How to Kill a Unicorn (ePub)

Innovation is powered by inspiration, but measured in realization, in the concrete outcomes that reach the street and the balance sheet, changing lives and building businesses. Yet as innovation grows increasingly vital to the growth prospects of big businesses and startups alike, the failure rates of innovation projects remain absurdly high. Far too many mission-critical initiatives culminate in what Fahrenheit 212 calls unicorns, visions that are lovely to think about, but doable and profitable only in some remote, imaginary world. You can't hitch your plough to a unicorn. Viewed as innovation's high-performance SWAT team, able to solve companies' most complex and important growth challenges, Fahrenheit cofounder and president Mark Payne and his fifty-person team have been praised throughout the business media. Overcoming the inherent flaws in today's innovation methodologies with their unique 'Money and Magic', 'How and Wow' approach, Fahrenheit has ignited billions of dollars in new revenue at such giants of industry as the Coca-Cola Company, Samsung, Hershey's, GE, Campbell's Soup, Nestlé, Citi, Procter & Gamble, and Goldman Sachs, as well as at leading private equity firms. Based on behind-the-scenes stories, insights and lessons from Fahrenheit 212's first decade, How to Kill a Unicorn lays out a new playbook for creating innovations that are successfully launched into the world, replacing old myths and misconceptions with a new philosophy and practices that transform innovation success rates. In the end, How to Kill a Unicorn is not about killing things at all. It's about ensuring that your initiatives and your vision come to life.