Societal value demands a policy of shared IP

There have always been two very strong but opposing forces at play in the world’s economy. One is the entrepreneur’s desire to create a monopoly and the other is society’s desire to resist; in the name of fairness. The monopolist wants to exploit their unfair advantage and society demands the best value. This is why anti-trust laws were first introduced. Fortunately, competitive capitalism keeps many budding monopolists in check but every now and again one slips through society’s safety net. When the product or service in question is of crucial importance to mankind though, the market cannot be left to its own devices.

Healthcare is probably the most obvious example, where market principles sit uneasily alongside humanity’s greatest needs. In the US, where unfettered market principles now predominate, healthcare can be cripplingly expensive without producing the best value outcomes. In the UK, the state-funded NHS wastes the dedication of its human capital on a daily basis through mismanagement. Neither of these polarised positions are sustainable. The Maturity Institute offers a viable alternative.

When Microsoft foresaw that its operating system could be a universal monopoly it became the most valuable company in the world: but was it ever the best value solution? MI provides a clear answer to this question with OMINDEX and its capability for measuring Total Stakeholder Value (TSV). It uses a diagnostic tool, comprising 30+ questions, that determines an organization’s maturity rating (OMR). Microsoft’s current rating is ‘B’: that’s 15 points below a ‘AAA’. So how can its huge market value be so disconnected from its societal value? The answer is very simple and very obvious; it chooses not to pass on the fruits of its intellectual property (IP) to provide the whole of society with the best possible value that it could. Compare that view of a corporation’s role in society with MI’s original exemplar, Toyota (A+), which has made “available thousands of (its) hydrogen fuel cell patents royalty free” to its competitors, including Tesla.

The IP that sits behind OMINDEX has been developed over many years and it would never have happened at all without the Maturity Institute bringing together a collection of good minds. The principles on which it is based go back to the principles on which America’s capitalist system was originally founded; and these in turn are founded on the underlying philosophy that encourages and rewards innovation while safeguarding society’s best interests. That same thinking now sits behind MI’s protocol of shared IP, or SIP.

If you would like to try scoring your own organization’s TSV today, you can obtain a free copy of the OM30+ spreadsheet by sending your details (Name, Organization, Job Title) to Stuart Woollard at OMS LLP.

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