Bill Gore
Case 4: W.L. Gore & Associates: Developing global teams to meet 21st century challenges. 1. What impress you about this company? Is it well managed- why or why not?
* The company has been successful grow from small home operations to massive operations and still has the same culture as in the beginning. * The company has a good record of growth and therefore should also have good profits. * The company operates outside the traditional structure like the mission statement, a code of ethics (units may provide their own if they feel the need), formal job descriptions, managers, boss and so on. * Even though the company has grown they still use the principles of a small company. Such as being close knit, personal atmosphere, small business units, decentralisation decision making, and employees getting a lot of responsibility and input. * The unique human management – the lattice structure, the sponsor program, personal growth and development, the four principles, employees lots more responsibility and decision making, compensation -monetary/ non monetary for employees and the focus on leadership rather than management. * Innovation the company has no formal R&D but many new developments have come from Gore like dental floss and so on. Also all employees are encouraged to be creative.
2. How would you characterise W. L. Gore’s competitive strategy? What are the key elements of the strategies employed by its electronics, fabrics, industrial, and medical diversions?
* Gore is a company built on technology The competitive objective of Gore was to use core technology derived from PTFE and ePTFE to create highly differentiated and unique products. * Board product differentiation - unrelated diversification -Electronics, Fabrics, Industrial and Medical * Diversified conglomerate- product management – divided into four divisions, protect against swings in industry unrelated diversification * Maintain competitive pricing
* The company has been successful grow from small home operations to massive operations and still has the same culture as in the beginning. * The company has a good record of growth and therefore should also have good profits. * The company operates outside the traditional structure like the mission statement, a code of ethics (units may provide their own if they feel the need), formal job descriptions, managers, boss and so on. * Even though the company has grown they still use the principles of a small company. Such as being close knit, personal atmosphere, small business units, decentralisation decision making, and employees getting a lot of responsibility and input. * The unique human management – the lattice structure, the sponsor program, personal growth and development, the four principles, employees lots more responsibility and decision making, compensation -monetary/ non monetary for employees and the focus on leadership rather than management. * Innovation the company has no formal R&D but many new developments have come from Gore like dental floss and so on. Also all employees are encouraged to be creative.
2. How would you characterise W. L. Gore’s competitive strategy? What are the key elements of the strategies employed by its electronics, fabrics, industrial, and medical diversions?
* Gore is a company built on technology The competitive objective of Gore was to use core technology derived from PTFE and ePTFE to create highly differentiated and unique products. * Board product differentiation - unrelated diversification -Electronics, Fabrics, Industrial and Medical * Diversified conglomerate- product management – divided into four divisions, protect against swings in industry unrelated diversification * Maintain competitive pricing