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Principles for Innovation Management Assessment

Innovation management has become a common topic of discussion in organizations independent of their size or activities. Managing innovation is a key prerequisite for value creation and future development. However, how this innovation management can generate value in the most effective and efficient way, needs to be assessed on a regular basis. This document provides seven principles to facilitate the design and implementation of the innovation management assessment.

These seven principles are:

—    adding value to the organization

—    challenge the organization’s strategy and objectives

—    motivate and mobilize for organizational development

—    be timely and focused on the future

—    allow for context and promote the adoption of best practice

—    be flexible and holistic

—    be an effective and reliable process

They are of equal importance and are intended to give orientation to those in charge of developing the innovation management system and its deployment. For more information, there will be ISO standards on innovation management related topics available.

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Principles

  1. Adding Value to the Organization and Interested Parties
    1. Statement

The Innovation Management Assessment, and its results, allow the organization to better concentrate its resources on the innovation management activities that create the most value, (e.g. tangible/ intangible assets, such as products, services, systems, knowledge, brand, partnerships, IP), directly impacting organizational success. It will help the organization’s positioning in its ecosystem (policy makers, academia …) and communicate adequately towards clients and institutions.

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    2. Rationale

Innovation management assessment aims to spot which of the current innovation management activities are truly generating value for the organization, and which are not value-creating, so that the latter are either changed or removed. The innovation management activities that will be assessed include the definition of innovation strategies and objectives, managing the innovation life cycle from the idea generation and management of those ideas, developing the ideas into new value.

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  2. Challenge the Organization’s Strategy and Objectives
    1. Statement

The Innovation Management Assessment encourages the organization to enhance its management capabilities and innovation portfolio, to strengthen its resilience and provide a common language, all of which help to focus their strategy to better anticipate future challenges.

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    2. Rationale

An innovation strategy is essential to focus the organization on its future success, however many organizations, especially small ones, do not prioritize the review of their strategy and objectives. Highly dynamic and volatile markets require timely review, an innovation management assessment is an effective trigger to challenge the organization’s current position.

Analysis frameworks developed by practitioners and academics will help organizations take an informed decision on the best “innovative” strategy to pursue. A good assessment will enthuse the organization to change.

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  2. Motivate and Mobilise for Organizational Development
    1. Statement

By encouraging a reflective and participative approach to its people and culture, engaging, and rewarding people in the process and encouraging the development of skills necessary for successful innovation, the Innovation Management Assessment contributes to the organization’s overall learning, knowledge management, and development.

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    2. Rationale

Assessment in many organizations leads to defensive, and sometimes even hostile, reactions. By engaging the organization in open discussion on the current performance of the innovation management system, improved ownership and commitment will lead to a clearer evaluation of the organization’s current innovation performance and to opportunities for further development including in open innovation schemes.

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  2. Be Timely and Focused on the Future
    1. Statement

The Innovation Management Assessment is best carried out at the right time to help the organization to proactively manage and drive necessary change and disruption (e.g. in organization, product, service, process, business model, sector, technology, societal status, regulation). It will encourage foresight and collaboration to open up potential for new areas of activity, whilst also taking into account organizational maturity and innovation lifecycles.

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    2. Rationale

Effective timing of an Innovation Management Assessment will help secure the organization’s future, but this requires awareness of the current organizational situation, its context, and a clear focus on strategic goals. The organization that implements changes resulting from the Innovation Management Assessment will outperform or move away from their competitors.

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  2. Allow for Context and Promote the Adoption of Best Practices
    1. Statement

By helping the organization to critically examine its current situation and core drivers, the Innovation Management Assessment will highlight both internal and external opportunities to adopt good practices and appropriate external stimuli.

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    2. Rationale

Organizations might lack the knowledge of what best practice in innovation management is. Looking for best practice internally and externally will open up the organization’s potential for change and further development.

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  2. Be Flexible and Holistic
    1. Statement

The Innovation Management Assessment is best applicable when adequately simple, open, modular, adaptable to many types of organizations, whilst taking into consideration all relevant innovation management system components and results, thus meeting the requirements of the assessed organization and relevant internal and external stakeholders.

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    2. Rationale

The innovation management consists of several interdependent key success factors. They all have to be addressed individually and in their interdependence in the Innovation Management Assessment for the organization to derive maximum impact. Pragmatic approaches and easy to understand / articulate results are vital for successful improvement of the organization's ability to add value.

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  2. Be an Effective and Reliable Process
    1. Statement

The process must be transparent, with a clear structure, defined scope, acceptable time intervals, comparable data, actionable deliverables and qualified resources for successful execution and exploitation of the innovation management assessment results.

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    2. Rationale

An Innovation Management Assessment is an investment from which the organization expects value. The output quality depends on the design and execution of this process. Having an effective and repeatable process in place will foster recurring assessments to develop the organization’s long-term innovation management system and its performance.

 

ISO Store

 ISO/TR 56004:2019
Innovation Management Assessment — Guidance

The rest of the ISO 56000 family of standards utilize the eight principles for innovation management.