Enterprises that do not embrace innovation management limit their ability to stay ahead of their competition. Innovation can relate to products, services, processes, tools and technologies, management methods, and business models. Drivers of productivity and competitiveness are shifting from efficiency and quality to innovation and entrepreneurship due to the advent of digital technologies. Furthermore, with rapidly shortening product life cycles, proactively encouraging, achieving, and managing innovation have become indispensable steps for sustained productivity enhancement.

To introduce innovation management principles, concepts, and the requirements of the ISO 56000 set of standards for implementation, a training course on Innovation Management Standards for Enterprises was organized by the VNPI and the APO Secretariat, 11–14 October. The ISO 56000 series provides definitions, references, and a baseline related to innovation management for the benefit of enterprises, organizations, and public-sector agencies.

The training course comprised presentations delivered by resource persons from India, Pakistan, and Vietnam; facilitated group work; and a virtual site visit to a local manufacturer. Thirty-six participants from 14 APO members then worked in groups to analyze and discuss how to overcome context-specific innovation management challenges with their newly acquired knowledge.