An idea or an ideal?

This is a great question posed by a very sexy friend of mine.

all those things which stand as principles, for example an organisations
values and mission statement or an industry's sense of Corporate Social
Responsibility, are usually one or the other.

An idea means it's just an idea. An ideal is something which, in my
eyes, is stuck to because that's the difference.

If it's an idea then it's worth nothing more than chatting about. If
it's an idea then there's no point employing people to make it happen
and there's no need to stick to it.

If, on the other hand, it is an ideal then it's something which should
be stuck to. For example Google in their founding vision - somewhere in
there - said do no evil or something along those lines.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_be_evil
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_evil>

If it is just an idea Google employees can sit and talk about it in the
staff pub. If it is an ideal they should fight tooth and nail to achieve
it, even if it means sacrifices.