Products out of Fluropolymers

Executive Summary

It goes without saying that W.L. has experienced much success in their field since their inception in 1958. W.L. Gore & Associates is an American manufacturing company that focuses on making products out of fluropolymers. The most well known product they have is the waterproof breathable fabric, which is called Gore-Tex. Founded on January 1, 1958 by the married couple of Bill and Vieve Gore in the basement of their home. The company has experienced enormous success from their humble beginnings and has expanded globally to employees over 6,000 associates in 45 offices with sales over $2.5 billion in 2009. W.L. Gore & Associates products can be found in a myriad industries including: automotive, aerospace, chemical processing, electronic, manufacturing, healthcare, military, and textile. The core of their product line includes: membrane vents, surgical products, aircraft sealant, and outerwear garments.

W.L. Gore & Associates is a unique company and its uniqueness has enabled them to experience much success since its foundation in 1958. Two reasons for their success have been their organizational structure and culture of placing importance on relationships. The corporate culture at W.L. Gore & Associates encourages a family type of atmosphere unlike their competitors. Everyone at Gore shares the same title (as an Associate) and performance is the only factor that determines your success and promotion. Being that everyone is labeled as an "associate" no one has a "boss", it creates a very unique type of work environment. Gore aims to empower their employees to be more accountable and assume leadership within the organization more than traditional companies. They believe this is the best way to ensure that employees perform well and keep the productivity high.

Even though Gore experienced much success using their unique strategy in the past, due to the their growing nature, the time has come to rethink their strategy. It is important to note that rethinking the strategy and not the culture should be the focus. Gore has associates spread across the world and they need to improve their technology efforts to improve the communication across borders. Now they have associates who work daily with associates in other countries and there needs to be some type of revamping to adapt to the current times.

Analysis

When analyzing Gore at a corporate level, they employ a strategy of unrelated diversification. The four core divisions - electronics, fabrics, industrial, and medical - cover a wide range of products, which were previously mentioned. Like most of the products Gore develops, many are developed from polytetrafluorethlene (PTFE). Some examples of PTFE include: insulated wire, Gore-Tex, and Glide dental floss. The strength of having diversification among the various divisions protected Gore against any possible swings in any industry and allowed them to invest in several different areas. Their diversification, quality product, and strong communication provided the recipe for success. The strategies of each of the company's four division center upon a theme of differentiation and focus on high quality product as previously mentioned. They did not want to short themselves simply by cutting their prices to compete however they believed in developing a product, which could be used as the focal point for their competitive advantage over similar companies.

In terms of executing strategy, the corporate culture is an aspect that cannot be ignored. Gore has employed a strategy that centers on an emphasis of unique leadership, unique associate incentives, motivational tactics, and benefits, and a supportive organizational structure. Gore throws the traditional organizational hierarchy out the window and encourages employees to own their task like it was a business they were running. This type of innovative culture has inspired a unique type of passion and drive for success in its employees far different from their competitors.

For product management, Gore was divided into four divisions: Electronics, Fabrics, Industrial and Medical. The electronics division develops and manufactures high-performance cables and assemblies as well as specialty materials for electronic devices. The fabric division develops and provides fabric to the outdoor clothing industry as well as the military, law enforcement, and fire protection industries that is able to protect the wearer in addition to being comfortable and easy to wear. Gore is able to market there fabric division across four brands: GORE_TEX, WINDSTOPPER, CROSS-TECH and GORE CHEMPAK which is why Gore is considered to be a leader in secondary branding which allows them to provide material to leading retailers such as North Face, Marmot, Salomon, Adidas, and Puma.

Another competitive advantage that Gore possessed was the ability to use the technology derived from PTFE and ePTFE to create a highly differentiated and unique products that main purpose was to create the highest-quality of goods that met and exceeded the needs of customers and not just produce the lowest-cost good. Their commitment to producing superior goods allowed them to market to a variety of different customers. Gore believed that positive experiences with their products would be shared among customers and potential customers leading to more sales.

Another competitive advantage at Gore is that their associates have commitment to make a conscious effort to share technical knowledge that are seen as a key factor for the development of current and future products. Product specialists are used as a bridge between manufacturing, sales, and technology to facilitate and increase communication throughout the organization. In addition to product specialist fostering communication throughout the organization monthly technical meetings designed to present information to other associates and colleagues about innovations in their division. However, due to the need to protect this information in a global environment from competitors Gore holds over 2,000 patents worldwide in all areas in which they compete. Information was only distributed to partners through a need-to-know basis.

Another competitive advantage that Gore possesses is their continued growth strategy. Growth at Gore was derived from two sources. The first source was associates' innovation and that Gore's culture was designed to foster such innovation and allow ideas to be energetically pursued, developed, and evaluated.