DISCOVER YOUR MUTUAL VALUe

Discover how your co-operative or mutual can benefit from applying the Mutual Value Framework©. Businesses that have used the framework have integrated it into a wide range of important activities, deploying it to:

Link business purpose to operations

Most companies today try to communicate that they have a greater purpose than simply maximising shareholder value. Increasingly, we see corporates adopting mutual-like language. This has created a crowded arena for mutuals that are seeking to demonstrate their different business purpose, which risks eroding the understanding of the particular value that they create.

This can have a material impact on how organisations communicate the mutual difference and show the impact that the mutual purpose has on the way they do business. Having a clear purpose that is linked to recognisable business operations and behaviours – with demonstrable value created – is imperative in today’s marketplace.

Applying the Mutual Value Framework will show that it is not the corporate structure itself, but the mutual purpose, that creates value. It will help to identify a clear narrative so that all stakeholders, including leaders, employees, customers and members, can understand the clear mutual purpose. 

Enhance strategic review

Choosing when to apply the Mutual Value Framework to a business is an important decision. Mutuals have increasingly chosen to implement the framework alongside or as an integral part of their planned strategic review.

This is a time-efficient way of testing existing plans and exploring any untapped areas of value that can be created through business operations. It is also a good time to ensure that the maximum value will be created across all business functions and that the strategy is focused on what members expect to receive.

Align Board and executive priorities

Businesses recognise the importance of achieving an alignment of understanding across all key stakeholders. Having a shared mission across the full complement of Board, executive leaders and colleagues is essential to creating a successful team approach. With changes in personnel, this can become more acute.

The mutual nalue exercise helps to build understanding and support for the clear strategy of the business. It helps people to see their role in delivering value and how they relate to other stakeholders in the business.

Build a communications narrative

Being able to communicate the value that is created through operating as a mutual can often be a challenge. So much of an organisation’s work and the related positive impact is taken for granted or overlooked.

The process of applying the Mutual Value Framework helps to make tangible the intangible behaviours and practices that create value for your members. By populating the six dimensions, mutuals can identify the value that they create in the whole range of areas. It is a discovery exercise that strengthens the common understanding of value and produces a powerful narrative that can be used internally and externally.

Improve performance management systems

Having identified the value that is created in the business by applying the Mutual Value methodology, firms can then look to prioritise these into concise statements that can be tested against performance. Ideally, mutual value will coincide with key performance indicators and these can be measured and tracked over time.

It is an important aspect of ensuring that what is being measured and managed coincides with the expectations of members and the mutual business purpose of the organisation.

Align employees within the business

Firms will want to ensure that new employees are able to learn from the deeper experience of long-standing staff. The Mutual Value Framework helps this knowledge transfer by identifying the value created in each part of the mutual and enabling the information to be shared.

The process can be a bonding experience with colleagues, ensuring that all functions are recognised and understood across the business, aligning the team to a common purpose.

Improve member relationships

Member relationships and member recruitment are enhanced by a clear member proposition that is tested with the target audience.

Over time, mutuals can drift from their core member offer and find it more difficult to articulate the value that they deliver to members. Applying the Mutual Value Framework can help to distil a better understanding of member expectations and help firms to communicate this.

Firms have reported improved member recruitment and dialogue as a result of clarified messaging to members.

Improve marketing messaging

Applying the Mutual Value Framework helps to identify and confirm the intrinsic value that your business creates. This is key to building trust and confidence with existing members, and to marketing services to potential members.

Subtle changes to marketing messaging that accentuate the positive value and the mutual differentiation that you bring to your industry can greatly improve customers’ understanding of your business.

Enhance ESG and corporate reporting

As businesses seek to establish their sustainability credentials, many have sought to describe the social value that they create.

The Mutual Value Framework helps to build an evidence base that clearly describes the full range of value that your firm creates for society and the economy. It means that you have robust facts that will help to populate your external reporting.

This can be used in a range of corporate reports, from improved annual reporting to special impact reports.