The organization should determine and provide in a timely manner the resources needed for the establishment, implementation, maintenance, and continual improvement of the innovation management system.

The organization should consider:

a) a proactive, transparent, flexible, and adaptable approach for providing resources;

b) the capabilities of, and limitations on, existing internal support;

c) what needs to be obtained from external providers, e.g. by outsourcing or partnering;

d) internal and external collaboration, e.g. sharing or re-use, to optimize the use of resources;

e) securing resources for innovation activities separated from other activities;

f) the long-term build-up of capabilities for innovation activities.

The organization should determine, provide, and manage the people necessary for the effective implementation of its innovation management system.

The organization should consider:

a) the need to attract, recruit, and retain people;

b) forming teams with a diversity and mix of people including different disciplines, personal attributes, and backgrounds to encourage cross-pollination that can result in unexpected positive outcomes;

c) establishing appropriate incentives, including non-financial incentives, e.g. rewards and recognition;

d) protecting innovators given the potential higher degree of risk of innovation activities;

e) establishing and communicating the terms and conditions for the ownership of ideas, handling of patents and exploitation of innovations, which can be subject to different national laws, regulations, and other agreements.

The organization should establish an approach for the management of time for the effective implementation of its innovation management system.

The organization should consider allocating time:

a) generally, for innovation activities and training in a balanced way, e.g. as a percentage of overall working time;

b) specifically, to each innovation initiative and for the different innovation processes;

c) for dedicated and other relevant roles in the organization, using allowances as appropriate.

The organization should establish an approach for the management of knowledge for the effective implementation of its innovation management system.

The organization should consider:

a) capturing internal and external knowledge, tacit or explicit, gained from intelligence and experience, e.g. understanding the context of the organization, lessons learned from success and failure of innovation initiatives and from analysis of performance data;

b) facilitating knowledge access and re-use to avoid the loss of, or duplication, of existing knowledge;

c) maintaining an appropriate mechanism for information analysis and for managing existing and future knowledge, e.g. directories of people's areas of expertise and interests, or resource planning data;

d) the level and means of confidentiality and protection of intellectual assets;

e) ethical issues related to the use of knowledge;

f) prioritizing external knowledge sources by, e.g. reliability, accessibility, and cost.

Knowledge can be individual or collective, tacit, or explicit. Collective knowledge is gained from people collaborating, codifying, and sharing their tacit and implicit knowledge.

External knowledge sources can be users, customers, partners, providers, competitors, consultants, databases, expert networks, conferences, standards, academia, etc.

The organization should determine and provide financial resources for the effective implementation of its innovation management system.

The organization should consider:

a) the financial opportunities, risks, and constraints associated with innovation activities, including the financial implications and other risks, of not innovating;

b) establishing funding principles, e.g. central financial resources versus funding through local or operational budgets;

c) allocating dedicated financial resources for innovation activities, e.g. as a percentage of annual budget or designating funds for innovation initiatives by top management;

d) identifying and accessing relevant financial resources outside the organization, e.g. from private and public investors, research agencies, partners, co-sponsors, innovation grants, tax credits for research and development, or crowdsourcing;

e) establishing investment principles, e.g. investing in internal versus external activities, investing in start-ups, corporate venture capital, or innovation accelerators;

f) the balance of funding across different time horizons, different degrees of risk, and different types of innovations, e.g. incremental innovation or radical innovation;

g) ensuring the funding of other relevant resources and support, e.g. people, time, infrastructure, or competence;

h) ensuring that the funding approach covers all activities needed.

7.1.6.1 The organization should determine, provide, and maintain the necessary physical and virtual infrastructure for the effective implementation of its innovation management system.

The organization should consider:

a) infrastructure to support and facilitate the innovation management system and its processes;

b) separation versus sharing of infrastructure, when appropriate, considering factors such as flexibility, cost effectiveness, and coordination benefits;

c) what infrastructure needs to be obtained from external relevant interested parties, including users and customers, e.g. by outsourcing or partnering;

d) pro-actively evaluate and consider advances in infrastructures, including new technologies, tools and methods, and statutory and regulatory requirements.

7.1.6.2 Infrastructure to support innovation activities can include:

a) buildings, facilities, and associated utilities, e.g. creative environments, research and development labs, maker spaces, simulation labs, or living labs;

b) research and simulation equipment, physical tools, other hardware, software, methods, advanced technologies, and models;

c) transportation resources;

d) information and communication technology, e.g. for the management of collaboration, ideas, portfolios, insights, talent, projects, or programs, etc;

e) networks, e.g. knowledge networks, or market networks.

The organization should establish an approach for the development and management of competencies.

7.2.1 The organization should:

a) determine the necessary competence of persons doing work under its control that affects the performance, effectiveness, and efficiency of the innovation management system;

b) ensure that these persons are competent on the basis of appropriate education, training, or experience;

c) establish an inventory of existing competencies of the organization and identify gaps;

d) where applicable, take actions to acquire and continuously evaluate, improve, and renew the necessary competence, and evaluate the effectiveness of the actions taken;

e) consider the need for outsourced competence, e.g. collaborating with or commissioning academia, consultants, external partners, innovation support services, or online resources to assist with innovation activities;

f) establish the necessary connections and collaborations between people with different competencies to leverage the collective competence of the organization;

g) consider the need for aligning internal competencies with relevant external interested parties to achieve a common understanding and a convergence of vocabulary, attitudes, and approaches;

h) retain appropriate documented information as evidence of competence.

7.2.2 Competencies can include the ability to:

a) manage innovation activities, e.g. in terms of leadership, change management, resource allocation, engage and empower people, team facilitation, involvement, collaboration, foster a culture supporting innovation activities, manage uncertainty, conduct research and manage intellectual property;

b) identify insights and opportunities, using e.g. market and technology analysis, bottleneck and gap analysis, ethnography, data-driven experimentation and hypothesis testing, design thinking, scenario planning, analytics, and big data;

c) create ideas and concepts, e.g. creativity and provocative techniques, critical thinking, discovery skills (association, questioning, observing, experimenting, and networking), technical know-how,

market analysis, business case writing, and value realization modelling that includes generating user-value equations;

d) develop and validate concepts, e.g. iterative learning techniques, design, testing and validation, value realization planning, and project management;

e) develop and deploy solutions to realize value.

NOTE Applicable actions can include, for example, the provision of training to, the mentoring of, or the re-assignment of currently employed persons; or the hiring or contracting of competent persons or organizations.

The organization should ensure that all relevant persons doing work under the organization’s control are aware of:

a) the innovation vision, strategy, policy, and objectives;

b) the meaning and importance of innovation for the organization;

c) their contribution to the effectiveness and efficiency of the innovation management system, including the benefits of improved innovation performance;

d) the implications of not meeting the innovation management system guidance;

e) the availability of support for innovation activities.

The organization should determine the internal and external communications relevant to the innovation management system, including:

a) on what it will communicate;

b) why to communicate;

c) when to communicate;

d) with whom to communicate;

e) how to communicate;

f) who communicates.

Communication can be done to create awareness, increase people engagement, prepare for action, establish thought leadership, influencing, build brand value, etc.

Communication can be internal, e.g. team meetings, notice boards, intranets, newsletters, games, magazines, staff conferences and training as well as external, e.g. web sites, annual reports, corporate literature, white papers, briefings to financial institutions, users, customers, partners, providers and other relevant interested parties, advertising, press releases, trade shows, and professional conferences.

The organization's innovation management system should include:

a) documented information suggested by this document;

b) documented information determined by the organization as being necessary for the effectiveness of the innovation management system.

NOTE The extent of documented information for an innovation management system can differ from one organization to another due to:

1) the size of organization and its type of activities, processes, products, and services;

2) the complexity of processes and their interactions;

3) the competence of persons.

When creating and updating documented information, the organization should ensure appropriate:

a) identification and description, e.g. a title, date, version, author, or reference number;

b) format, e.g. language, software version, graphics, and media, e.g. paper or electronic;

c) review and approval for suitability and adequacy.

Documented information required by the innovation management system should be controlled to ensure:

a) it is available and suitable for use, where and when it is needed;

b) it is adequately protected, e.g. from loss of confidentiality, improper use, or loss of integrity.

For the control of documented information, the organization should address the following activities, as applicable:

1) distribution, access, level of confidentiality, retrieval, and use;

2) storage and preservation, including preservation of legibility;

3) control of changes, e.g. version control;

4) retention and disposition.

Documented information of external origin determined by the organization to be necessary for the planning and operation of the innovation management system should be identified, as appropriate, and controlled.

NOTE Access can imply a decision regarding the permission to view the documented information only, or the permission and authority to view and change the documented information.

The organization should determine, provide, and maintain the necessary tools and methods for developing, maintaining, and improving the innovation management system.

The organization should consider:

a) selecting and providing a mix of appropriate tools and methods supporting innovation activities, as well as for different types of innovations activities;

b) creating awareness of, ensuring access to, and providing training for, the available tools and methods;

c) sharing, re-use and collaboration in the use of tools and methods.

Tools and methods can be of different types, including descriptive, provocative, participative, challenging, analytical, and communicative. They can take many forms and formats, including guides, instructions, games, templates, presentations, videos, software, and hardware.

Examples of tools and methods are back casting, ethnographic research, scenario planning, brainstorming, idea management, inclusive design, and business model templates.

The organization should establish an approach for the management of strategic intelligence.

The organization should consider:

a) the need to acquire intelligence from internal and external sources;

b) the need to collaborate with relevant interested parties;

c) the use of tools and methods, e.g. data mining, analytics, prediction markets, environmental scanning, and technology surveillance;

d) different perspectives, e.g. present and future, internal and external, demand and supply, providers and users, competitors, and related to new or changed products, services, processes, models, and methods;

e) the need for developing influencing activities to increase acceptance of innovations, e.g. evolution of regulatory requirements, standards, and innovation ecosystems.

Strategic intelligence can include activities to acquire, collect, interpret, analyse, evaluate, apply, and deliver to, or share between, decision-makers and other relevant interested parties, the necessary data, information, and knowledge.

The organization should establish an approach for the management of intellectual property aligned with, and supporting, the innovation strategy.

The organization should consider:

a) defining what intellectual property assets are to be, and not to be, protected and when, how, and where it will be protected, e.g. patent, copyrights, trademark, trade secrets, creative commons licensing, and open source licensing;

b) the rationale for creating, protecting, and utilizing intellectual property, e.g. value realization, obtain freedom to operate, and defend against infringement;

c) the rationale for not protecting intellectual property, e.g. confidentiality, cost, speed, and risks;

d) establishing and maintaining an inventory of the organization's intellectual assets;

e) regularly monitoring and analysing disclosed intellectual property that is relevant for the organization, as input to innovation activities, to ensure freedom to operate, as well as to avoid potential infringement;

f) the need for managing intellectual property, including establishing the appropriate processes, clarifying ownership in relation to external partners, e.g. in collaborative innovation initiatives, including clarification of the sharing of intellectual property in the idea generation phases;

g) how to realize value from intellectual property, e.g. through licensing, cross-licensing, sale, and collaborative partnerships;

h) establishing awareness and providing training in the organization about the approach, including ownership and confidentiality related to intellectual property, as well as the consequences of potential infringement of third-party intellectual property, e.g. licensing and litigation costs;

i) ensuring access or restriction to intellectual property to persons, internally and externally, when necessary for their work, e.g. through confidentiality agreements, procedures, and policies;

j) how to manage infringements, potential and actual, from other parties;

k) monitoring the development and differences of relevant national legislations and other internationally applicable legal requirements and compliance commitments.

Intellectual property can include inventions, technologies, literary, scientific or artistic work, symbols, designs, methodologies, names or images, software, data, and know-how.

Intellectual property can be used to achieve objectives such as brand building, differentiation and positioning of offerings, customer loyalty, research and development, revenue generation, etc.