YouSaid · the spoken record

Linda Yates

lines on the record: 41
first: 2022-10-11
most recent: 2022-10-11
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“Master of Scale is a Wakewater Original. Our executive producers are June Cohen, Darren Tripp, and Jordan Cloud, our head of content and production is Lori Hoffman. Our producers are Adam Skeuse, Catherine Clark Ray, Marie McCoy Thompson, Alex Morris, Tucker Lugurski, and Holly Bondi. Our editor at large is Bob Saffian. Our music director is Ryan Holliday. Original music and sound design by Eduardo Rivera. Audio editing by Keith J. Nelson, Stephen Davies, Andrew Nalt, and Mike Gallagher. Mixing and mastering by Aaron Bastinelli. Special thanks to Chriche, Elisa Schreiber, Aria Finger, Sayeda Sapieva, Greg Beato, Adam Heiner, Colin Howarth, Willem Crowles, Tim Cronin, Kelsey Capitano, Samiaputa, Anna Pizano, Saratar, Lear Sermetis, Charlie Minesis, Chinime Ezequena, Emily McManus, and Mina Kursawa. Become a member of Masters of Scale to get access to a year's worth of courses and content on the Master's”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To have successful entrepreneurship, you need just that, a set of magical conditions. You need motivated employees who are passionate about bringing the new initiative into existence. You need leadership support and buy-in. And the allocation of resources to enable the venture. You then need execution of the idea. It needs to be serving your targeted customers and still be related to the company's larger mission. It's a fine alchemy getting all these elements together. To grow a business, though, and to push it forward, to maintain relevance, this alchemy may be necessary. With the right fuel, entrepreneurs can drive innovation and pull your company forward. But whether you're a scrappy startup or a global player, innovation is worth the investment. I'm Reid Hoffman, thank you for listening.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“If it's a go, then it's time to accelerate and speed the venture along. Linda likes to point out the importance of seizing the built in advantages of accelerating an idea within a company.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's right, all that testing may end up with you scrapping the project just like entrepreneurship. After Linda's clients know what their customers want through trial and error, killing ideas, creating new ones, it's time for the third phase. This is where the mothership advantage really kicks in. Once a project has made it through ideation and passed all that customer testing, it's time to scale that idea and hit full throttle.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Does the idea work with customers? Is there demand? That's exactly the type of plan Linda draws up as companies grow their ideas.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“If your entrepreneurial ideation has these conditions in place, time, a team, and capital, it can yield powerful concepts. Microsoft has executed such entrepreneurship. For example, in the late nineties, a group of Microsoft engineers had an idea for a video game console to compete with Sony's PlayStation, and in two thousand one, Microsoft launched Xbox, which grew into a substantial video game brand, streaming platform and online service used by over 100 million players worldwide. Once you have the right conditions in place, you need to ask yourself the next set of questions. What do you want this innovation to do? Where do we want it to go? When Linda sees her clients asking these types of questions, they're ready for the next phase. Now's the time to find out if your idea has legs. You see if it's up to the task of pulling the larger company toward new markets and opportunities.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly Buyin' from the CO and other top executives is mission critical to the success of the project. And as Linda said, they must be willing to give their ideation team time and space to invent, and enough capital to reach the next phase.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The new idea might need a temporary CEO or someone from outside the organization to lead the new entrepreneurial idea. Either way, your top leaders and founders at your company will need to be engaged and on board with picking new leadership for the new venture.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“First, you need to assemble a team to come up with ideas. For Mach forty nine, this is at a twelve week process. And to Linda, it's vital to free up employees if you want to create a new venture.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It is possible. That's true here too. Linda just named three challenges to entrepreneurship, so naturally she is a three step solution. The solution may not uniformly fit every enterprise, but it provides insights and guidelines for any entrepreneurial venture, even the ones at less than the gargantuan size.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This challenge, by the way, is even harder than it sounds, because one of the main drivers of entrepreneurship is the existential threat of defeat. It's jumping off a cliff and building an airplane on the way down. There's no safety net. Either you crash or take flight. Inside of a scaled company, you can find incredibly passionate people dedicating themselves to an entrepreneurship venture, but if it ever falters the way most startups do at some point, there is a real temptation for a senior executive to pull the plug and reassign that person back to the core business. If you're an entrepreneur listening right now, you may be thinking great, my job is even harder than I thought. Thanks a lot, Reed. Now what? Well, think back to the tugboats at the top of the show. It seems inconceivable that such diminutive boats can move such massive ones, but with the right coordination and support.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Any sized organization can have friction, but as you scale, they tend to multiply. The bigger you are, the harder it is to make pivots, because one thing that's true of big ships, they tend to turn slowly. Some of this friction can be selective, where the leadership allows some risks but not others. A corporation might be willing to incubate a project that undercuts its own business model, but not allow a brand risk with a product that could confuse customers. Figuring out where your company's appetite for risk stops and starts is one key to navigating this friction. And then there's the final challenge.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Notice that Linda doesn't say they need my method, or they need this one magical formula. Every company is different. But if you want entrepreneurship to succeed, you need a method.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Linda decided that the best way to help companies seize this mothership advantage was to start an incubator. So in twenty fourteen, she did just that. She called it Mach forty nine. And unlike most incubators dotting Silicon Valley, Mach forty nine was designed for use inside global businesses.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We're back with Linda Yates of Mach forty nine. If you're enjoying this episode, please share it with friends. Just click the share button on your podcast app and hear my complete conversation with Linda become a master scale member at masterscale.com. There's plenty we talked about that we couldn't fit into this episode, including the best advice she's ever received. And a delightful misadventure while playing golf. You won't want to miss it. Before the break, you may remember the colorful way Linda described the powerful resource advantage of scaled companies.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Listeners, Bob, here, if you listen to rapid response on Masters of Scale, you may be missing half the show because every Friday we release a second rapid response exclusively in the rapid response feed. The guess and topics are just as compelling and timely from Ford CEO to NASA's administrator to the lessons from the Devilware's Prada. It takes about 10 seconds to find just search rapid response wherever you listen to podcasts and hit follow to make sure you never miss an episode. I hope to see you there.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In the end, Tony left Phillips in frustration. But don't worry, he would go on to find great success with a different entrepreneurial endeavor, developing the first iPod for Apple. Like Tony, Linda also felt that frustration and tension between a company and a new entrepreneurial idea that could help a company. Because of her experience, she felt she could find a balance between these tensions. Linda's work in both Silicon Valley and in the corporate consulting world gave her a unique vantage point in the battle between Silicon Valley insurgents and legacy companies.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“However, Tony soon ran into a problem any entrepreneur is listening will likely relate to the steep and rugged hill you have to climb to get traction for a new, niche idea in an established organization.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“As an example, here's a story from Nest co-founder Tony Fidel on his own episode of Masters of Scale. Tony spoke to us about joining Philips Electronics as CTO and head of their mobile computing group. It was just twenty six and coming off a stint at the legendary quirky startup General Magic. After trying to build in a place without much structure, he was looking forward to innovating new products inside an established company like Phillips.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Fundamentally, what you need for entrepreneurship is you need buy-in from the CO, you need enough protection because the company really derives its culture and operating microcredits and efficiency. Hey, we put in a dollar here and we reliably get $2. And so you need to have isolated for that because all the early things will all be lost leading, negative indicators. So you need backing from the CO or an executive. You need some separation from the rest of the business. And you need to have what that mission is, why are you doing it?”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Linda just said is exactly right. The so called antibodies within businesses at scale are in many ways necessary, but they can also make it difficult for a new product or initiative to have the space to grow, because antibodies can treat any new growth as cancer. That's why the secret to successful entrepreneurship often requires creating some distance between the new project and the core business. Most of all, you need support from the very top of the company. I spoke to my producers about this recently. Here's a bit of that conversation.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Big companies were setting up their own outposts, looking the feet off of the Silicon Valley ecosystem. But to Linda, that was all wrong. There isn't some magic fairy dust that will transform your company once you cross into Silicon Valley zip code. Linda wanted to sit down with these large companies and convince them that the magic to innovate and create entrepreneurs was within them.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Something interesting happened once Linda returned to Silicon Valley. She noticed a fundamental change in what kind of companies were being given attention when it came to innovation.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What you can hear in Bill's story is a difference in culture, and just like Bill Ford, Linda found herself advocating over and over for the culture at Big Companies to shift towards innovation. In fact, as time passed, Linda began craving a more direct and hands-on role in creating and shaping companies. And so after a couple years decided to change course.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly this problem on his own two-part episode of Master's a Scale. Bill is a big believer in borrowing from the Silicon Valley playbook to innovate within scaled companies. Here's how he describes visiting Silicon Valley when he joined the board of eBay in 2005.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Pay attention to that phrase, innovation culture. It's one of the most important factors in whether an entrepreneurial project will succeed. Because one of the harder things about entrepreneurship, as opposed to starting a new business from the ground up, is that you're trying something out that might eventually disrupt something that the larger business is doing. Scaled businesses tend to become more efficient and more conservative over time. After all, even a band of startup pirates will need new systems and disciplines as their organization gets larger. That's why when a scrappy entrepreneurial project comes along, it can seem alien. The business model may be risky, full of apparent inefficiencies and ideas that might cost the company money. If you approach that without a strong culture of innovation, your new venture will be dead in the water. To dive deeper into the idea of needing innovative culture, we're going to hear from Bill Ford.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“For a quick history lesson, TechCrunch, the iconic launchpad for aspiring startups, was founded in two thousand five. What Linda is describing took place in the late nineties. Think of it like a venture boot camp.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“As a Silicon Valley native, Linda was exactly what Gary and CK were looking for. She could speak the language of tech startups and disruption, and she could translate it into something that made sense for the leaders of Global One Thousand Companies. Linda said yes, and along with Gary left the Mac group to start their own consulting firm, Stratigos, based in Chicago. At Stratagos, Linda helped companies and sectors, ranging from technology and healthcare to energy and manufacturing. They gave the basics and how to create venture plans.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Gary and CK refers to Gary Hemel and CK Prahalud, authors of the Landmark 1994 book Competing for the Future. With the book, they establish themselves as some of the world's most influential business thinkers. It can't be understated the infrastructure of ideas they provided a business strategy. In their book, they argue that businesses need more than strategy, marketing, or operations to succeed. They also need innovation. This may seem obvious now, but in the 1990s, the language of disruption had not yet taken over. But it was about to.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Linda's love for company building led her into consulting in her twenties when she joined the MAC group, later acquired by Gemini Consulting. It wasn't Silicon Valley, but she did learn important lessons, and she found valuable mentors that would point her towards her mission.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Linda's parents were themselves successful venture capitalists, and the language of scale was woven into the fabric of her childhood”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We'll get into that methodology later in the show. But first, let's let Linda tell us about the origins of her own entrepreneurial mindset.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In 2014, she founded Mach forty nine, an incubator for creating ventures inside companies like Hitachi, Intel, and Goodyear. Rather than dragging a company to Silicon Valley, she believed in creating a mini-Silicon Valley within a legacy organization. How? By helping them create the right conditions for entrepreneurship to flourish. In fact, Linda's methodology helped inspire our nautical theme.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What this means in non seafaring terms is you need to treat each new initiative or product launch as though it were its own startup, and everyone on the team has an intrapreneur. Entrepreneurship is how big companies stay relevant amid disruption. Think AWS within Amazon or Disney's streaming platform Disney Plus or Apple insourcing their own silicon chips. These are more than successful products, their companies within companies, operating like startups, but with all the amazing resources of their parent organizations. Sounds great, right? Well, it is, but it's also really difficult to pull off unless everyone involved commits to an entrepreneurial mindset. Fail to do that. And it's like sending out your tugboats with no tow lines and half empty tanks of fuel. I wanted to talk to Linda Yates about this because not only does Linda believe in”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“These tugboats can take many forms, from big changes in leadership to new product initiatives. And once those mighty little boats are in the water, it takes everyone at your company committing to the direction they're going.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This is Masters of Scale I'm Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, partner at Greylock, and your host, and I believe entrepreneurship is critical to growing businesses of every size as long as you give entrepreneurs the right fuel to drive innovation and pull your company forward. Most business leaders know the feeling of losing steam. Maybe your company is stalling out on new products. Customer acquisition is stagnating like a thousand foot tanker adrift in the San Francisco Bay, you've lost Ford momentum and need help to enter new ports of opportunity. Enter the mighty tugboat Ready to hit you up and pull you in the right direction.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Believe entrepreneurship is critical to growing businesses of every size as long as you give entrepreneurs the right fuel to drive innovation and pull your company forward. You got to have incredible talent at every position. There are fires burning when you're going home.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In case you're concerned that rocket gun isn't a weapon. It's a way to repel the tow line up to the big ship from a distance. You're on a massive vessel, you have two fears changing direction quickly and losing propulsion. Large tankers aren't built to maneuver quickly, and losing propulsion is even scarier. You're stuck out in the water with no power. In both cases there's so much at stake with precious cargo at risk. Like the large ships in the San Francisco Bay, both fears can arise at large companies. You fear having limited maneuver capability and losing propulsion. To get moving again, you'll need to tie a line to your own squadron of tugboats. That can come in many forms new board members, a new CEO, new executives, reorganizing the company, or acquiring a shiny new startup. Yet there's another way creating your own tugboats from within through smart entrepreneurship. In fact, such a feat is essential if you want to maintain competitive momentum. That's why I”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Just take a moment to imagine the scenario. The cargo ship is on its own. A humongous bath toy drifting out to sea. Then along comes a scrappy squad of tugs to save the day.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But tugboats aren't just there to help steer the tankers into port. They're also critical in assisting when the big ships lose momentum.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That Milton Merritt, the president of Amnav Maritime, and he's describing some of the massive cargo ships that come in and out of the San Francisco Bay. Milton's in the tugboat business, which means it's his job to help these behemoths of the sea steer their way into the harbor.”
2022-10-11 · Masters of Scale · Think like an intrapreneur, w/Mach49's Linda Yates · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT