The Maturity Institute (MI) set out in 2012 to pursue its over-arching goal of maximising societal value through improving organisational maturity (OM); using a single measure of Total Stakeholder Value (TSV). Since then our research has enabled us to develop widely recognised methods to bring this to life. First, by rating comparative maturity levels between organisations, where we can demonstrate a direct connection between maturity and organisational market value; and by helping firms to build their own roadmaps and capabilities to enable them to stay ahead.
Most of the organizations we have rated to date have been large, publicly quoted companies. Our OM ratings (OMR) are now captured within a single index, OMINDEX, which offers meaningful comparisons, and a solid basis for board accountability, with respect to long term value and progress monitoring by all stakeholders.
However, MI adopts a whole system philosophy, so we have to be able to measure and monitor every kind of organisation that works within a socio-economic system. That must include all companies, not-for-profit bodies, public sector organisations and education establishments: in fact, any organisation that uses resources to provide any form of product or service. This is why we are taking this big stride forward in our development; to introduce and rate maturity and TSV across the whole spectrum of organizations, at a national level. We are focusing this project on the whole economy of Scotland under the title ‘Value Scotland’.
One of the initial seeds for this project can be traced back to a similarly, independently-minded country, Iceland. In 2005 our MI Chair, Paul Kearns, had just started teaching the ‘people strategy’ course on Reykjavik Business School’s MBA programme. At its simplest level, people strategy is a grand plan to ensure an organization achieves the very best value from all of its people. Iceland (population circa 350,000), where you get the distinct impression that everybody knows each other, is best described as a community with an incredibly strong bond; forged out of their challenging environment.
The MBA classes were set group assignments, working with Icelandic CEOs, to experiment with the lessons of maturity learned in the classroom. The participants, and the business school, quickly saw how maturity could be applied in a national context and subsequently led to Iceland becoming the first country in the world to produce academic research into maturity levels across a wide range of Icelandic companies.
Now, after many years of further development, MI is delighted to be taking this experiment to the next stage. This unique project begins the process of bringing maturity and Total Stakeholder Value to Scotland, as a whole nation. A project for mature change, across a whole economy, seems a very natural fit with Scottish values and its current place in the world. It is a relatively small country with ambition; shares many attributes with Iceland (independently-minded, national identity, challenging environment) and has a very rich heritage of enlightened thinking with a determined spirit of enterprise (one of MI’s core texts is the “The Puritan Gift” written by Scots, Ken and Will Hopper).
So the ‘Value Scotland’ project is launched. Our outline plan is available here. If you are interested in working with MI to help ‘Value Scotland’ you can read our simple, one-page guide (with the full list of OMINDEX questions) or contact –
Paul Kearns at MI
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