Eureka moments for SMEs must be sustainable and consistent
The ISO 56000 Series provides all businesses with a state-ofthe-art innovation playbook and set of practical support tools and methods – developed by global experts – to provide useful innovation management guidance to help you to successfully build and g
Managing innovation with the new ISO 56000 Series
Can smaller businesses put a framework in place to ensure that their ‘Eureka’ moments are not rare and isolated events, but are sustainable and consistent? If you manage an Irish SME or startup with ambitions to scale your business, then innovation management needs to be on your radar.
When adopted, international Standards can act as a credible and trusted foundation on which to develop and scale your business, and to successfully access competitive global markets.
The systematic management of innovation activities is key to sustained competitiveness, productivity and growth. The ideas and innovations stemming from using these Standards can make your business stand out in the European and global markets in which we operate. NSAI works with SMEs to identify what Standards are applicable to their technology, product or service and show them how to implement them.
ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, produces Standards on Innovation Management that contain the distilled knowledge of leading international businesses and innovation experts, and they are available to you through NSAI. that can be adapted across any sector regardless of the size of your business.
The Standards series is the result of years of work from national Standards bodies and innovation experts from around the world, including NSAI. It focuses on the system companies can put in place as a driver of improved and consistent innovation performance in their business.
Participation in the Standards development process allows SMEs to have a direct say on Irish, European and international Standards being developed that shape the market in which they operate. NSAI’s vision, in line with government policy, is that Irish SMEs become Global Innovation Leaders – ahead of the curve, setting and using international Standards – resulting in enhanced innovation, productivity and growth across our SME enterprise base.
As a starting point for the ISO 56000 series, this document defines a consistent vocabulary used in innovation management. It also explains the core principles behind innovation, establishing a coherent, consistent framework for effectively understanding, supporting and facilitating innovation in a business.
This standard provides guidance for the establishment, implementation, maintenance and continual improvement of an innovation management system for use in all organisations, including SMEs. The guidance is generic, meaning it is applicable to all types of organisations and all types of innovations – for example, a product, service, process, business model and organisation – ranging from incremental to radical innovations.
ISO 56003 provides recommendations for engaging in external partnerships to realise innovation. It describes the global gold standard for innovation partnership frameworks, and equips the user with tools to select, evaluate and manage lucrative partnerships.
Due to be released in 2023, ISO 56006 aims to provide guidance to leadership teams on how to implement strategic intelligence when it comes to decisions impacting the vision, mission and innovation activities within the organisation. Strategic intelligence plays a key role in helping organisations to define their strategy, supports risk reduction and as a result enables growth, regardless of the external environment.
Ideas are fundamental to innovation and have the ability to make incremental and/or breakthrough improvements to the efficiency of an organisation. ISO 56007 will provide guidelines for the management of ideas, the people who have them and the benefits they bring. The standard is due to be published in 2022.