16 min
Skunkworks Accelerate Business Transformation
-
- Teknologi
A look at the use of skunkworks projects to circumvent bureaucratic hurdles. Full transcript of the episode with links to additional sources follows.
===
It was 1943. The world was at war. German engineering was producing an array of terrifying weapons, and even before the war, had already demonstrated working jet aircraft. German jet fighters and bombers could potentially leave the Allies nearly helpless to defend against this technological threat with their own outmoded fleet of propeller-driven craft.
In this ecosystem of urgency, the US government approached airplane manufacturer Lockheed Martin with an incredible challenge. They wanted an American jet fighter to be developed. It would need to fly 600 MPH, maneuver and perform in intense aerial combat, and as if that weren't absurd enough, it needed to be ready to demonstrate in 180 days.
Further constraints existed. Lockheed Martin was already using all of its floorspace for the war effort. How would it come up with a way to execute on this incredible directive?
The answer came in the form of Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs (ADP), now commonly known as "Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works." The ADP is now the most famous example of the rapid solution approach now generically referred to as a "skunkworks project."
In the earliest part of the 1980s the personal computer market was dominated by Apple and Commodore, but IBM - who dominated the server-rooms of the IT departments at the time - had taken notice. IBM wanted to get a piece of the home user and desktop computer market, but - as dramatically stated in the PBS documentary Triumph of the Nerds, IBM's own estimate is that due to bureaucracy and internal controls, it would take nine months just to ship an empty box. The solution around this was a skunkworks project. IBM had been experimenting with "Independent Business Units" that could shrug off the limitations of normal IBM procedures and act swiftly to get things done. The skunkworks project it undertook became the IBM PC and the project's design choices became the new paradigm for business computing.
The name "Skunk Works" has an interesting origin. Because the group tasked with this 180 day miracle had no floorspace, they had to set up shop under a circus tent by a plastics factory in Burbank, California. The fumes from the factory reminded workers of a recurring feature of the popular Lil' Abner comic strip, a smelly factory outside the fictional town of Dogpatch, Kentucky known as the "Skonk Works." This became the name of the group until the copyright owners of the Lil' Abner comic strip complained in the early 1960s and Lockheed Martin formally changed it to "Skunk Works" to appease the lawyers. The name stuck and has become synonymous with this kind of project.
Another famous skunkworks project was the Apple Macintosh. The history of that project has become quasi-mythical because of books like Insanely Great, by Steven Levy and Revolution in the Valley by pioneering Mac programmer Andy Hertzfeld. This story was also heavily featured in PBS' Triumph of the Nerds. In 1981, Apple was primarily funded by sales of the Apple II, but it was desperately trying to create the next revolutionary personal computer. After some internal struggles, Steve Jobs took over a project that had originally been envisioned by Jef Raskin as a friendly and inexpensive home computer. Jobs changed the focus to make a revolutionary graphical user interface based machine. He embraced the "rebel" mentality for his team, famously telling them "It's better to be a pirate than join the Navy." The team took this mentality seriously enough to hoist a Jolly Roger flag over the remote office complex where the Mac team worked. While it was not an instant success financially, the Macintosh project would also change the world.
You can purchase a hand-painted Mac Jolly Roger flag from original artist Susan Kare (but they are pricey!)
Apple itself (and Mic
A look at the use of skunkworks projects to circumvent bureaucratic hurdles. Full transcript of the episode with links to additional sources follows.
===
It was 1943. The world was at war. German engineering was producing an array of terrifying weapons, and even before the war, had already demonstrated working jet aircraft. German jet fighters and bombers could potentially leave the Allies nearly helpless to defend against this technological threat with their own outmoded fleet of propeller-driven craft.
In this ecosystem of urgency, the US government approached airplane manufacturer Lockheed Martin with an incredible challenge. They wanted an American jet fighter to be developed. It would need to fly 600 MPH, maneuver and perform in intense aerial combat, and as if that weren't absurd enough, it needed to be ready to demonstrate in 180 days.
Further constraints existed. Lockheed Martin was already using all of its floorspace for the war effort. How would it come up with a way to execute on this incredible directive?
The answer came in the form of Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs (ADP), now commonly known as "Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works." The ADP is now the most famous example of the rapid solution approach now generically referred to as a "skunkworks project."
In the earliest part of the 1980s the personal computer market was dominated by Apple and Commodore, but IBM - who dominated the server-rooms of the IT departments at the time - had taken notice. IBM wanted to get a piece of the home user and desktop computer market, but - as dramatically stated in the PBS documentary Triumph of the Nerds, IBM's own estimate is that due to bureaucracy and internal controls, it would take nine months just to ship an empty box. The solution around this was a skunkworks project. IBM had been experimenting with "Independent Business Units" that could shrug off the limitations of normal IBM procedures and act swiftly to get things done. The skunkworks project it undertook became the IBM PC and the project's design choices became the new paradigm for business computing.
The name "Skunk Works" has an interesting origin. Because the group tasked with this 180 day miracle had no floorspace, they had to set up shop under a circus tent by a plastics factory in Burbank, California. The fumes from the factory reminded workers of a recurring feature of the popular Lil' Abner comic strip, a smelly factory outside the fictional town of Dogpatch, Kentucky known as the "Skonk Works." This became the name of the group until the copyright owners of the Lil' Abner comic strip complained in the early 1960s and Lockheed Martin formally changed it to "Skunk Works" to appease the lawyers. The name stuck and has become synonymous with this kind of project.
Another famous skunkworks project was the Apple Macintosh. The history of that project has become quasi-mythical because of books like Insanely Great, by Steven Levy and Revolution in the Valley by pioneering Mac programmer Andy Hertzfeld. This story was also heavily featured in PBS' Triumph of the Nerds. In 1981, Apple was primarily funded by sales of the Apple II, but it was desperately trying to create the next revolutionary personal computer. After some internal struggles, Steve Jobs took over a project that had originally been envisioned by Jef Raskin as a friendly and inexpensive home computer. Jobs changed the focus to make a revolutionary graphical user interface based machine. He embraced the "rebel" mentality for his team, famously telling them "It's better to be a pirate than join the Navy." The team took this mentality seriously enough to hoist a Jolly Roger flag over the remote office complex where the Mac team worked. While it was not an instant success financially, the Macintosh project would also change the world.
You can purchase a hand-painted Mac Jolly Roger flag from original artist Susan Kare (but they are pricey!)
Apple itself (and Mic
16 min