How can ISO 56007 help you finetune your innovation processes?

Raphael H. Cohen, Swiss professor, lecturer and business advisor, was the featured presenter of the webinar, which drew in about 25 attendees and lasted 90 minutes. The standard ISO 56007:2023 Innovation Management is not linked to any certification, and there are no obligations associated with it when using or following it. It is simply a guidance.

The presentation focused on a specific part of the standard, the section 6.4 “validation of innovation concepts”—mainly on the point that when deciding whether to enter into a project, addressing the unknowns is key. These unknowns will be identified by following a certain process consisting of a set of key questions to be answered. Identifying, listing, cataloguing, evaluating and, of course, reducing unknowns are essential for decision-making. In my view, two of Mr. Cohen’s statements were most interesting: 

• At the point of decision-making, the ones who decide should be very clear: How many unknowns are there at the point of decision-making
• Unknown is different from risk. Both unknown and risk analysis are necessary for decision-making. 

It is also important that decision-makers are very clear about the criteria for or against a project start. These criteria must be standard for all project decisions and made transparent to all who submit project ideas/concepts for evaluation.  Mr. Cohen mentioned a software tool to support project analysis in this early stage: IpOp. According to Wikipedia, he developed the underlying model to the software, which is fully compatible with the contents of ISO 56007. 

Wikipedia states that Cohen created the IpOp Model¹ as a roadmap for the pre-project/ideation stage of opportunity or project analysis.  The model is meant to help an innovator analyse and mature their idea to produce an opportunity case or a business plan to convince themselves as well as decision-makers, such as investors or management, of the merits of the opportunity.    It has been used by a number of companies for innovative projects, including Nestlé, Oracle, Bühler, SICPA and the French Post. 

EIRMA has made the presentation slide deck available to Afera Members here.
For more information, visit www.eirma.org. 

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1.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael_H._Cohen#cite_note-22
2.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael_H._Cohen#cite_note-23
3.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael_H._Cohen#cite_note-24
4.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael_H._Cohen#cite_note-25
5.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael_H._Cohen#cite_note-26