In 1943, Lockheed Martin created a 'skunk works' team to focus on advanced innovation. Most important, the group operated autonomously & unhampered by corporate bureaucracy. Today, that trend continues in some of the world's most innovative companies like Google's X team and Facebooks F8 Skunk Works.
So ask yourself: Should you create your own Skunk Works team?
Join Nicholas Holland, Director of HubSpot Labs, as he discusses the pro's and con's of establishing a Skunk Works group.
7. #INBOUND16
INNOVATORS
DILEMMA
(you can’t read this enough…)
Successful, established companies are
prisoners of their success. They can
neither withdraw from their profitable core
business nor are they able to assert
themselves in small, emerging markets
with uncertain prospects for success due
to their processes and structures
10. #INBOUND16
• Diversify Revenue
• Explore business models
• Solidify your position
• Respond to competition
• Disrupt yourself
• Avoid disruption
• Provide fresh ideas
• Increase growth
• Attract & retain Talent
• Transform Culture
• Open up new markets
The many values of Innovation
11. #INBOUND16
• Diversify Revenue (save / make)
• Explore business models (save / make)
• Solidify your position (save)
• Respond to competition (save)
• Disrupt yourself (save / make)
• Avoid disruption (save)
• Provide fresh ideas (save / make)
• Increase growth (make)
• Attract & retain Talent (save / make)
• Transform Culture (make)
• Open up new markets (make)
The many values of Innovation
15. #INBOUND16
SKUNK
WORKS
…Cool name for a Corporate
Innovations Lab
• Lockheed Martin
• 1943 - Today
• Secretive Projects
• Up to 4 Decades to develop
27. #INBOUND16
1. Don’t build services for money, but make money to build more services
2. It's not about you, it's about what you do for customers
3. Stop focusing on limits, focus on possibilities
4. Speed kills… The Quick Shall Inherit the Earth
5. Greatness & comfort rarely co-exist
6. 20/20 Vision - Short view + Long view
7. Disrupt yourself or someone else will
NOTHING FUNNY ABOUT STARTUP CULTURE
29. #INBOUND16
SO LET’S
RECAP
(context before tactics)
● Recognize “Innovate or Die”
● Embrace Reinvention
● Place a value on Innovation
● Explore through Skunk Works
● Honor Innovation Core Values
36. #INBOUND16
1. Executive Support
2. Protected Budget
3. Small Team
4. Entrepreneurial Leader
5. Periodic Check-ins
6. Short term wins, Audacious Goals
CRITICAL ITEMS FOR KICK OFF
42. #INBOUND16
SCIENCE FAIR
Bi-monthly showcase for team to
show progress, discoveries, and
impact
Repeat the Mission
Identify the Pain
Demonstrate Solution
Show Customer Impact
Explain Corporate Impact
50. #INBOUND16
ALL OF THIS
IS REALLY
HARD
The corporate forces that stifle
innovation will most likely kill your
Skunk Works by sucking it back into
machine
59. #INBOUND16
1. Do we agree on honoring innovation while executing
2. Do we agree on the mission
3. Do we agree on the metrics
4. Do we agree on the budget & runway
5. Do we agree on the leader & team
6. Do we agree on how we extract value
INNOVATION ALIGNMENT
64. #INBOUND16
Having trouble importing your slides into the INBOUND 2016 template?
We made the following four slides speaker-friendly so that you can add them to an
existing slide deck as the title, content, thank you, etc. slides without messing up the
rest of your formatting.
Instead of a fixed background image on the master slide, they use a floating
background image.
Please copy and paste these slides and the images on them into your deck to make
your slides match the INBOUND 2016 template.
Plan B