There is no currency in ideas

I am frequently approached by people looking for assistance who open up the dialogue with something akin to "I have a great idea".

This is often followed up with puzzlement about how on earth they are going to share the idea with me because they fear that by 'exposing' the idea they risk having it stolen (presumably by me!!??).

Their fears are generally groundless because the only things worth stealing are those that have value and an idea alone very rarely has value.

Some, thinking themselves more savvy, rapidly come to the conclusion that they need a NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) executed before the big reveal.

It may be that deep down I harbour a degree of affront at these sorts of approaches. Essentially they are coming to me to ask for help. They need something. They believe I have something of value (knowledge; contacts; experience; a point of view; money) that they want. By taking this path they are essentially devaluing my expected contribution and overvaluing theirs and they are also basically saying they don't trust me. Not a great way to start any sort of relationship - commercial or otherwise.

But this is not the real issue here.

In my experience cloaking an idea in a shroud of secrecy is a sure-fire way to kill it.

I have rather provocatively said ideas alone have little value. Let me elaborate. I am not saying ideas are unimportant. I love ideas. I am inspired by many of them; I rapidly become enthusiastic about new ideas - some would say I do so too rapidly; they are an essential part of the process of innovation and invention.

So, I love ideas. But I live in a commercial world and my creativity is channelled into building businesses. There are myriad examples of fabulous ideas which are never turned into a commercial success and equally there are great businesses built from pretty mediocre ideas.

Too many ideas are orphans. At ?What If! Innovation they had an innovation equation - Insight + Ideas + Impact = Innovation. The 'parents' of ideas are 'insight' and 'impact'. Insight means customer insight. Ideas need to be well founded on the back of some insight about customer behaviour - often this is an unmet need. But, in my view, the power lifter in this family is 'impact'. I read 'impact' as 'execution'. Powerful businesses spring from effective execution - making things happen; getting things right; focusing on the detail.

If the world's best idea fell at my feet I would be pretty ho-hum about it. If the idea fell at my feet with a fully-worked business plan, a ton of customer insight work, and a cheque for the seed capital, I would start thinking something valuable had arrived. If the package came with proven, cracker-jack team who had worked together in the past and delivered success all my Christmases have come at once.

An idea is a starting point - it is what you do with it that creates value.

In “Innovate 2008: Is the Tide Turning?”, a recent report on innovation released by Boston Consulting Group, they noted:

“It is worth pointing out that only 20 percent of companies considered a shortage of great ideas to be the problem… Most companies, in fact, have an abundance of good, even great ideas. But having ideas and turning those ideas into cash are two entirely different things. Innovation is often equated with the former, when in reality it’s all about the latter.”

There is also a misconception that an idea has to be novel to be valuable for businesses. A new invention must obviously be based on a novel idea. But a successful new business (or the revamp of an existing one) doesn't need a new idea. It just needs an idea which is well executed.

The nudie product concept wasn't new. Nor were some of the elements of the brand. Many others had come before in the US and the UK - the likes of Fresh Samantha, Hansens, Odwalla, Pete & Johnnies and Innocent, to name but a few. The fact is that I took that idea and triumphed in the execution to create a $20m a year business.

My view is that value is created when you breathe life into an idea which is grounded in solid insight. People too frequently come to me with an idea believing it already has value and that leads to the secret squirrel stuff.

I can't count the number of times I have seen a potential idea choked to death when it is held too tight by its creator.

I have ideas all of the time. Occasionally they are pretty good ones. I am also an extremely open person. I love to share my ideas with as many people as I can because by doing so they either are exposed for the frauds they are, or are amplified into something really special by the input from others. In all the years of I have been openly sharing ideas none (to my knowledge) has ever been 'stolen'. It doesn't surprise me. I am not without guile and I openly share my ideas knowing the vast majority of people I talk to can't, or couldn't be bothered, bringing them to life through effective execution.

I can.

So by sharing my ideas I get input which builds and develops them - ?What If! would call it "greenhousing" - and then I can decide whether I am going to go down the path of implementing them.

NDA's are fabulous (perhaps) for protecting corporate information which is not in the public domain. They are not designed as some sort of intellectual property protection for an idea. If you are an individual or would-be-entrepreneur thinking about a start-up, my advice, unless you have novel intellectual property, is generally speaking don't bother with them. It will only slow you down.

This is mirrored by a widespread fear that small businesses or sole traders have in dealings with 'big business' along the lines of - 'they will steal my idea'. Believe me, 9 times out of 10, the big business will have seen the idea half a dozen times before. They still can't make it happen or they would have before you reach them.

The power of small business, and particularly entrepreneurial start-ups, is in making things happen. There is no need to be precious about ideas or waste time with meaningless NDA's.