By Pablo Wahnon @Forbes.
Original article in Spanish: https://www.forbesargentina.com/innovacion/el-futuro-innovacion-sera-estructurado-medible-escalable-partir-lanzamiento-norma-iso-56001-n63194
The rapid global development of business demands that companies become increasingly competitive. Innovation has become an indispensable requirement, far from being a passing trend or an executive’s whim. However, while many organizations claim to be innovating, the reality is that few do so effectively. Incorporating innovation into the corporate culture is essential to add continuous and sustainable value.
In this context, the official launch of the ISO 56001 innovation management standard introduces a new global framework designed to enhance how companies manage and scale innovation. This standard aims to establish innovation as a vital component of competitiveness and sustainability in today’s business landscape.
At an event organized by the University of the Pacific, which brought together 58 innovation experts from over 36 countries, key figures discussed the importance of having a standard to guide innovation. Johan Claire, president of the ISO TC 279 technical committee specializing in Innovation Management, explained that ISO 56001 does not seek to regulate or standardize innovation, but rather to provide a framework that supports the development of capabilities and the professionalization of innovation management in organizations globally.
“There is nothing that regulates innovation. ISO 56001 is more of a framework to support the development of capabilities and the professionalization of innovation management within all organizations worldwide,” Claire stated. The world needs all companies to take innovation seriously to address the numerous challenges of our time. However, the availability of this standard does not imply that there is only one way to innovate. The main challenge, according to Claire, “is to avoid misunderstandings and not to believe that ISO 56001 will standardize innovation.” What it provides is “an innovation management system and a framework for any organization to implement the necessary activities to foster its development.”
For Latin American companies, the ISO 56001 standard opens a significant opportunity to expand their offerings both locally and internationally. Most are already accustomed to other management system standards like ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. By incorporating ISO 56001, they will not only improve their performance but also “share a common language and increase their capacity to benchmark and collaborate. Innovation does not arise by chance or by following a single process but is the result of the successful implementation of activities and processes systematically,” Claire assured.
Organizations often work in silos, with uncoordinated teams, which undermines the value of alignment, collaboration, and communication. “In a large corporate group, standards allow the organization to collaborate among various independent innovation and R&D teams; collaborations that would otherwise be difficult due to different approaches, terminologies, governance, and processes. In this sense, an innovation standard will dissolve and reduce the silo mentality and activities,” said Mikael Rönnholm, Director of Emerging Technologies at Volvo.
Once an innovation project is approached in this way, positive impacts become self-reinforcing. “It also achieves greater speed—operational excellence—in R&D through standardized processes for ideation, prototyping, testing, and verification.” All this arises not because innovation is standardized—which always breaks the status quo—but because the processes that allow it to emerge are standardized. “As we can group ideas from separate ideas executed by different teams in different organizational units, there is greater transparency and a culture of innovation among organizations,” Rönnholm assured.
A Strategic Tool for Long-Term Success
The first contributions was from the Argentinian, Alan Zettelmann, CEO of INNOCONSULT and author of Commanding Innovation, a book recently launched on Amazon that gathers his experiences in Dubai. Zettelmann provided a visionary roadmap on how to incorporate innovation into the corporate DNA through advanced innovation management and artificial intelligence.
“Innovation management is no longer an ad-hoc effort but a strategic imperative. ISO 56001 offers a comprehensive framework to manage, measure, and improve innovation processes with precision, making it as integral to business operations as ISO 9001 (quality management) and ISO 14001 (environmental management),” Zettelmann highlighted.
The author introduced the concept of “Innovation Quotient,” emphasizing that innovation must be deeply integrated into corporate strategy and not just be a compliance requirement with ISO 56001 and 56004. He noted that companies with a cohesive strategy aligning aspirations with execution tend to grow 10% faster and achieve 22% better results than their competitors.
“Innovation must be part of the corporate DNA. Companies now have the opportunity to get behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car, but their employees still need to graduate from go-kart school,” Zettelmann joked, underscoring the need for proper training to harness the power of innovation without unnecessary risks.
Within an agenda for 2030 that some organizations are already designing, ISO 56001 positions itself as a gold standard for innovation management, offering companies a critical tool to navigate the challenges of the digital era. Companies that adopt ISO 56001 will be better equipped to manage innovation systematically, improve decision-making, and secure a competitive advantage. “The future of innovation is structured, measurable, and scalable, and ISO 56001 is the key to unlocking it,” Alan Zettelmann asserted emphatically.
An Innovative Mindset
Fostering a culture of innovation starts from the top. Leaders play a fundamental role in achieving an innovative mindset in their teams because they are responsible for inspiring, training, and providing the space for their collaborators to start thinking differently. “This implies that they can generate spaces where making mistakes is not seen as a failure but as part of the process and an opportunity to learn; that they motivate curiosity and creativity and foster environments where collaboration, calculated risk, and experimentation are part of daily life. It’s not just about having ‘crazy ideas’ but giving space for those ideas to develop without fear of making mistakes,” Zettelmann pointed out.
Innovation begins and ends with culture, which, within organizations, is fostered by leaders. If leaders do not understand the basic principles of innovation, they cannot foster a culture of innovation. They must understand that different perspectives on innovation—or innovation horizons—need different operating models and that operating models cannot be mixed. “It is naive to believe that executives of current-generation companies are the best to decide on future-generation business innovations, as they may challenge existing business and power structures and, therefore, may threaten the position and power of existing company owners. If they truly wish to foster a culture of innovation, they must separate the leaders who decide on their future growth from those who generate current growth. That decision in itself will foster a culture of innovation,” Rönnholm concluded.
In a world increasingly complex and competitive, the adoption of standards like ISO 56001 may be the impetus organizations need to integrate innovation effectively and sustainably into their corporate DNA.
Read the full article Forbes: https://www.forbesargentina.com/innovacion/el-futuro-innovacion-sera-estructurado-medible-escalable-partir-lanzamiento-norma-iso-56001-n63194
