What is the African Innovation League about?  

Innovation is the lifeblood in both the private and public sectors in today’s fast-paced and ever-evolving landscape. It drives growth, creates competitive advantage, and fosters resilience in the face of challenges. Organisations—whether businesses or public institutions—that prioritise innovation, are better equipped to adapt to changing conditions, meet stakeholder and customer expectations, and achieve sustainable success.

Why the Innovation League exists:

The African Innovation League exists to recognise, and reward the heroes of innovation excellence in the country and region. It is designed to inspire and acknowledge top performers while honouring a prestigious network of innovation leaders that play a pivotal role in driving economic growth and job creation across the continent.

The African Innovation League plays a key role in capturing and disseminating not only the data and learnings concerning innovation trends and practices on the continent, but also aims to:

1. Disseminate information and lead the conversation on ISO 56001 and innovation management
2. Distribute local case studies, insights, and collective innovation know-how
3. Share tools and learnings that can support organisations to manage innovation better and
4. Support organisations to achieve better ROI on their innovation investment.

By participating in the Innovation League, both private and public organisations can gain valuable insights into the application of the new ISO 56001 Innovation Management standard, enabling them to stay relevant in an increasingly dynamic and technology-driven environment.

An innovative organisation and country will no doubt be more effective in solving social and societal challenges on the continent and the Innovation League provides the tools and learnings in support of innovation know-how and skills development for organisations. It assists innovators and organisations to not only understand the “what” of effective innovation but also the how – realising an innovation premium for organisations to resiliently build a future filled with promise.

How does it work?

Being part of the Innovation League signals a strong commitment to driving innovation-led growth, improving competitive advantage, and securing industry leadership. It demonstrates that the organisation is not only investing in future-ready solutions but is also actively embracing innovation to achieve measurable results—whether through increased return on investment, enhanced market relevance, or sustainable, long-term success.

The Innovation League instrument (IL-Innovation Maturity Asessment) considers the guidance provided by the ISO/SANS 56000 series of  Innovation Management standards and specifically focuses on the Seven Key Elements of Innovation Capability Building and the Eight Innovation Management Principles, that forms the basis of its departure.

It also investigates the main challenges organisations experience with innovation management, looks at how organisations invest in innovation and identifies the most popular innovation techniques and approaches adopted by the organisations surveyed.

What if we don’t win? We are innovators

An innovative organisation wants to win, second place is not acceptable.

We understand the sentiment. We are building a League of innovative organisations that shows strong commitment to building resilience, driving innovation-led growth, improving competitive advantage and securing industry leadership. This is achieved through building innovation capability and effectively managing innovation. Innovation League participants becomes part of a prestigious network comprising of Africa’s most innovative organisations.

Innovation success is contextual and therefore no one winner or runner up per category is decided. Top performers are celebrated and the reasons for them receiving special mention is given in full. Innovation League participants are allocated member categories and organisations can decide whether they want this information to be public or not.

The Top Performers in every category are celebrated, according to set criteria and each participating organisation will receive a tailored innovation report that aligns with ISO 56001/2 requirements. Additional benefits are available per category. The categories are:

• Associate Innovation League Member: Recognising and celebrating organisation’s innovation journeys. Associate members invest in future-ready solutions and is actively embracing innovation to achieve measurable results—whether through increased return on investment, enhanced market relevance, or sustainable, long-term projects.
• Bronze Member– Innovation Architect: Associated members that have established robust foundations for innovation management and demonstrate consistent progress in building innovation capability. They are effectively executing on their innovation plans and strategies.
• Silver Member– Innovation Strategist: Associated members that have well-defined innovation roadmaps and demonstrate measurable successes and considerable impact. Silver category members are acknowledged for their strategic approach to consistently driving innovation value, and demonstrate innovation capability measurement activities.
• Gold Member – Innovation Master: Associated members that receive the highest accolade in the Innovation League. The Gold category recognises those organisations who exhibit advanced, transformative innovation practices with significant, high-impact results that are rooted in a well-functioning organisational innovation management system. Gold category members excel in advanced innovation capability assessment and development activities.

Why participate at all?

The Innovation League assessment provides a starting point for the organisation to understand and more effectively apply and integrate appropriate systems for managing innovation successfully. It will provide a bird’s eye view of the organisation’s performance against the ISO 56001/2 Innovation Management Standard while the organisation will be entitled to a high-level digital report indicating its innovation score, including recommendations on how to improve it.

It is about innovation capability building and effectively managing innovation according to globally recognised innovation management principles – while becoming part of an elite network of top African innovators.

We only started with innovation at our organisation, surely participating in the Innovation League is premature?

The Innovation League does not produce winners, but recognises top performing members in various categories. There is no way that anyone else will know what your organisation’s results were or which member category you fall in.

It is great opportunity to learn about innovation management and to get independent feedback on what your organisation’s particular innovation strengths and challenges are in relation to the ISO 56000 series of Innovation Management Standards!

Who can participate?

The competition is geared towards large and medium organisations, but any organisation in any industry, whether emerging, small, medium or large can participate.

Are you asking for sensitive or secret information?

No. We understand that your innovation programme is geared to create differentiating value in the market. The questions we ask are all about how you manage innovation. We will never expect you to share any sensitive information about your organisation or your innovation programme. All information is kept strictly confidential.

What instrument do you use for the assessment?

Innocentrix have aligned the questionnaire used for the Innovation League with the ISO 56001/2 Innovation Management Framework and series of Innovation Management standards. It is called the IL IMA (Innovation League – Innovation Maturity Assessment). This means that your high-level feedback report will give you a world-best practise view of where your organisation’s innovation management gaps are and what you can do better.

ISO 56001 is not applicable to us.

The new Innovation Management standards are aimed at providing guidance on how to manage innovation better and benchmark related activities. It is designed to support innovation in organisations regardless of origin, type or size. It supports market, cultural and organisational benefits and will be beneficial knowledge for your organisation. In an increasing complex and dynamic business environment, knowledge on how to better manage innovation activities and increase returns on your innovation investment, are always helpful.

We are new at this. Can you help us to complete the survey?

We would be delighted to! If you need any assistance and would like to schedule a call for us to explain, or to work with you through the questions please contact Henra on henra@innocentrix.co.za. There will be no charge for receiving guidance.

How do you choose the winners?

No winners are announced. Upon completion of the questionnaire answers are scored according to a grading scale. This grading scale indicates a membership category for an organisation, including possible additional requirements. Top performing candidates are then announced and invited to a panel interview for adjudication. During the League Awards Event, top performers are celebrated.

How long does the survey take to complete?

The League Survey consists of 50 questions. It does not require you to provide any comprehensive organisational information. It should take you no longer than 30 minutes to complete and you most probably will be able to do it in one sitting.

What do you do with the data?

Innocentrix aspire to impact growth and innovation management capability building on the continent and to play a key role in capturing and disseminating learnings concerning innovation trends and practises, and to  distribute local case studies, insights, and collective innovation know-how. We also share the main findings in the Innovation League Report that is available for free. You can download it from our website.

Who can I contact for more information?

You can write an email to info@innocentrix.co.za or call (+27) (0) 82 323 7447. We would be delighted to assist you.