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How to Kill a Unicorn: How the World's Hottest Innovation Factory Builds Bold Ideas That Make It to Market
Today, innovation is seen by business leaders and the media as the key to growth and success - a burning issue in every company, from startups to the Fortune 500. In this space, Fahrenheit 212 (dubbed "The Epicenter of Innovation" by Esquire) is viewed as a high-performance innovation SWAT team, able to solve the most complex, mission-critical challenges. In its first 10 years of life, under Mark Payne, Cofounder, President, and Head of Idea Development, Fahrenheit 212 has worked with such giants of industry as Coca-Cola, Samsung, Hershey's, Starbucks, Mattel, Citibank, P&G, American Express, GE, and Goldman Sachs. It has been praised as a hotspot for innovation in publications like Fortune, Esquire, Businessweek, and FastCompany. What Drives Fahrenheit 212's success is its unique methodology; combining what it calls Magic - the creative side of innovation - with Money, the business side. They explore every potential idea with the end goal of bringing an innovative product to market in a way that will transform a company's business and growth. In How to Kill a Unicorn, Payne pulls back the curtain on how the company is able to bring more innovative products and ideas successfully to market than any other firm, and offers inside accounts of how they solved their biggest challenges. Embedded in their approach to new ideas are hard-earned lessons about what separates innovations that work from those that don’t. The lessons in How to Kill a Unicorn are designed to help any innovator turn ambition, sweat, and the alchemy of human imagination into real products that change people’s lives. From the Fortune 500 C-suite exec, to the startup entrepreneur, to the next-door neighbor tinkering in his garage, this book defines new ways to drive innovation throughout any business, company, or culture.
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First published January 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
June 19, 2015
The central idea of this book is worthy of a five star book to convey the information. Unfortunately, this one isn't it.
I summarize the book as you are dramatically improve the likelihood of successfully disrupting the marketplace when design products serving two (or three) masters - business strategy (and operations) plus consumer needs. Design thinking has established itself on the basis of ignoring consumer needs, so Fahrenheit has evolved to remind us all that they are smarter than the rest of us and if we don't show companies how they will make money, great consumer ideas will die. (BTW, notice the ordering of priorities there.)
The approach is solid and worth remembering that a purely consumer need driven product innovation that doesn't fit the company strategy isn't going to survive.
I was irritated by the recurring suggestion that the rest of us are just ignorant and how lucky we are that Fahrenheit came along to save us. I also had a very negative reaction to the list of case studies where the author showed how smart they are. Perhaps it was my state of mind, but I just kept wondering if a soda machine that makes more combinations of sugar water to rot my body from the inside out was really something to celebrate ... or if a communicating vending machine was more needed than clean water.
Interestingly enough, I have and will continue to recommend this book for it's grounded approach to holistic product development and innovation - until a better container comes along, this set of ideas is valuable, even with the baggage.
I summarize the book as you are dramatically improve the likelihood of successfully disrupting the marketplace when design products serving two (or three) masters - business strategy (and operations) plus consumer needs. Design thinking has established itself on the basis of ignoring consumer needs, so Fahrenheit has evolved to remind us all that they are smarter than the rest of us and if we don't show companies how they will make money, great consumer ideas will die. (BTW, notice the ordering of priorities there.)
The approach is solid and worth remembering that a purely consumer need driven product innovation that doesn't fit the company strategy isn't going to survive.
I was irritated by the recurring suggestion that the rest of us are just ignorant and how lucky we are that Fahrenheit came along to save us. I also had a very negative reaction to the list of case studies where the author showed how smart they are. Perhaps it was my state of mind, but I just kept wondering if a soda machine that makes more combinations of sugar water to rot my body from the inside out was really something to celebrate ... or if a communicating vending machine was more needed than clean water.
Interestingly enough, I have and will continue to recommend this book for it's grounded approach to holistic product development and innovation - until a better container comes along, this set of ideas is valuable, even with the baggage.
September 18, 2017
The three key points I took away from this book were:
1) To innovate, ensure you have a diverse,collaborative group of people who are willing to debate.
2) Mix magic people with money people
3) Be sure to put the HOW in the WOW.
The examples used in this book to capture innovation in practice didn't blow me away, but the principles were straight forward and I'd recommend the book to anyone keen to reflect on whether the processes that they facilitate in the workplace to foster innovation could be improved.
1) To innovate, ensure you have a diverse,collaborative group of people who are willing to debate.
2) Mix magic people with money people
3) Be sure to put the HOW in the WOW.
The examples used in this book to capture innovation in practice didn't blow me away, but the principles were straight forward and I'd recommend the book to anyone keen to reflect on whether the processes that they facilitate in the workplace to foster innovation could be improved.
May 29, 2016
(Snark warning)
Customer experience people made a shocking discovery that an innovative idea has to be implementable to make it to the market. And for a well established company, there are existing assets, operating model and ecosystem complexities to consider. Then proposed a Benefit x Implementability matrix that’s been around for decades. In short, they discovered strategy consulting.
As a long time strategy consultant, the rage around Design Thinking has been an amusing experience. Thanks to Apple, web/mobile user interface designers adapted industrial designing principles and found to be extremely successful with visually stunning results. Like other shiny objects, Design Thinking caught the attention of the executives and every company wanted one to fix their ill.
Nothing wrong with any of this, until it began to crowd out deep industry insights and experiences. It was cool to have creatives who knew nothing (nor interested in learning) about your business to come in tell you what to do. We were back to 90s methodology consulting (minus the rigor of critical analysis).
Anyway, it was nice to see the customer experience professionals come to grip with its limitations and seek help.
Customer experience people made a shocking discovery that an innovative idea has to be implementable to make it to the market. And for a well established company, there are existing assets, operating model and ecosystem complexities to consider. Then proposed a Benefit x Implementability matrix that’s been around for decades. In short, they discovered strategy consulting.
As a long time strategy consultant, the rage around Design Thinking has been an amusing experience. Thanks to Apple, web/mobile user interface designers adapted industrial designing principles and found to be extremely successful with visually stunning results. Like other shiny objects, Design Thinking caught the attention of the executives and every company wanted one to fix their ill.
Nothing wrong with any of this, until it began to crowd out deep industry insights and experiences. It was cool to have creatives who knew nothing (nor interested in learning) about your business to come in tell you what to do. We were back to 90s methodology consulting (minus the rigor of critical analysis).
Anyway, it was nice to see the customer experience professionals come to grip with its limitations and seek help.
May 17, 2021
I’m not sure exactly where I got the idea to read this book, but I think I had expected it to be a Silicon Valley tell-all like “Disrupted” or “Chaos Monkeys”. However, it’s actually a buzzword-bingo business book about how to spur innovation and find ideas worth pursuing. I initially thought this might be interesting, but it’s incredibly repetitive and boils down to a simple concept that the author expounds on for chapter upon chapter. The concept is that innovative ideas must be good for the consumer (provide value) and be good for the business (be feasible and profitable). Brilliant stuff, right? The book comes off as a sales pitch for the authors consulting company and their methods for evaluating ideas on these two axes. I abandoned this book after about the fourth chapter when I lost faith that it was going anywhere interesting.
June 6, 2025
The book is an advertisement for Fortune 500 CXOs and not really a book on innovation.
Yes, there are some good stories and insights, but they (20-30%) are wrapped in the indirect sales pitch that screams "hire us; we are awesome"
The subtitle of the book should really be "How the World's Hottest... With Our Help".
To be honest, it wasn't a bad read, but the self-aggrandizing was too much to make me want to finish past 25% mark in the book.
Yes, there are some good stories and insights, but they (20-30%) are wrapped in the indirect sales pitch that screams "hire us; we are awesome"
The subtitle of the book should really be "How the World's Hottest... With Our Help".
To be honest, it wasn't a bad read, but the self-aggrandizing was too much to make me want to finish past 25% mark in the book.
March 17, 2017
Required reading in my class
Excellent book. I highly recommend it. As a matter of fact I actually recommend it every semester to my students studying Entrepreneurship. One of the best books on Innovation I've read in awhile.
Excellent book. I highly recommend it. As a matter of fact I actually recommend it every semester to my students studying Entrepreneurship. One of the best books on Innovation I've read in awhile.
September 10, 2017
The whole central idea is to focus on consumer needs. Isn't this common sense? Giving a two-stars rating is not because the book is bad. It's because the introduction of the book has set the expectations too high.
August 25, 2020
Boring, repetitive story telling
February 10, 2021
Good insights to re-iterate the importance to bring the HOW into the WOW. However reads like a schoolbook and the cases tell similar stories with little marginal additional insights
June 17, 2022
Not at all what I expected it to be, some restating of the facts
October 23, 2015
Amazing
I don't think I have the words to do this book review justice. After randomly picking the book up in a Barnes & Noble and reading the first three chapters, I immediately bought the book and audible version, which is a big deal for me because I torrent everything I can find. I hung on to every word of each story of innovation. I want to work with the people at Fahrenheit 212. Absolute genius!!
I don't think I have the words to do this book review justice. After randomly picking the book up in a Barnes & Noble and reading the first three chapters, I immediately bought the book and audible version, which is a big deal for me because I torrent everything I can find. I hung on to every word of each story of innovation. I want to work with the people at Fahrenheit 212. Absolute genius!!
October 12, 2015
I received this book as a first read. It's very dry and reads like a textbook. However, it presents a lot of interesting case studies that help you expand your way of thinking about business. It seems like a common thread with many businesses is just an overall failure to do any marketing or consumer research. This book has a good step by step analysis of a research methodology and the winding road taken in the quest for answers.
November 13, 2014
I won this book in a goodreads.com giveaway...thanks.
I found this book to be interesting but at times my attention did wane. Our family is trying to start a business and some of the books content was helpful. As we determine what direction our business will take, I'm sure that we will use this book as a reference to help us along the way.
I found this book to be interesting but at times my attention did wane. Our family is trying to start a business and some of the books content was helpful. As we determine what direction our business will take, I'm sure that we will use this book as a reference to help us along the way.
June 30, 2016
Mark Payne has developed an extremely successful business model about the concepts discussed in this book and provides a great framework for anyone working to innovate in any shape or form. His emphasis on focus, strategy and multifaceted solutions are enlightening and provided many sparks of inspiration for me personally. Would reccomend
August 29, 2016
Nice book. Represents many case studies. Demonstrates the way to make innovation happen. We all get some Eureka moments, some flash ideas and visions, but this books tells us on how aspect, how to turn your ideas into reality. How to really transform your ideas into real innovation by going to the root cause of the problem areas.
January 26, 2015
I've followed Fahrenheit 212 for a long time, and have been very interested in their process. This is a book that obviously serves to sell their services, but regardless, it offers a unique perspective into their operations which is very much unlike many other businesses out there today.
July 20, 2016
Cue: Judy Collins singing "Both Sides Now"
I've looked at companies from both sides now,
The business and the consumer, and still somehow
You must serve them both or you'll recall
That your company didn't last at all.
I've looked at companies from both sides now,
The business and the consumer, and still somehow
You must serve them both or you'll recall
That your company didn't last at all.
February 9, 2016
Loved the approach and the examples. Didn't love all the bashing of Design Thinking. Got my creative juices going, I plan on applying some of these approaches in real life.
3/7/2015
2/8/2016
3/7/2015
2/8/2016
January 20, 2016
Good practical stuff on successful innovation--with more than a touch of self-promotion laced in
June 16, 2015
It read too much like a textbook at times
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews