Quotes About Skunk Works

Control is the name of the game and if a Skunk Works really operates right, control is exactly what they won't get.

freedom to take risks—and fail—define the heart of a Skunk Works operation.

That primitive Skunk Works operation set the standards for what followed. The project was highly secret, very high priority, and time was of the essence.

Inside the Skunk Works, we were a small, intensely cohesive group consisting of about fifty veteran engineers and designers and a hundred or so expert machinists and shop workers.

Skunk works differed from advanced research groups in that they were more than just product development groups. They had direct interaction with customers and controlled a sales channel which allowed them to negotiate their own deals with customers.

Decades before we were able to articulate the value of 'getting out of the building' and the Lean Startup, the value in having skunk works controlling their own distribution was starkly evident.

Skunk works were emblematic of corporate structures that focused on execution and devalued innovation.