevenly. Sascha believes the key is connecting digital tools directly to customer value.

"Digitalization, data and sustainability are real enablers – not as separate initiatives, but as connected parts of the customer experience," he says. In practice, this means improving the quality and accessibility of product information, making sustainability data more usable and building digital services that reduce friction for both customers and commercial teams.

But transformation is not just about technology. It is about people, behavior and clarity. "What often holds companies back is not ambition, but the backbone," Sascha says. Clear ways of working, ownership of decisions and data that teams can use to run the business are essential.

For Sascha, staying focused on business value is what moves transformation forward. "The winning formula is not 'more tools', but stronger adoption and clearer business value, so that digital improves how we serve customers globally," he explains. "You must stay engaged long enough to enable the organization to change and have the governance built around new systems."

"You need realism around the resistance that comes in terms of behavior change," he says. "Clear ownership and steady follow through are what ultimately determine whether transformation delivers results.”

Through it all, Sascha values colleagues who approach change with openness and grit. “An open mindset and the ability to stay committed through the ups and downs of transformation make a real difference. Without that, you don’t get to the desired outcomes.”

Curiosity, resilience and balance

Driving transformation on a global scale requires resilience and curiosity. Sascha nurtures both with an active, balanced life

He spends time at the gym, outdoors with his kids, skiing and swimming. He enjoys cooking, visiting museums and reading or listening to audiobooks. His interests span the economy, human nature, philosophy and psychology. He is also fascinated by how technology and AI shape the world.

For Sascha, well-being comes from balance. "There's a pillar for work, there's a pillar for family and friends, there's a pillar for physical and mental health. The goal is to keep a healthy balance in all of them."