Ideas FAQ

If nothing changes then nothing improves.

All improvement, and all innovation, starts with an idea. If you want to improve anything then you need a good idea!

People often ask how does Acro Logic generate its ideas?

Acro Logic generates ideas based on a broad knowledge and understanding of creativity, innovation, business, science, technology, education and the environment. It complements that with specific, detailed, technical research. This knowledge and understanding represents one of the inputs into the creativity process. The effectiveness of this process is ensured through a combination of years of skill, an extensive range of widely proven techniques and tools, and a unique portfolio of proprietary tools and techniques. It is this set of modern tools and techniques that gives Acro Logic a very unique and significant advantage in the ideas generation process. The details of this are a closely guarded trade secret.

How can Acro Logic provide better ideas than the experts in their own field?

Acro Logic provides innovative ideas for anyone, even experts in very specialised fields - such as scientists. Many people, including those experts, are often initially sceptical that these services can generate ideas that they themselves have not considered already. Well the answer to this is that they are both right and wrong. Yes it is true that the expert has a far greater knowledge and understanding in their field of expertise than does Acro Logic. However, they are wrong in their assumption that a detailed knowledge and understanding is all that is required for generating great ideas. An expert is very focused, and knows almost everything that is currently known about a very specific field. The point is that they probably lack the skills, techniques and tools for effective ideas generation. Their thinking is focused on their expertise and not on the ideas generation process. They are too focused, and to use the extremely over done phrase, they do not really think outside the box. The expert can generate lots of relevant ideas, but the number of radical breakthrough ideas is often very limited.

It is here where Acro Logic can help the expert by considering many alternative perspectives. The really new, major breakthrough, ideas may be generated directly by these services; or the set of ideas may stimulate some creative thinking in the expert, which then leads to a major breakthrough. These services can be thought of as an innovation catalyst that speeds up the innovative output of the expert.

Why did the chicken cross the road? I have no idea, but I know a service that does: Ideas from Acro Logic.

What topics do you generate ideas for?

Acro Logic specialises in ideas generation, in many topics. Specialist topics include science, technology, business, education and the environment. Your area of interest is welcome too. Clients with an open mind and a genuine interest in innovation are most welcome.

For example, in the last three months [up to Nov 2004] a total of 121 ideas were generated in a range of topics:

• Education and business
• Smart materials technology
• Advanced car headlights
• New technologies for charging batteries from renewable sources
• Simple and technological solutions to prevent credit card fraud (for the banks).

Of these ideas, 9 percent were elaborated Type 3 ideas and the rest were Type 1 ideas.

Who benefits from this?

Inventors, scientists, innovators, business people, entrepreneurs, educators & trainers . . . and for fun . . . presenters, artists, magicians, (science) fiction writers, sci-fi film producers, . . .

For example, the Innovation Engine currently has requests pending for finding solutions to a diverse range of short, medium and long term technical challenges:

Faster and more efficient battery charging from wind power [For Sale] New concepts in battery technology to: Remove "memory" problems, and Increase energy storage density Improving a fun food product New concepts for secure operating systems Knowledge application tools Innovative medicine and curing carcinogenic diseases Climate change regulation and tapping renewable energy at a global level Science precursors (where to explore next)

Which ideas service should I use?

Acro Logic provides an ideas service for every aspect of creativity and innovation. These include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Initial ideas for the creation of a new concept
• Elaboration and evaluation of existing ideas, or of those initial ideas above
• Extra ideas to support the innovation and development process
• Improvement ideas for a better product or service

Thank you for your question: How much are your ideas? What precicely do I get if I purchase an idea?

You can buy a set of Type 1 ideas for a fixed price or you can try and get them at a cheaper price by bidding in the Genesis Time Auction.

For this you will get a set of Type 1 ideas which typically includes about 50 to 60 ideas, depending on the specific nature of your request. The ideas are generated to address your specific request and typically include a mixture of ideas from standard to innovative to very innovative! These ideas will look at your request from many different perspectives, and by doing so will generate a more diverse set of ideas than you or your organisation is likely to generate by itself. An example of this is included in the links below (Type 1).

Acro Logic also provides more detailed and evaluated ideas (Types 2 to 5). Typically a client will be given the option to receive a more detailed elaboration on a selection of the best ideas produced by the above process. An additional cost is associated with this elaboration, which would be discussed after producing the Type 1 ideas for you.

To focus on very detailed solutions see the Creative Solutions service.

The following provides more details:

The Genesis Time Auction is probably the most cost effective ideas generation service in the world, but how much should you bid to win the auction? Obviously that depends on the other bids.

Here are some guidelines to help you determine your minimum bid price. Consider that a traditional brainstorming event consists of ten people, each on an average salary of 20,000 pounds per year. Assuming the event lasts just two hours then the cost in terms of staff time alone is approximately 260 Pounds. That figure can then be scaled up based on larger group sizes, longer duration events, the expenses of an away day event, higher staff salaries, etc.

Then of course there is the real value of the ideas generated: the beneficial impact on the organisation! This can be hard to quantify accurately, but consider the following. An innovative product or service will have little, or no, competition and so it is reasonable to assume a profit of at least 10 percent is achievable; in some cases much more. Estimate the total amount of profit generated during the lifetime of the innovation and consider investing a percentage of that in this service.

Will Acro Logic accept bids below the minimum bid price? If the bid value is reasonable, it will do, but of course other participants in the auction may out bid you.

Do not worry about making a low bid.
If you do not win the current auction then you can always bid a higher price in the next auction.