School-based management (SBM) remains a "hot topic" in educational circles. This article explores the reality of SBM internationally. It focusses on the perceptions of selected Australian public secondary principals who reflect on the drivers and impediments affecting their capacity to lead school-based innovation. While broadly supportive of SBM, the participants indicated that authority to make effective local decisions was ambiguous and inhibiting in the face of the managing system's policies, procedures, and supervisory processes.