The Unicorn Within

How Companies Can Create Game-Changing Ventures at Startup Speed

Linda K. Yates

Publisher: Harvard Business School, 2022, 321 pages

ISBN: 978-1-63369-868-0

Keywords: Business Development, Creativity

Last modified: Oct. 22, 2023, 12:11 a.m.

Imagine if the multinational hotel groups had founded Airbnb, or the big auto companies had launched Uber and Tesla, or Blockbuster had created Netflix. Large companies can start new ventures. You have ideas, talent, brand, capital — you have customers — you can strike back.

In The Unicorn Within, Mach49 founder and CEO Linda Yates empowers large companies to beat startups at their own game — to build a pipeline and portfolio of new ventures to drive meaningful growth. How? With a teachable, repeatable, scalable method focused 100 percent on execution across the spectrum of venture creation from Ideate to Incubate, Accelerate, and Scale. She also offers keys to managing the Mothership and seizing the Mothership advantage to ensure your ventures reach escape velocity and thrive.

And dont stop at just one venture. Yates also lays out her blueprint for building a Venture Factory capable of becoming your company's growth engine for years to come.

The next Unicorns don't have to come from Silicon Valley. Regardless of your company's industry, geography, or history, they can come from you. Whether you're the CEO, a member of the C-suite, ar an internal entrepreneur, you can help your company grow, With this book's proven method, you can unleash the Unicorn within.

  • Introduction: Beyond the Myth
    Unleashing the Unicorn Within
  • Part 01: Getting Started
    1. Before You Start
      Preconditions for Success
    2. People
      Selecting, Recruiting and Onboarding the Team
    3. Preparing to Incubate
      The Nuts and Bolts
  • Part 02: Building Ventures
    1. Ideate
      Getting to New Ventures You Can Incubate
    2. Incubate Phase I: Customer
      Does Anybody Want It?
    3. Incubate Phase II: Product, Service, Solution
      What Should We Build? Can We Build it?
    4. Incubate Phase III: Business
      How Do We Make Money? What's Our Plan?
    5. Accelerate
      Moving Ventures from Funding to Product-Market Fit and First Revenue
  • Part 03: Institutionalizing Growth
    1. Building Your Own Venture Factory
      Institutionalizing Growth for Decades to Come
    2. Driving the New Venture Growth Engine
      The Role of the C-Suite and Senior Executives
  • Conclusion: Unleashing the Unicorn Within
    The Ten Principles for Driving Growth and Beating Startups at Their Own Game