Skunkworks Teams and Scaling a Business

If the thought of skunkworks has your nose curling up in disgust, fear not! No, you won’t be getting sprayed with a malodorous mist that requires you to bathe in tomato juice. But, it might just have you reimagining what it takes to out-smart and out-innovate your competitors.

What are Skunkworks Teams?

The concept of skunkworks teams was first coined by Lockheed Martin during World War II. During that time, a group of engineers was tasked with inventing new aircraft that could fly faster than anything else in the world. Their job site was in a field of stinky flowers (hence the name skunkworks), and their work was to remain top-secret.

In today’s vernacular, the term has been generalized to apply to any subset of a team whose responsibilities are to think outside the box, innovate and try to push the bounds of what is possible. To be successful, they are given the freedom to experiment without the burden of bureaucratic oversight.

Why Skunkworks Teams are a Must-Have for Scaling a Business

While hiring a team devoted purely for innovation’s sake may seem like headcounts you can’t afford, it’s the quickest and surest path toward growth.

Admittedly, the contributions of these team members isn’t going directly to sustaining your current products or services; however, their work is giving you a leg up in the future. At some point, every business’s growth trajectory is going to level off. You can only go up and up and up for so long before the rest of the world catches up. And when the rest of the world does catch up, the work produced by your skunkworks team will be ready and waiting to launch.