celebrating innovation: 7 cool skunk works projects of our time

In the 1940’s Lockheed Martin’s chief engineer Kelly Johnson set up a tent next to Lockheed Martin’s manufacturing plant and designed the XP-80, the first jet fighter used by the US Army Air Forces (USAAF) within 143 days. The top-secret project was started before any contracts were signed, and was exempt from the traditional “red tape” bureaucracy ordinarily involved in projects. The “skunk works” philosophy behind quickly executing innovative projects was born.

Today, skunks work teams are formed within business, technical & engineering fields, and are composed of specialists focused on special advanced/top-secret projects. Skunk works teams are provided a high degree of autonomy. Sometimes these specialized project teams turn into a permanent project team or department within an organization.

Paying tribute to some of the greatest think tanks of our time, the following are 7 innovative skunksworks teams worthy of celebrating:

1. Apple: Macintosh Team @ Texaco Towers

Steve Jobs hand-picked a team of 20 people he referred to as “pirates” to build the first Mac. He relocated the team to a small building dubbed Texaco Towers due to the building’s proximity to a Texaco gas station.

2. Amazon's Lab126

Amazon’s super-secret R&D facility in Cupertino, CA led by Gregg Zehr was reportedly given unlimited resources to develop the kindle. In 2014, the lab developed the Amazon Fire TV set-top device and the Fire phone.

3. Google X

Google’s secret lab located in an undisclosed location houses over 100 “shoot for the stars” projects. Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin is said to be deeply involved in Google X, but the day-to-day activities are run by Astro Teller, an expert in intelligent technology. Teller’s vision of the lab is to improve technologies and develop “science fiction-sounding solutions.” The lab began in 2010 with the development of Google’s driverless car.

4. Nike’s Innovation Kitchen & Secret Labs

A nondescript performance lab in a garage marked with the letter “A”, and underground labs with a sign “Restricted Area: We hear you knocking but we can’t let you in” describe the secret labs at Nike that have generated such innovation as the Air Jordan, Nike+, Nike FuelBand, a 3D scanner for fitting clothing to body types, and the weaving technology used in the Flyknit Racer.

5. Walmart Labs

Located in San Bruno, California and led by top Silicon Valley engineer Jeremy King (known for building key parts of eBay’s infrastructure), Walmart labs has pioneered the way of blending the digital and in-store experience of consumers. Walmart labs is known for revamping Walmart.com’s search engine, using social media cues to suggest presents, and helped launch same-day shipping.

6. Nordstrom Innovation Lab

Innovation Lab is composed of a small team located in Seattle. Their mission is to rapidly create products and executed “disruptive ideas.”

7. Facebook Creative Labs

How does a 6000 employee company stay innovative?”Facebook formed the Facebook Creative Labs, which is more of a conceptual initiative (versus a physical space) that encourages the formation of small teams to execute projects outside the core Facebook operations. The first brainchild of Facebook Creative Labs was an app called “Paper” launched earlier this year.