Professional Innovation Certification

GInI's Professional Innovation Certification Program involves six unique certifications, each based on a corresponding professional examination. View the descriptions below to determine which of these best matches your education, experience, and professional needs. The six certifications are:

Certified Chief Innovation Officer (CCInO)®

GInI Certified Chief Innovation Officer (CCInO)® is GInI’s recognition of senior business leaders who have demonstrated an advanced understanding of key topics relating to enterprise innovation, innovation strategy, innovation groups, innovation spaces, management and workplace innovation, and other leading innovation practices.

CCInO certification affirms an individual's proficiency at executive-level innovation practices and methods. This includes enterprise innovation programs, the GInI Enterprise Innovation Architecture, innovation strategy formation, the GInI Strategic Innovation Compass, the GInI Strategic Innovation Roadmap, strategic innovation portfolios, management and workplace innovation, the GInI Experiential Human Innovation Framework, innovation group design, innovation space design, outcome-driven innovation, discovery-driven innovation, and innovation maturity.

Become a Strategic Innovation Thinker

You will develop the ability to see innovation as a strategic tool for advancing the relevance, growth, and resilience of your organization. You will furthermore develop the ability to guide your organization strategically in defining and pursuing a specific course for innovation. As part of this, you will be able to examine the many options for an innovation portfolio from which organizations can select options that balance the short, medium, and long-term needs of the organization.

Become the Driving Force for Ever Improving Innovation Capabilities

You will develop an understanding of the different organizational levels of innovation maturity. You will understand how that each of these levels brings with it certain capabilities, and how the CCInO role differs in each case. You will also learn methods for constantly advancing the innovation capabilities of your organization, so that over time it can become capable of leading its markets, as well as defining new markets.

Become a Force for Engagement and Change

You will learn how to engage your entire organization in the pursuit of innovation and how to reap the many paybacks. You will also learn how to incorporate and manage the insights and ideas of your stakeholders in defining the many possible new paths forward, as well as how to deliver on those with the greatest potential impact.

Become a Champion of the Innovation Engine

You will understand how the many pieces of the innovation ecosystem work together to deliver the greatest impact to the business. You will also understand the many tools and methods available for empowering innovation work in the organization. You will learn how to establish and use special teams and innovation spaces to drive very focused and purpose-driven innovation work.

Step 1- Meet the exam eligibility requirements:

To be eligible to register for the CCInO exam, an individual must meet ONE of the following criteria:
1. Hold a CInP Certificate plus a minimum of four years of professional experience.

2. Hold a CInS Certificate plus a minimum of three years of professional experience.

3. A minimum of five years of professional experience with a Master’s degree or higher.

4. A minimum of seven years of professional experience with a Bachelor’s degree.

5. A minimum of ten years of professional experience with less than a Bachelor’s degree.

6. A minimum of two years in a similar C-level role (eg CEO, CTO, CMO, CIO, BU GM, EVP, etc) in an organization similar to where one intends to apply the CCInO certification, regardless of degree.

7. In addition, the individual must show proof of ownership of the GInI Applied Innovation Master Book^®.

Step 2- Apply for and pass the CCInO exam:

The CCInO is a 130-minute exam with 130 multiple-choice questions and a passing score of 65%.

To maintain your CCInO Certification, you must earn 60 Innovation Development Units (IDUs) every three years, or retake the CCInO exam. Detailed information can be found under Maintain Your Certificate