BNET Business Dictionary
Business Definition for: Skunkworks
- a fast-moving group, working at the edge of the organization structure, which aims to accelerate the innovation process without the restrictions of organizational policies and procedures. Skunkworks can operate unknown to an organization, or with its tacit acceptance. With the organization's acceptance, skunkworks are an extreme form of intrapreneurialism. The term skunkworks was popularized by Tom Peters and Bob Waterman in A Passion for Excellence (1984).
Additional Resources
- Working outside the BOX.(Compaq Computer Corp. engineers design new server)
- On their own time and with no funding, some creative engineers at Compaq came up with a design for a new server. The skunkworks project is now a multi-million dollar global business| On their own time and with no funding, some creative engineers at...
- Research articles 2001-06-01
- Gary Hamel: Don't Be a Dinosaur
- Gary Hamel ends his ‘Future of Management’ with a two-chapter ‘how-to’ section, aptly titled ‘Building the Future of Management.’ The first looks closely at two real-world attempts to create more innovative companies. Hamel starts with IBM’s efforts to take its world-beating research and turn it into new...
- Blog posts 2007-11-30
- Lessons from the Book Business
- Books matter, but they don't make much of a business. Never have, really. But its problems provide useful insights for any business struggling to find its way in the new digital world, as we see in Have We Reached the End of Book Publishing As We Know It? an entertaining...
- Blog posts 2008-09-17
- 2004 Infiniti FX35 Crossover
- Dvorak, Paul Machine Design 02-19-2004 2004 Infiniti FX35 Crossover Byline: Dvorak, Paul Volume: 76 Number: 4 ISSN: 00249114 Publication Date: 02-19-2004 Page: 227 Section: Behind the wheel Type: Periodical Language: English One look at the $39,000 Infiniti FX35 Crossover and you'd think this eye popper came out of...
- Research articles 2004-02-19
- Partners in wealth.(organizational structures)
- The ins and outs of collaboration THE new organisation contains a mass of contradictions. Charles Knight, Emerson's long-time boss, boasts that his company combines consistency with fundamental change. Parts of Motorola are centralised and parts are not, and those parts change over time. The...
- Research articles 2006-01-21
- Riddled in mystery: the development of insurance products is sometimes shrouded in mystery. Other products and services develop incrementally, without a whiff of a "Skunkworks" mentality. Perhaps most surprising, though, is the role regulators p
- To many, Winston Churchill's words, "It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma," might as easily apply to the subject of product development and innovation in the insurance business, a process equally shrouded in mystery. Where do insurance products come from? Do they bubble up from...
- Research articles 2004-09-01
- Lockheed, McDonnell Douglas win ASTOVL study contracts
- Lockheed Advanced Development Co. LADC and McDonnell Douglas Aerospace have won separate DoD contracts to study the feasibility of developing an advanced short take-off and vertical landing ASTOVL strike fighter for the Navy and Marine Corps. LADC, based in Palmdale, Calif., and known as Lockheed's "Skunkworks," received a $1.9...
- Research articles 1993-03-17
- Dell releases unofficial Chrome OS Linux desktop
- Of all the big computer companies only Dell really supports desktop Linux and, in particular Dell offers a nice selection of PCs running Ubuntu Linux. What Dell hasn't done though is come out and announce that they were working on Google's beta Chrome OS. Other vendors, such as Acer, HP...
- News items 2009-12-01
- Viper gets even more hardcore with introduction of ACR-X and the Dodge Viper Cup
- After the recent upgrades to the undead Viper SRT10 ACR recently, is it even possible for the snake to get more hard core? Sure it is, just let Ralph Gilles and his boys loose with a pipe bender and a mig welder! That's right, a pipe bender! Obviously Gilles is...
- News items 2009-12-10
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