An international community of experts has been working since 2013 to develop guiding frameworks for innovation management. A focus on collaboration and consensus will make the publications unique.

Building the community

France is coordinating the international development of guiding frameworks for innovation management since the start in 2013. According to Isabell Lambert, Committee Secretary of ISO/TC 279 at AFNOR between 2013 and 2017, it was the right time to build on the community of experts that had worked at European level and to ensure a truly international approach.

We could benefit from the lessons learned from the European work as well as from several national standards from for example Spain, Portugal, France, Great Britain, and Ireland, says Isabelle who has been actively involved in standardization on the topic since 2009.

Innovation management is maturing

The understanding that innovation can actually be managed had matured and was another trigger. Innovation management is about creating favorable conditions for innovation to happen, not constraining it, says Alice de Casanove from Airbus Defence and Space, and the Chairwoman of the Committee. The notion of innovation is moving from a focus on “technology push” to also include “market pull” as well as user-driven, business model, and social innovation, etc. It is now widely recognized that innovation is relevant for all types of organizations who seek to realize value in any form, says Alice.

Standards development takes time. The first publications of the ISO 56000-family started to become available during 2019.

Why this work is unique

The work is based on best practices and the latest research and thinking from the participating experts. With four main Working Groups and experts from about 50 countries, my task is to facilitate collaboration and coordination in order to achieve consensus among the groups, says Alice. This is what makes our work unique and different. It will be more credible than other frameworks put forward by individual consultants and academics, according to Alice.

The international guidance standards will create visibility and provide a reference for organizations to use as a starting point for better managing innovation activities. The standards will also help policy makers to be more aware of the innovation management challenges facing companies and organizations, so they can design better policies.

I want to make an impact both inside and outside my company, Alice says and concludes: being part of an international community challenging the current status quo regarding innovation management, is the reason why I accepted the assignment to lead this committee.

Link to an article by Alice De Casanove, Laure Morel & Stéphane Negny “ISO 50500-series innovation management: overview and potential usages in organizations” presented at the ISPIM conference in Vienna, Austria, June 2017. Note: the ISO 56000-series originally had the number 50500.