Dan Mack

In Dark Horse: How Challenger Companies Rise To Prominence, business veteran Dan Mack takes you inside the minds, hearts, and boardrooms of dark horse companies who winning big despite having the odds stacked against them.
From the beloved Wiffle ball and bat to the highly stylized line of Method soap, and PURELL hand sanitizer, there is no shortage of dark horse companies to root for in the American business race today.

Everyone loves a dark horse—the come-from-behind winner that no one expects. We cheer for them, marvel at their tenacity, and hope for their victory over stronger, better-known competitors. But why do dark horses win? They aren’t favored to win, and often for good reason. They usually don’t have big money invested in them; they have no history of winning, and not many people have heard of them. The usual formula for winning the race just isn’t there.

Yet they win anyway.

This book is also documentation of all I have learned over twenty-five years as a leader of two dark horse organizations, and the insights gathered during numerous strategy and consulting engagements with a wide variety of smaller, winning organizations. I have personally researched, interviewed, or consulted with well over a hundred emerging companies that, by all accounts, were outmatched by competition— yet they were winning. If you are looking for an edge, spend a little time with a group of dark horses.