Definition

A secretive project team operating with minimal oversight to develop innovations rapidly, named after a moonshine still in a comic strip and appropriated by Lockheed Martin.

Example Usage

We've got a skunkworks team building the new app in a separate office where Product Management can't find them.

Origin

From Lockheed's Advanced Development Projects unit in 1943, named after Li'l Abner comic strip

Fun Fact

The original Skunk Works at Lockheed developed the U-2 spy plane and SR-71 Blackbird in a rented circus tent next to a plastics factory.

Source: Aerospace and innovation management terminology

Related Terms

Advanced

zero-sum game

A situation where one party's gain is exactly balanced by another party's loss, resulting in no net change. The opposite of win-win, but arguably more honest about how most business negotiations actually work.

💼 Corporate / Business
Intermediate

enabler

Someone who makes things happen by providing support or resources—or in the darker sense, someone who helps others continue destructive behaviors by removing consequences. In corporate settings, it's usually positive: the person who unblocks obstacles and empowers teams. In personal contexts, it's the friend who keeps lending money to your gambling habit.

💼 Corporate / Business
Beginner

quick win

An easily achievable success that builds momentum and credibility, often prioritized when someone needs to look productive fast. The business equivalent of a participation trophy you give yourself.

💼 Corporate / Business
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cutback

A polite euphemism for slashing budgets, reducing staff, or eliminating programs when executives realize they've been hemorrhaging money or need to appease shareholders. It's the corporate world's version of 'we're tightening our belts,' except it usually means other people's belts while leadership maintains their executive perks. Often deployed right before a round of layoffs that management swears are 'not layoffs, just strategic workforce reductions.'

💼 Corporate / Business
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land and expand

A sales strategy where you start with a small contract to get your foot in the door, then gradually sell more services and products until you've infiltrated the entire organization. The corporate equivalent of 'give them a taste.'

💼 Corporate / Business
Advanced

Vern Dogging

The corporate art of surveillance without subtlety, where a manager or supervisor watches you so obviously that they might as well be taking notes on a clipboard. Unlike bird-dogging, this comes with an extra helping of intimidation and the distinct feeling that someone's building a case against you.

💼 Corporate / Business

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