Enthusiasm is what a good idea deserves in the first place – and not the question “What do you mean by that?” Behind every idea, success is waiting. Therefore, the scientific and economic discussion about ideas, their efficient generation and exploitation remains highly important. But: initially, the quality of an idea is not measured in terms of its content – rather, the point is for it to be appreciated as such in the first place. Before the evaluation of an idea comes the idea’s identification as an idea! Understanding the idea develops the ability to evaluate it or modify it into a still better idea. Misunderstood ideas, however, are always lost potential – sad for the persons having them and hopeless for those needing them. For businesses, both cases can be economically disastrous. What is surprising is the fact that neither scientific nor practically oriented research offer any relevant statements, research work or methods for semantically optimizing ideas. With the development of the “d’Artagnan Principle”, this significant gap is now filled and methodically closed. Work on semantic optimization of ideas

1. sabine fischer
winterfeldtstrasse 33
d -10781 berlin
mob: +49 172 3090660
mail: fischer@its-immaterial.com
The idea: to finally fathom the essence of “idea“ in order to make ideas more efficient from
within.
is not
IDEA
Cause Solution
Value
IS
isnot
isnot
IS IS
The d`Artagnan-Principle
Ideas not understood are lost potential. Let’s take, for example, the exponentially growing
amount of information that characterises our age and makes it successful. It is gaining in com-
plexity. We respond to this fact by generating ever new ideas. These ideas are the significant
commodities of our time. They are the origin of the information and social media society. Unlike
in previous times, we need more and more of them in order to be able to manage the effects
on our lives, our work, as well as on our understanding and shaping of the conditions sur-
rounding us.
Reflected in fields such as creativity and innovation development or idea and innovation man-
agement, the overall discussion of ideas is accordingly extensive. Innumerable, in part very
valuable, theories, methods and principles have been developed from innumerable perspec-
tives along the idea process chain.
They enable us to develop ideas seemingly effortlessly. But is everything we call “idea“ really an
idea? We know very well when something is not an idea although it may have been presented
to us as one. An idea only exists as long as it is perceived as one. Perceiving here means
understanding. Accordingly, an idea not understood is not labelled “idea“. So this is about the
moment in which an idea is being uttered – and not understood.
Hundreds of thousands of such idea promises can be found, maybe particularly, in businesses,
but they still go unrecognised as “ideas!“. Often, abstracts of business plans only become
clear after intensive study. Professional idea pools on the social web frequently suffer from
obscurity. At the latest by the time the minutes are written, the results of idea workshops raise
the question: “What did we actually mean by x or y?“ Ideas are discarded on grounds of their
unintellegibility. Does this mean they are all worthless?
Ideas are potential values. Discarding bad ideas is a good thing. Discarding ideas one hasn‘t
understood is a bad thing. Ideas not understood are lost potential – a loss which may prove
disastrous for individuals and businesses alike.
Together with the D'ARTAGNAN-PRINZIP, IDEA-DESIGN was developed as a tool and method
to produce, as well as safeguard the quality of, the adequate meaning of an idea.
CONDENSATION AND CLARITY – IDEA-DESIGN IN THE AGE OF IDEAS
sabine fischer.
meaning is the message
Page 01 | October 2013

2. sabine fischer
winterfeldtstrasse 33
d -10781 berlin
mob: +49 172 3090660
mail: fischer@its-immaterial.com
The d’Artagnan Principle can be understood and used as a causal principle:
__ Development of ideas
Application of the d’Artagnan Principle identifies the essential units of meaning of an idea as
early as in the process of ideation. It is easy to establish which units of meaning already exist
and which are as yet missing. Thus, the d’Artagnan Principle facilitates the elaboration of a
stable idea system in which creativity can freely develop.
__ Semantic optimisation of ideas
The comprehensibility of an idea i.e., the effect “idea!” can be produced. The idea is com-
municated and identified as “idea!” Systemising the units of meaning of an idea produces and
safeguards the intelligibility and appreciation of an idea as “idea”.
__ Quality assurance during the implementation process of an idea
When it comes to its conceptual elaboration and implementation, an idea has to prove its
power especially through standing up to regular instances of general coordination between dif-
ferent persons and their subjective views and interpretations. During the process, the concep-
tion can be tested with regard to the semantically optimised idea in order to maintain its unique
power – modified in the process or not.
Users` Statements
“The d’Artagnan Principle is already used successfully in businesses and universities. […] here,
the pre-established systematics is enormously helpful. In view of our good experience we will
now integrate an extended version of the d’Artagnan Principle into all our application forms.”
(departure, Business Support and Service Agency for Creative Industries of the City of Vienna,
Austria)
“Putting an idea in a nutshell can be difficult for creative people because they are often too
deeply entangled in their concept or too much in love wih an idea. Actually, they don’t want to
realize that once you look at it closely it will not stand the test. With the d’Artagnan Principle
we can help to identify and describe the problem, appreciate the creative achievement in the
solution of the problem, grade the solution, improve the quality of the ideas submitted. And
the description of an idea becomes more precise and more comprehensible.”
(jovoto GmbH, Berlin, Germany)
“With the d’Artagnan Principle we are provided with an instrument which neither predicts
the market development nor the success of a particular idea; however, it shows very quickly
whether an idea or a proposal is viable or not. […] It helps to realize almost immediately what is
essential to an idea and in which way an idea is an answer to a real and relevant question.”
(Birkhäuser+GBC AG, Basel, Switzerland)
“The d’Artagnan Principle is a tool for intuitively putting ideas in a nutshell in such a way that
they can be understood in their individual history. ‘History’ means in this context the idea’s
origin or legitimacy, the idea itself, as well as the envisioned – and in the best case realistic –
results, i.e. the effect of the idea.”
(Commarco Group – Blumberry – Berlin, Germany)
CONDENSATION AND CLARITY – IDEA-DESIGN Page 02 | October 2013
sabine fischer.
meaning is the message

3. sabine fischer
winterfeldtstrasse 33
d -10781 berlin
mob: +49 172 3090660
mail: fischer@its-immaterial.com
Page 03 | October 2013
Prof. Dr. Sabine Fischer is a business consultant and professor at the interface between busi-
ness and design. Her main subjects are the creation of business processes in the environment
of innovation, the connection between creative and strategic-economic developments as well
as the much-needed preparation of knowledge across disciplines.
She lectures at the University of Arts/University of St. Gallen, the Humboldt-Viadrina School of
Governance, the College of Art and Design in Basel and the School of Design in Bern.
She has established the innovative topic of “transdisciplinary management" in the digital mar-
ket of economy, creativity, higher education and businesses. Sabine Fischer is considered the
inventor of the "idea design” that can be defined as the intersection of systematic and creative
development of innovations and changes in businesses and markets.
Sabine Fischer presents and lectures at conferences and symposia, is a renowned expert for
information in digital media, and author of numerous publications.
In her doctoral dissertation “The contemporary use of the concept idea, the linguistic design of
ideas, and their potential for semantic optimization” (2011) she developed the d’Artagnan Prin-
ciple for semantic optimization and quality assurance. Prof. Dr. Hartmut Schröder: “Indeed, the
d’Artagnan Principle fills a significant lacuna and will most likely spread quickly in the relevant
fields of work.”
sabine fischer.
meaning is the message
Short Biography