Innovation Excellence Framework: Using ISO 56001 to Manage Quality in Innovation Management Systems.

Innovation Excellence Framework: Using ISO 56001 to Manage Quality in Innovation Management Systems.

Innovation is no longer a solo endeavor. The age of open innovation has arrived, where collaboration across industries, disciplines, and borders is key to addressing global challenges and driving progress. In this dynamic landscape, the launch of ISO 56001:2024 represents a monumental step forward for organizations striving to innovate smarter, faster, and more sustainably.

What Is ISO 56001?

ISO 56001 is the latest international standard for innovation management systems. Its goal is to provide a robust framework for organizations to manage innovation systematically, bridging creativity with structured processes. Unlike earlier approaches that often treated innovation as an isolated activity, ISO 56001 emphasizes integration, scalability, and adaptability—key pillars for open innovation.

But what sets ISO 56001 apart is its potential to harmonize collaboration across ecosystems. It recognizes that innovation thrives when ideas, expertise, and resources flow freely between partners. By aligning organizations around common principles and practices, this standard can make open innovation more accessible and impactful.

Innovation Excellence Framework

The Innovation Excellence Framework is a comprehensive system designed to guide organizations in managing their innovation processes. By incorporating internationally recognized standards, it provides a solid foundation for improving the organization’s innovation capabilities and aligning them with long-term goals.

What makes the Innovation Excellence Framework so powerful is its holistic and integrated approach. By incorporating the full ISO 56000 series, it ensures that your innovation efforts are aligned with international best practices, covering everything from strategy development to execution and performance evaluation.

Organizations that adopt this framework are not just improving their innovation processes; they are fostering a culture of continuous improvement, resilience, and strategic collaboration. This positions them to stay ahead of the competition, adapt to emerging trends, and effectively manage innovation in an ever-changing landscape.

In the infographic, the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle is integrated with the Operational-Tactical-Strategic layers to visually communicate the interconnectedness of different ISO standards in the Innovation Excellence Framework. Each element represents a different stage or layer in the innovation management process, helping organizations understand how to implement and evaluate their innovation strategies.

The PDCA cycle is a widely recognized approach for continuous improvement and is central to effective management systems. It involves four stages:

  • Plan: Set goals and define processes to achieve them.
  • Do: Implement the plan and execute the innovation activities.
  • Check: Monitor and measure the outcomes to ensure the objectives are met.
  • Act: Adjust processes and strategies based on the feedback to improve future innovation activities.

Each of these stages in the PDCA cycle is color-coded to align with the different ISO standards, making it easier to understand which standard applies to each stage.

The Operational-Tactical-Strategic layers represent different organizational levels at which innovation management is applied:

  • Operational Layer: This is where day-to-day activities take place—focused on implementation, execution, and innovation performance at the ground level.
  • Tactical Layer: Involves mid-level management, which ensures that innovation initiatives are aligned with broader goals and that innovation processes are optimized for efficiency.
  • Strategic Layer: Focuses on long-term innovation strategies, aligning innovation with organizational objectives, vision, and global trends.

These layers align with the PDCA cycle stages, ensuring that innovation management is integrated across all levels of the organization.

Each layer of the PDCA cycle and each stage of the operational, tactical, and strategic levels is represented by a distinct color, which corresponds to specific ISO standards. This color-coding allows viewers to immediately identify which ISO standard is most relevant at each stage or organizational layer. Here’s a breakdown of the colors and the corresponding standards:

  • ISO 56000: This standard serves as the foundational element for all innovation management activities, providing essential vocabulary and principles. It is placed at the Strategic level because it guides overall innovation direction.
  • ISO/FDIS 56001: Representing the Plan phase of the PDCA cycle, this standard focuses on establishing an Innovation Management System (IMS) and its requirements. It applies at the Strategic and Tactical levels to ensure proper alignment between innovation strategy and operational actions.
  • ISO 56002: A complementary standard to ISO 56001, offering practical guidance on implementing an IMS. It supports the Do phase in the PDCA cycle and applies at both the Tactical and Operational layers to guide the execution of innovation processes.
  • ISO 56003: This standard covers tools and methods for innovation partnerships, essential for collaboration across all levels of the organization. It is aligned with the Tactical and Operational layers to ensure collaboration within innovation ecosystems.
  • ISO/TR 56004: Focuses on Assessing Innovation Performance, which ties into the Check phase. It applies at the Tactical and Strategic levels to evaluate how well innovation is performing and identify areas for improvement.
  • ISO 56005: Addresses tools for managing intellectual property during innovation activities. This standard is connected to the Operational layer as intellectual property often plays a central role in day-to-day innovation processes.
  • ISO 56006: Provides tools for strategic intelligence management, focusing on gathering and analyzing market and industry data to inform innovation decisions. This standard fits at the Strategic level, guiding long-term innovation planning.
  • ISO 56007: Focuses on the management of opportunities and ideas, aligned with the Do phase of the PDCA cycle. It supports the Operational layer by providing tools to generate and assess innovation opportunities.
  • ISO 56008: This standard focuses on measuring the operational success of innovation initiatives. It connects with the Check phase in PDCA, ensuring that the Operational layer has the right metrics in place to track innovation progress.
  • ISO/TS 56010: This standard provides illustrative examples of how to apply the ISO 56000 series. It serves as a resource for all levels but does not directly correlate to a single stage of the PDCA cycle or a specific layer.

In summary, the Innovation Excellence Framework based on the ISO 56000 standards offers a proven pathway for organizations looking to manage and optimize their innovation efforts. Whether you’re aiming to improve internal processes, collaborate with external partners, or gain access to funding, this framework provides the tools and insights needed for success.

Why ISO 56001 Matters for Open Innovation

Open innovation—the practice of sharing ideas, technologies, and solutions beyond organizational boundaries—has become a cornerstone of progress. Yet, it comes with its own challenges, including managing intellectual property, fostering trust, and aligning diverse stakeholders. ISO 56001 addresses these barriers in several ways:

  • A Shared Language: ISO 56001 establishes a common vocabulary and framework for innovation. This simplifies collaboration between companies, research institutions, and startups, ensuring everyone is on the same page.
  • Trust Through Structure: Open innovation requires trust, and trust is built on transparency. By providing guidelines for processes like risk management and decision-making, ISO 56001 helps organizations navigate uncertainties collaboratively.
  • Scalability and Adaptability: Innovation ecosystems are diverse, with partners ranging from local entrepreneurs to multinational corporations. ISO 56001’s flexible framework accommodates these differences, enabling seamless collaboration across scales.

Real-World Impact

Consider a biotech company partnering with a university to develop sustainable agriculture solutions. With ISO 56001 as their foundation, both parties can align their objectives, streamline their workflows, and manage intellectual property with clarity. The result? Faster breakthroughs and a stronger impact on global food security.

Or take the example of a city government working with tech startups to build smarter infrastructure. ISO 56001 can guide how these diverse entities share data, integrate their innovations, and create scalable solutions that improve urban living.

A Call to Action for Innovators

The release of ISO 56001 couldn’t come at a better time. As the world faces complex challenges—from climate change to public health crises—the need for open, collaborative innovation has never been greater. This standard offers a roadmap for turning collective ideas into actionable solutions.

For innovators, ISO 56001 is more than a set of guidelines; it’s an opportunity to lead. By adopting the standard, you can position yourself as a reliable partner in the global innovation ecosystem, attract funding, and drive meaningful change.

How to Get Started

Whether you’re part of a multinational corporation, a small business, or an academic institution, ISO 56001 offers something for everyone. Start by:

  1. Exploring the Standard: Learn about its principles, structure, and how it aligns with your innovation goals.
  2. Building Internal Capacity: Train your teams on best practices for innovation management.
  3. Engaging in Dialogue: Use ISO 56001 as a bridge to connect with potential partners and collaborators.

ISO 56001 is more than a technical standard—it’s a tool for shaping the future of innovation. By embracing its principles, we can create a world where ideas flow freely, challenges are tackled collaboratively, and progress knows no boundaries. Let’s innovate together.

2 Decades of Open Innovation: an infographic

2 Decades of Open Innovation: an infographic

The rise of open innovation has been a long-standing trend in business. In the early 1990s, companies were starting to realize that they could improve their competitive edge by sharing their ideas and innovations with others. This led to the development of the concept of “open source” software, which allows for free exchange of information among developers. Open innovation is a term first coined by professor Henry Chesbrough in his 2003 book “Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology”. It describes the process of organizations leveraging external ideas and resources to drive innovation and growth. This can be done through things like open R&D, corporate venturing, collaborative research, etc.

Read more

Open Innovation’s Latest Papers: Wicked Acceleration, Entrepreneurial Ecosystems & More

At OpenInnovation.eu, we are on a mission to bridge the gap between education and industry. That’s why we continuously scan the newest, open access, publication in the field of innovation & entrepreneurship for you. These are some of the most interesting publications recently:
Read more
33 routes

33 Routes to Open Innovation

It has been a while since Henry Chesbrough coined the term Open Innovation and formulated its definition: “combining internal and external ideas as well as internal and external paths to market to advance the development of new technologies.” (Chesbrough, 2003). Over the course of time, the terminology relating with Open Innovation has evolved alongside developments in management literature and practices. Open Innovation as a paradigm on itself is on its quest to touch base outside the academic world. Rather than taking a (technical) process-oriented approach, Open Innovation is now also about Open Business Models (Chesbrough, 2006), Open Services (Chesbrough, 2010) – both from a more strategic perspective – and practical tools (Vanhaverbeeke, 2017) – more from a tactical or operational point-of-view.

Read more
15 Best Open Innovation Articles of 2015

15 Best Open Innovation Articles of 2015

2015’s Innovation Management conference (ISPIM) was all about Open Innovation. In fact, it was one of the most keywords – and definitely the most specific one – used amongst all 233 papers presented during the conference. Although the articles are not completely available yet (if you’re not a member), I have used it to draw up a list of the 15 best articles presented on the conference on Open Innovation of 2015 so far. I have added elements of the abstracts here, but following the links you can download the full papers from the ISPIM website.

Read more

10 Years of Open Innovation Research

This scientific publication by Bogers and Chesbrough provides an interesting and pragmatic overview of 10 years of scientific research towards Open Innovation. It uses trends graphs, wordclouds and most cited articles to clarify the development of the expertise.

Topics include:
– Intra-organizational Individual : Group/Team , Project , Functional area , Business unit
– Organizational Firm : Other (non-firm) organization, Strategy , Business model
– Extra-organizational: External stakeholders, individual, community, organization
– Inter-organizational: Alliance , Network , Ecosystem
– Industry: Industry development , Inter-industry differences
– Regional innovation systems: Local region, Nation , Supra-national institution
– Society: Citizens, Public policy

Read full article: 10 Years of Open Innovation Research

oi1.png
Source: Bogers & Chesbrough, 2014
oi2.png
Source: Bogers & Chesbrough, 2014

Open innovation as a start-up strategy

Interest in open innovation has risen dramatically in recent years. However, much of that interest has centred on large-scale enterprises. The focus of this paper is to explore open innovation from an SME perspective and in particular the under-researched perspective of a born global firm. We seek firstly, to explore the viability of open innovation as a start-up strategy for two Irish born global firms within the ICT industry. Secondly, we examine the impact of certain contextual factors on the adoption of particular forms and modes of open innovation.

Read full article: Open innovation as a start-up strategy

Towards an Open Innovation Measurement System

Since the beginning of an open innovation era back in 2003, the
research of the phenomenon keeps spiking the interest and the publications
with the keyword open innovation grow exponentially every year. The
multitude of research focused on many details of open innovation, at the same
time literature reviews of this research aimed at classifying and structuring this
enormous amount of information. Nevertheless, there has been no interest so
far in understanding how we should study open innovation to stop going in
circles. In order to do so, the analysis of the methods and measures of open
innovation to date had to be analysed. This paper represents a structured review
of quantitative publications of open innovation and analyses the indicators
applied by different researchers in different contexts. By doing so, we
contribute to the theory of open innovation and add to the understanding of
how it is measured.

Read full article: Towards an Open Innovation Measurement System

Open Innovation cooperation strategies in Regional Innovation System

The paper tackles an interplay of two theoretical approaches
concerning innovation management understood as a collective process of at
least a few interacting entities. The first approach is anchored in management
and covers Chesbrough’s Open Innovation concept and its followers. The other
refers to regional science with focus on Regional Innovation Systems. Both
approaches use quite a similar toolkit to support their relevant objectives:
business models enhancement for OI and regional business dynamics for RIS.
Correlations and interactions between business involvement in RIS processes
and OI processes were scrutinized in Southern Poland, where 3 regions selected
ICT to be their technological specialization. 200 companies were interviewed
to find out whether territory plays a significant role in OI management.
Altogether the paper answers a question whether theoretically not so distant
concepts of OI and RSI co-exist in business routines of Polish companies.

Read full article: Open Innovation cooperation strategies in Regional Innovation System

FEI open innovation 2014

FEI Open InnovationPrint

Open Innovation as an Enabler to Inclusivity, Frugality and Agility

May 13-15, 2014 | Boston, MA

www.iirusa.com/feiopen

 

Featuring Unilever, Singularity University, Clorox, Roche, General Mills, Pfizer, Pitney Bowes, and more

Open is a foundational concept– it’s not new, and it’s not going away. How to strategically use and ADAPT open is where real innovation is happening and new ideas can be shared. FEI: OPEN focuses on the next generation of open innovation uses- deploying open innovation to innovate faster, better, and cheaper. The event covers three core tenants, OPEN as an enabler to inclusivity (changing the mindset to be even more inclusive), frugality (doing more with less, also known as Jugaad innovation.. innovation with constraints), and agility (accomplishing even more in even less time).

Special rate for OpenInnovation.eu subscribers: Register with code FEI14OPEN & save 20% off the standard rates.