Innovation management system fundamentals and ISO 56001 principles
Domain 1 tests the vocabulary and principles that underlie a certifiable innovation management system (IMS). ISO 56000:2020 provides fundamentals and vocabulary; ISO 56001:2024 provides the requirements an organization can be audited against.
Core distinctions
- Innovation is a new or changed entity that realizes or redistributes value. The entity can be a product, service, process, model, method or combination.
- Creativity and invention are inputs or precursors; they become innovation only when value is realized or redistributed.
- An IMS is the set of interrelated elements used to establish innovation policy and objectives and the processes needed to achieve them.
- ISO 56002:2019 is guidance. It explains a framework but is not the certifiable requirements standard.
The eight principles
Realization of value; future-focused leaders; strategic direction; culture; exploiting insights; managing uncertainty; adaptability; systems approach. These principles explain the intent behind ISO 56001 requirements. They are not, by themselves, auditable 'shall' clauses.
Worked example
A firm patents a sensor but never adopts it. Under ISO 56000 vocabulary it has an invention, not yet an innovation, because no value has been realized or redistributed. If the sensor is deployed in the firm's service and cuts downtime, the changed service can qualify as an innovation. The reasoning turns on the value outcome, not on novelty alone.
Traps that cost marks
Treating innovation as synonymous with invention or with product development. Assuming ISO 56002 can be certified. Quoting a principle as a mandatory requirement. Forgetting that value can be non-financial, such as social or environmental value.