Our Work
We build resilience.
We put social enterprises in a strong position to outlast the competition in volatile frontier markets. In whatever way you’re connected to social entrepreneurship – as an investor or funder, a beneficiary, an NGO, an education or government institution, the entrepreneur themselves, or even an employee – that’s peace of mind.
That’s because we help them find the key levers to swing, the right buttons to push, the most effective strings to pull, in order to address the root source of the socio-ecological problems they are eager to solve. So where others waste resources mopping up the water, our clients focus on fixing the leaks.
That’s maximum impact.
Think about it. We do.
Tools
MOSS has developed a portfolio of tools built on cutting-edge scientific insights on responsible business. They have been painstakingly designed to make complex theory easy to understand and, more importantly, implementable.
Systems Analysis
This tool facilitates the basic mapping of a system using factor analysis in order to identify causal loops and key leverage points.
By connecting the contextual factors that lead to dysfunctional system behavior, organizations can determine the most effective intervention points with which to nudge the system towards the change they want to see.
Provides a fresh perspective of issues being tackled as well as new directions and focus areas for engagement.
Based on research from:
- MIT
- Stanford University
- Erasmus University
System Dynamics Modeling
This advanced Systems Thinking tool intensifies the understanding of the interrelations within a system and validates them using a multi-stakeholder approach.
By modelling the stocks and flows, delays, and feedback loops of a given system, organizations can simulate intervention outcomes and more accurately forecast (coalition) resource requirements.
Provides a simulated understanding of the complex dynamics of a system which affords new directions and increased impact certainty for multi-stakeholder interventions.
Based on research from:
- MIT
- TU Delft
- Villanova University
Resilience for Systems
This tool utilizes resilience theory to manage systemic cross-scale change.
By implementing managerial principles for building cross-scale resilience organizations are able to build capacity to work with change, instead of being victim to shocks and disturbances.
Provides a method to understand the slow and fast changes to systems and identifies practicable options with which to build transformative and adaptive capacity.
Based on research from:
- Cornell University
- University of Michigan
- University of Pennsylvania
Stakeholder Value Mapping
This tool takes a holistic view of an organization’s stakeholder relationships in order to identify overlooked negative systemic impact.
By determining how value is destroyed or missed in the system through an organization’s relationships with key stakeholders, suitable mitigating steps and new avenues for value creation can be realized.
Provides a nuanced perspective on stakeholder relationships, uncovering unnoticed value creation opportunities for systemic change.
Based on research from:
- University of Queensland
- Stockholm Resilience Centre
- George Washington University
Societal Innovation
This tool leans on social innovation and inclusive business theory to unpack systemic interventions into multilateral solutions that create social value.
By leveraging cross-sector ideas and best practices for social progress, organizations can develop effective collaborative solutions to systemic social and environmental issues.
Provides a novel approach to creating social value through system interventions by discovering innovative multi-party solutions.
Based on research from:
- Stanford University
- London School of Economics
- University of Oxford
Sustainable Business Modeling
This tool investigates potential business model implications of system interventions and their socio-ecological ramifications.
By analyzing and comparing the social and environmental significance of different business models, organizations can select the most appropriate business approach to enacting systemic change.
Provides a way to map and modify an organization’s business model in line with an intended system intervention by accounting for socio-ecological impact.
Based on research from:
- Syracuse University
- University of St. Gallen
- Concordia University
Sustainable Finance
This tool facilitates the financial analysis of organizations beyond traditional financial ratios in order to unearth new value capture opportunities.
By applying a systems perspective in scrutinizing an organization’s financial statements, unexpected value capture opportunities materialize that can reduce costs, reveal new revenue streams, capitalize on underutilized assets, and generate socio-ecological impact.
Provides a systems lens to financial analysis that uncovers latent value capture opportunities and directions for securing socio-ecological value.
Based on research from:
- University of Oxford
- University of Pennsylvania
- HEC Paris
Systemic Impact Measurement
This tool provides a bricolage approach to performance measurement through a systems-based design to determine what, how, and why to measure impact.
By consolidating a myriad of cutting-edge social impact measurement methodologies into a single framework, organizations can determine the scope of their measurement requirements vis-à-vis key stakeholders and use systems-based techniques for setting and collecting impact data.
Provides a comprehensive process to develop and enact a valid, useful, and lean impact measurement strategy.
Based on research from:
- Harvard Business School
- Stanford University
- University of Oxford
Scaling Systemic Impact
This tool shifts the paradigm of mainstream impact scaling narratives, providing a profusion of systemic scaling options contingent on organizational readiness.
By defining their innovation as well as diagnosing their situational contingencies (such as lifecycle phase), organizations can choose centralized or distributed scaling options that best scale their impact systemically.
Provides a scaling readiness diagnosis as well as systems-based methods to scale impact (scale up) rather than scale solutions (scale out).
Based on research from:
- Stanford University
- York University
- Duke University
Consultants
Tools don’t just deliver themselves. How they are applied to analyzing business opportunities directly correlates to how effective they are. And that requires facilitation by specialists with experience. And some damn good instructions. It just so happens that we are specialists with lots of experience in instruction.
Workshops
We use our educational expertise to design engaging workshops that make applying our tools extremely easy.
We start with the premise that any participant, regardless of educational background, should be able to understand and apply the latest scientific knowledge through our workshops.
It’s not easy, but we make it work because we know what businesses find useful, we understand how adults learn, and we are adept at bringing across complex theory in an engaging way.
Mentoring
In one-on-one situations clients can take full advantage of our expertise and our consultants too can take full advantage of immersing themselves in the context of the client. It’s a level of exclusivity that suits everyone.
MOSS’s business model puts into play the unique perspectives and diversity of various stakeholders in the role of consultants, starting with our in-house specialists, adding management-level volunteers, and providing support teams of business school graduates.
Basically, MOSS provides you with a cross-sector Sustainability Department!
Trainings
Our tools are our commercial lifeline which means we are highly protective of them.
However, one of the ways in which we scale our impact regionally is to share our knowledge through a train-the-trainer (TtT) model.
For any given tool, MOSS provides hands-on interactive learning experiences that ensure trainees understand the supporting theory and can deliver quality workshops. Our tools are licensed annually so that trainees have access to content updates as well as ongoing support from MOSS.
Capital
Ah yes, the money. It’s in our name, but you know by now that it’s not what MOSS is all about.
Inevitably, Social Enterprises (SEs) working with our consultants will uncover opportunities to fundamentally increase their socio-ecological impact. Some of the common obstacles to realizing such high-impact opportunities involve capital limitations. MOSS aims to provide SEs with access to capital in such situations.
We do so by seeking collaborations with local and international funding bodies, working within existing financial infrastructures, and mediating on behalf of the SE and the identified funding opportunity. Alternatively, MOSS may choose to extend the capital through its revolving fund. We just don’t have one. Yet.