“Man cannot govern a nation if he cannot govern a city; he cannot govern a city if he cannot govern a family; he cannot govern a family unless he can govern himself; and he cannot govern himself unless his passions are subject to reason.” Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) The Maturity Institute is intrinsically evidence-based: we measure the […]
The first reaction to our Global OMI is always – ‘where did you get your information?’ Savvy observers, who have been in corporate life long enough, know that the larger the corporation the less inclined it is to be transparent. Of course, we would prefer to be welcomed with open arms but we do not […]
The Why? The Maturity Institute (MI) was formed for a number of very sound reasons. One is recognition, shared with many other impartial observers, that there is something rotten in the state of capitalism. That does not mean capitalism is finished: it plays a crucial part within the entire, global, socio-economic and environmental system; so […]
How many times, throughout your whole lifetime, might you expect to experience a complete shift in thinking about how society should be run? History tells us, at least at a national level, that these matters have usually been resolved only after violent struggles. The destiny of democracy in the UK was only forged after King […]
If I have learned any important lessons about economics (since I gained my degree in the subject over 35 years ago) they are these. One, there is a huge gulf between how the theory is taught and how economic policies are formulated (although that could equally apply to management degrees). Two, the dichotomy between micro […]
Anyone analysing the highly competitive, UK supermarket sector over the last year or two will have noticed several headlines* like this one in the FT – “Tesco must play long game in race to bottom – Chief executive Dave Lewis must decide strategy amid full out price war.” The story quotes ex-Sainsbury CEO, Justin King, […]
Have you ever been on a ‘Finance for non-financial managers’ course? Did it not strike you as an odd concept? Who do they mean? Which managers are ‘non-financial’ and should there not also be a counter-balancing course for finance people: offering some broader yin to their narrow yang? According to Insead (“the business school for […]
It is amazing what a skilled maturity analyst can learn about any large organization’s systems from their calling cards. E-on, my gas and electricity supplier, still employs two meter readers to visit my property even though I have been happily submitting my own meter readings online for some time. In the picture on the left […]
Yesterday two NHS nurses were struck off the UK nursing register for bringing their profession into serious disrepute. One of the features of this case was the falsifying of records so that ‘performance targets’ could be met. The NHS has been trying to copy ‘lean’ for some years (as has every manufacturing business in the […]