With an objective “to help brand owners and their partners better understand where they are on their sustainability journey”, it was at Brand Licensing Europe last week that the Partnership Framework Maturity Index tool was finally unveiled to the industry.
Netflix and the LEGO Group joined Products of Change and Kids Industries to lift the lid on a special project that has been devised to give the collective industry a clear and overarching view of where its stands on the pathway to positive change and sustainable transformation.
Designed to work in harmony with the Sustainability Framework – a step-by-step blueprint for businesses unsure of their next move when it comes to sustainability – the Maturity Index is a system in which brand owners and licensing partners can log and track their progress in implementing change.
A pivotal moment for the global brand licensing industry, the launch of the Partnership Framework Maturity Index will be explored in further depth at next month’s Sustainability in Licensing Conference, where Netflix’s Rikesh Desai will once again join the LEGO Group’s Jakob Max Hamann, and Kids Industries’ Jelena Stosic to introduce the initiative.
We catch up with Jelena, Kids Industries’ director of strategy to learn more about the Maturity Index and what this moment means for the international licensing sector.
Jelena, it’s good to catch up with you – we can’t wait to see you in action at the Sustainability in Licensing Conference next month. Can you talk us through the Maturity Index Tool – what is it setting out to achieve?
The Maturity Index Tool is a digital tool to explore and score the range and depth of sustainability measures that a company is taking to help them and their partners understand where they are on their sustainability journey.
Given that the industry recognises this as an important topic, there is a degree of conversation already taking place, but the documentation is often lacking while the process may lack efficiency as different parties have varying levels of expertise, team availability, and compliance requirements. It’s not inconceivable that a brand owner might be wondering how best to survey their licensing partners, nor that a licensing partner might end up being asked to fill in 50 different questionnaires for their different licensors, creating an information overload that doesn’t help anyone.
As both regulation and demand for innovation nudges our sector forwards, this tool has been designed to streamline the sharing of practices and support all parties when it comes to structuring these conversations and being transparent in their practices.
For the industry as a whole, this is a benchmarking tool on a scale we’ve not seen before, designed to show us the range of initiatives the industry is taking as well as any blind spots and interest areas that we could be working more on.
Okay, well this sounds great. What are we specifically looking to measure with this tool?
It is the range and the depth of positive actions that a company could take on their way to becoming more sustainable. The specific measures in the tool are rooted in the Products of Change Industry Framework, the first of its kind taking on the ambitious task of exploring various elements of the company set-up and practices ranging from having team members dedicated to sustainability, waste management processes, product composition, and more.
Importantly, this isn’t just about a tick-box exercise of ‘yes we do this’ or ‘no, we don’t’ but it also invites anyone doing the questionnaire to share a bit more detail on their timeline, specific context and actions that they could be taking outside of the measure itself.
And what is the vision for how the industry will use this tool? How will this help shape and influence sustainability within the global licensing industry?
At best, the Maturity Index would represent an understood and shared language and learning framework.
In terms of the score itself, our vision is very much that sustainability and environmental considerations will be increasingly important (if not critical) in the decision-making on licensing, with partner celebrated and supported based on the actions they are taking. A maturity score – on a simple level – gives you an indicator of where they are on their journey.
This is where the context and learning comes in too. An important part of industry use will be in providing visibility on areas in which people need education, support, or interventions in order to succeed.
When can companies start engaging with the tool?
As soon as the too is ready for roll-out, which is planned in the next few months, companies can begin using it. It is for the brand owners to enrol and then invite their licensing partners to complete, obtain their maturity score, and open up the conversations.
The tool can be used in different stages of the collaboration: early days when the partnerships are being built, in an ongoing way to review progress and check for compliance, and overall to strengthen the foundation of joint efforts to be more sustainable.
What makes this a milestone moment for the licensing industry?
So, Products of Change brought us all together and provided the Framework. Kids Industries turned the Framework into an action-exploring questionnaire and is designing the technology and the user journeys, while our industry advisors from Disney, Netflix, and the LEGO Group are helping us review the tool in a holistic manner and ensure that is as useful as it can be for the industry.
This marks a wonderfully collaboratively effort. And that’s important, simply because of the nature and magnitude of what we are working on. It absolutely isn’t about one person or one company ‘winning’ at sustainability, it is about shared knowledge and solutions and the only way to get there is through collaboration.
About Jelena
Jelena Stosic is the Director of Strategy at the industry insights specialist, Kids Industries. Alongside the company’s co-founder Gary Pope, Jelena has been a key player in the development of the Partnership Framework Maturity Index Tool, applying a knowledge of information gathering and data processing to create the structure of a platform that will enable the global brand licensing industry to track and analyse its progress with sustainability, providing opportunity for education and insight.
