Pole-cat works

A skunkworks project is a project developed by a small and loosely structured group of people who research and develop a project primarily for the sake of radical innovation. The term originated with Lockheed's World War II Skunk Works project.

My dad use to call skunks, "polecats" which I guess is slang for skunks. From Wikipedia, Skunks are mammals in the family Mephitidae. ... In the United States, the term polecat is sometimes applied to the black-footed ferret, a native member of the Mustelinae, and (loosely) to skunks, which are only distantly related.

That is how the name came about. Pole-CAT Works Division develops projects outside the scope of Rainmaker Ideas. The first project is "HO-MER".