The Institute of Innovation Management (IIM) aims to raise global standards in innovation practice – it has spun out from work by the BSI which supported the development and launch of the ISO Innovation Management Standard 56001.
The standard was launched at a BSI Innovation Day in 2024 and this started momentum for the institute.
We have been following the development of the Innovation Management Standard and the IIM, below is some background.
Victoria Milne Founding Director of Institute of Innovation Management
Victoria Milne, is the Founding Director of the Institute of Innovation Management, she heads up the UK’s Delegation to ISO TC 279 and has actively shaped the ISO 56000 family of standards.
She comments: “Innovation matters now more than ever, yet the profession has historically lacked a common language, recognised standards, and a clear pathway for capability development.
“The IIM has been created to address this gap. We will build a community that equips innovation leaders with the tools, evidence, and professionalism needed to deliver real outcomes.”
IIM has announced (Dec 2025) founding partners including: Wazoku, developers of the Expected Value (xV) methodology; energy company e-on, and magnetic, a design consultancy.
Institute of Innovation Management follows launch of new Innovation Management Standard
Victoria Milne, Founder, Verity Merit was joined by Jon Rains, Director of Innovation Management, Mott McDonald, Jennet Holmes, Head of Innovation, Velindre University NHS Trust
and Steve Armitage, Head of Technology Design & Innovation, Heathrow, for the launch of the new Innovation Management Standard.
Eight principles of Innovation Management
The purpose of an innovation management system is to increase an organisation’s ability to realise value under conditions of uncertainty. It aims to provide a tailored, systematic approach that can be reviewed and improved.
It provides a framework based on eight principles: Managing uncertainty, Realisation of value, Systems approach, Future focused leaders, Strategic direction, Adaptability, Exploiting insights, Culture.
Victoria Milne, founder of Verity Merit and Joanne Hyland, President of the rInnovation Group discussed the framework.
ISO 56001 – Mott MacDonald share best practice
Jon Rains, Group Innovation Manager at Mott MacDonald was one of the first to introduce an Innovation Management System. The company is multi-national and innovates for its clients, this means that it can easily ‘re-invent the wheel’ as different teams are not aware of solutions created internally or re-explore deadends as previous learnings of failure were not shared.
The Innovation Framework was used to design an innovation portal for capturing ideas and their progress. To celebrate failure, it includes options to progress or park an idea in a ‘siding’ and the process is based on the ‘double diamond’ approach for divergent and convergent thinking. There are over 1,000 ideas being developed in the portal. These are categorised to make them easy to search and share. The portal is designed to support collaborative working, with tools to help craft the idea more successfully and stimulate thinking.
Case-study: Driving an innovation culture at Velindre University NHS Trust
Velindre University NHS Trust implemented the ISO 56001 Innovation Management System to drive an innovation culture and enhance service delivery.
Jennet Holmes, Head of Innovation at the Trust, who previously worked with ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 standards, stumbled upon the ISO 56000 series while conducting research for an innovation project. She talked about her experiences at the launch of the standard.
Case-study: Innovation management within a highly regulated environment
Steve Armitage, Head of Innovation and Intelligent Automation at Heathrow Airport, said that prior to the 2020 pandemic the organisation had ambitious plans for its innovation strategy, but through necessity this has become one team focused on short-term needs.
Now he was revisiting innovation management and said the ISO standard offered a structured approach to identifying the opportunity, creating concepts, and validating them.
More information Innovation Leadership.
The Institute of Innovation Management theiim.org
The IIM is an independent, practitioner-led institute dedicated to professionalising innovation management through accreditation, a peer-reviewed body of knowledge and CPD/training. Built on the foundations of ISO 56001, IIM advances responsible innovation outcomes and national productivity by developing people, practice and systems.
