By Alan Zettelmann – Ahead of the Curve Innovation
The ISO 56001 Innovation Management System (IMS) standard promises a structured pathway to embed innovation into an organization’s DNA. On paper, it’s a global blueprint for turning creativity into measurable, repeatable outcomes. In reality, adoption is slow, patchy, and often misunderstood. After more than a decade advising corporations across continents, I’ve seen first-hand why.
1. The Mindset Gap at the Top
The single biggest barrier is not technical — it’s human. If a CEO is not visionary, forget about IMS. No software, methodology, or certification can compensate for leadership that treats innovation as a side project. Appointing an “Innovation Manager” without executive empowerment is like hiring a race car driver but refusing to give them fuel.
Lesson: IMS succeeds only when leadership drives it from the C-suite, with the courage to challenge embedded errors and rethink what made them successful in the past is not limiting the future.
2. Cultural Resistance to Structure
Innovation has two enemies: chaos and bureaucracy. Countries and industries have different imbalances. In Japan, creativity is scarce but structure abounds; in Brazil, creativity is abundant but structure is lacking. A one-size-fits-all pitch for IMS fails because adoption requires selling structure to the unstructured, and creativity to the over-structured.
3. The “Tax Credit” Distraction
In Brazil, the “Lei do Bem” offers tax incentives for innovation — a great concept in theory. In practice, many large companies hand innovation over to financial consultants whose sole mission is maximizing tax recovery, not building long-term innovation capacity. This financial lens kills the appetite for IMS, because the focus is on compliance paperwork, not capability building.
4. Fragmented Corporate Structures
In markets like Brazil, many high-revenue groups operate as clusters of small legal entities to minimize taxes. Without consolidated governance, implementing IMS is nearly impossible. If a company can’t produce a unified P&L or has no cross-entity directors, expecting them to adopt a company-wide IMS is unrealistic.
5. Misaligned Innovation Efforts
Popular tools like design thinking are good but often are disconnected from strategy. Without portfolio management aligned to business goals, innovation workshops create enthusiasm but no ROI. IMS solves this alignment problem — but only if leadership sees value in measuring “Innovation IQ” and making decisions from it and a capability based approach.
6. The Hidden Barrier: Historical Success
Ironically, the more successful a company has been, the more dangerous its complacency. Many believe the processes that made them dominant will work forever, even as the market shifts under their feet. IMS requires leaders to reset their thinking — to accept that past success can be the biggest obstacle to future survival.
7. The Market Size Myth
Analysts often measure IMS opportunity by counting certifications or software sales. That’s misleading. Real market size should be measured in the extra revenue or margin generated from projects born out of IMS. Without impact, adoption is just window dressing.
Breaking the Deadlock
The path forward is not about forcing standards — it’s about marketing transformation to decision-makers. IMS adoption will accelerate only when CEOs understand it’s not an audit requirement, but a competitive survival tool. The question leaders must ask themselves is not “Do we have time for this?” but “Can we survive five more years without it?”
Final Thought: In our experience with over 2,000 companies Assessed, less than 5% are truly ready for IMS. But those who are — the visionaries — will not only implement it successfully, they’ll set the pace for entire industries. The rest will watch from the sidelines, until disruption makes their reluctance irrelevant.
Measure your Innovation capabilities: https://alanzettelmann.com/innovation-assessment/
