Manage Innovation in Support of Sustainable Business Practice
Overview
This standard is about managing innovation to support the development of sustainable business practice. It is about managing the implementation of innovation opportunities relevant to an organisation’s product offering, business processes or business services: improvements that aim to address the social, economic or environmental factors that limit the sustainability of business practice.
The role described by this standard covers the management of innovation programmes within an organisation. The ability to encourage and motivate others to support sustainability thinking as part of innovation is an important part of the standard.
The standard requires the effective management of innovation through the design and application of project management processes. It also requires that metrics are used to measure success. Risk and contingency planning will need to be applied as appropriate to ensure the smooth running of the project.
Finally, it requires that the proposed innovation is presented to decision makers and others.
This standard would be appropriate for:
Those responsible for managing innovation to positively influence business sustainability through improvements to products, services or businesses processes. It is likely to apply to those who work in the field of product and service development.
Performance criteria
You must be able to:
P1 define the scope of the proposed innovation project relevant to functional unit and sustainability drivers
P2 identify the concepts required to support the planned innovation and sustainability drivers
P3 develop the project management processes required to deliver the innovation
P4 identify and obtain the resources required to support planned innovation
P5 implement and maintain development activities to launch planned innovation
P6 encourage and motivate others to support innovation
P7 apply metrics to accurately measure the improvements delivered by innovation
P8 maintain a risk register in support of innovation
P9 apply contingency plans to correct variations from planned innovation
P10 review achieved outcomes at key decision points within the innovation process to determine progress against planned targets
P11 specify and promote the benefits of innovation to stakeholders
Knowledge and Understanding
You need to know and understand:
K1 the legislation, industry standards, circular economy and voluntary codes that support innovation
K2 how the economic, social and environmental principles of sustainability promote and drive innovation
K3 the sustainability issues faced by the industry sector within which the organisation operates
K4 how to manage innovation to influence and support sustainable business practice
K5 how innovation supports the development of sustainable business strategy
K6 functional units and their role in innovation
K7 how to identify and obtain the resources required to support planned innovation
K8 the management requirements of innovation projects
K9 how to launch innovation within organisations
K10 the application of sustainability metrics in measuring the impact of innovation
K11 innovation theory including techniques used to support creativity, modelling, visioning, idea capture, assessment and prioritisation
K12 data analysis techniques and tools that support innovation
K13 how to apply risk registers in support of innovation
K14 key decision points and their role in the review process
K15 contingency planning and how it is used to correct variations from planned innovation
K16 how to encourage and motivate others in support of innovation
K17 stakeholder involvement and its role in generating interest in innovation
K18 how to specify and promote the benefits of innovation
Scope/range
Sustainability drivers include:
1 economic
2 social and ethical
3 environmental
4 customer and stakeholder perception
Resources include:
1 people
2 finance
3 technology
4 knowledge
Improvements in:
1 technology
2 design
3 human/social well-being
4 resource efficiency
5 environmental conservation
6 waste minimisation/elimination
Stakeholders include:
1 decision makers
2 organisational colleagues
3 customers
4 suppliers