The foundations for the future of the licensing industry were set when Netflix and the LEGO Group joined Kids Industries and Products of Change for a special Brand Licensing Europe panel session last week and the unveiling of the Partnership Framework Maturity Index tool at the London show’s day of purpose.
The panel – made up of Netflix’s Rikesh Desai, the LEGO Group’s Jakob Max Hamann, and Kids Industries’ Jelena Stosic – convened to finally lift the lid on a project devised to collect and map data on the industry’s journey with sustainability to provide transparency as the licensing sector has never seen before.
Designed to work in harmony with the Sustainability Framework – a step-by-step blueprint for businesses unsure of their next move regarding sustainability – the Maturity Index is a system in which each licensing partner can log and update their progress with implementing change to eventually offer a bird’s eye view on sector-wide sustainability.
“We have a huge industry with many partners, some companies with hundreds of licensing partners and complex systems to navigate of which there is only a degree of visibility – nothing consistent – over what’s going on,” said Jelena Stosic, strategy director at Kids Industries. “We have a crucial need to make improvements. The problem is, how do you score sustainability in an industry?
“Well, Products of Change – and the partners POC works with – has devised a solution to this problem.”
The Maturity Index tool is essentially a survey which will be analysed by the team at Kids Industries. Through this analysis, the tool will help us understand where we are – as a collective – and provide us with consistent benchmarks and goals. It will also provide its own educational element.
“This will come together in two ways,” says Jelena. “One, as a dashboard which will fundamentally be an access point to see where businesses are with their sustainable transition in accordance with the POC Framework.
“The second part to this will be the annual report we release filled with insight, education, and support for businesses and individuals with the development of their journey.”
Developed in partnership with the sustainability teams at both Netflix and the LEGO Group, as well as the expertise of the Advisory board at Products of Change, it’s hoped that early backing from industry heavyweights will encourage widespread industry participation. Neither LEGO nor Netflix have kept their commitments to the sustainable development and reducing their respective impacts on the environment a secret and have been closely involved in devising the metrics the tool will make use of.
The Maturity Index will also go hand-in-hand with the Sustainability Framework, developed and launched by Products of Change ahead of Licensing Expo in Las Vegas earlier this year. With a wealth of legislative changes heading out of the EU and towards businesses from as early as next year, we can expect the landscape upon which the industry operates to shift dramatically in the coming months. Both the Framework and the Maturity Index enables every business to start implementing changes today.
Identified as a crucial element to the progression and evolution of the global brand licensing industry’s sustainable development, a special panel session exploring and introducing the Maturity Index tool to the licensing community will be held at this year’s Sustainability in Licensing Conference.
Taking place on November 8 at the Royal Geographical Society in London, tickets for SiLC 23 are available now via the Sustainability in Licensing Conference platform.
More information on the Maturity Index tool will become available in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, download your free copy of the Sustainability Framework here.
