Although the name W. L. Gore & Associates may not seem familiar to the ear, in all actuality, its products are some of the most well-known in existence. W. L. Gore is famous for its pioneering work with the polytetrafluoroethylene polymer, which lies as the backbone for many of Gore’s products, including its most famous, Gore-Tex. Founded on January 1, 1958, by the husband and wife team of Bill and Vieve Gore in the basement of their home, W. L. Gore & Associates has expanded internationally to a workforce of over 6,000 associates in 45 locations, with sales volume of over $1.84 billion last fiscal year. For thirty-five straight years the company has enjoyed profitability and constant positive return on equity, and from 1969 to 1989 had a compounded revenue growth rate of over 18 percent. Today, the company’s products can be found everywhere, including the automotive, aerospace, chemical processing, electronic, manufacturing, healthcare, military, and textile industries, with key products such as membrane vents, surgical products, aircraft sealant, outerwear garments. In addition, W. L. Gore & Associates is organized in an very unique and unusual way; there are no ‘bosses’ or set management. Instead, every member of the company is labeled as an ‘associate’ (besides Bob and Vieve Gore, who hold the titles of president and secretary-treasurer, respectively), and it is the responsibility of associates to pursue opportunities and assume responsibility. As of today, W. L. Gore has many opportunities to grasp and threats to prevent approaching in the near future. As W. L. Gore stands as the ‘name-brand’ in many industries with its quality reputation and Gore-Tex line, it holds the responsibility to break new ground in the areas of polytetrafluoroethylene technology as well as to take preventative measures to keep its role as king of the hill in several major industries. In order to hold their place as the dominant seller in their favored industries, W. L. Gore & Associates must choose between advancing as a technological pioneer or cutting costs and becoming the lowest priced provider available. If they were to pursue the first route, it may be to their advantage to expand their research and development departments, as well as reorganize the way they market their products. On the other hand, if W. L. Gore & Associates felt that the more prudent course of action would be to become the most competitively priced provider, the company would need to seek out and reduce superfluous costs more efficiently.
Throughout the history of the company, W. L. Gore & Associates has always worked as a single living and constantly adapting unit. With its unique organizational structure, the company functions more like a tight-knit family than its corporate counterparts. In many ways this has proven itself quite effective; for example, Bill Gore claimed that patent applications and innovative products outputted by his company was triple that of Du Pont, exemplifying the effects of the heightened levels of freedom and creativity in the Gore workplace. In this system, employees are encouraged to perform their best, as every employee shares the same general title, and are compensated based purely on their performance. This also enables the most competent and eager employees to more quickly advance to their more suitable leadership positions, increasing the efficiency of the company. Ultimately, W. L. Gore & Associates has been the groundbreaker in most of the areas they have pursued as a business, often being the first and only company producing certain niche products for years. This repeatedly has created a semi-monopolistic advantage for the company in emerging industries such as that of the legendary Gore-Tex outerwear, at least until the patents ran out. Simply put, W. L. Gore & Associates have had the technological advantage over their competitors throughout the history of the company. Another way the W. L. Gore & Associates has excelled is at keeping its company on a ‘tight-ship’ – in other words, the company has kept itself almost completely debt-free. As apposed to constantly juggling long-term loans and losing large amounts of profits in interest, Gore has only taken out long-term debt when it has been a smart decision, such as some industrial revenue bonds, which basically allow banks to lend money tax-free for certain uses. Conclusively, with a bit of luck on the part of the Gore family in essentially inventing the product that would shape their business for decades at its birth, and the unique corporate structure and responsible financial planning of the company, W. L. Gore & Associates has become one of the most profitable businesses in the world.
Although W. L. Gore & Associates has obviously experienced raging success throughout most of its life, it still does not function smoothly on some levels. One such place where the company could stand to improve is the seemingly uncaring way it treats its new workers. While the open and relaxed environment of the company may allow some associates to excel, the workers that do not immediately adapt to the system are often left to fall through the cracks. Some additional goals or guidelines should be implemented when this is seen to be occurring in order prevent the loss and waste associated with losing a fully trained associate that may be quite useful to the company. In addition, W. L. Gore & Associates has more superfluous costs and projects than that of one of its counterparts. One such influencing factor in this is that the company is very hands-off about the way its associates choose to spend their work-time, often having the freedom to start projects and give themselves goals as they find appropriate. If the business set its goals and needs more clearly to its employees, it would most likely find them producing more profit than with little to no guidelines, although overall creativity may be affected. One such area the company would be able to more efficiently pursue if more specific goals and guidelines were set is that of research and development. W. L. Gore & Associates must now, more than ever before, pursue and achieve specific research goals in order to retain its position as one of the leading technologically advanced companies in each of its respective industries.
The arrival of the 21st century brings many opportunities and threats for W. L. Gore & Associates. One growing danger for the company is the threat to the hold it has retained on its role as the technological leader in the polytetrafluoroethylene industries. A common and profitable technique W. L. Gore & Associates has used in the past is to invent new technologies and perform well in the new product sectors until their patents wear off, at which time they are forced to compete with other companies to a greater extent. Another encroaching danger to the company is the emergence of more and more competitors, with which come, of course, price and bidding wars. If Gore wants to avoid participating in a price war, it must take steps to keep the reputation of its products high and well-respected, as well as making the actual product live up to its heightened reputation, thus helping to warrant a higher purchase price. So far, Gore has often been able to avoid being forced to produce the lowest-priced product by constantly expanding to new industries. Slowing of technological advancement in the areas of production Gore focuses on may result in them having to change their strategies. Even so, although there are many possible problems forecasted for Gore to have to deal with in the near future, there are just as many emerging opportunities. W. L. Gore & Associates has, in recent years, emerged as a very respectable and well-known company, winning multitudes of awards internationally complementing the unique organization structure of the corporation and praising the company as one of the best to work for in nations across the world. Their ‘star’ product, Gore-Tex, is a household word, and W. L. Gore & Associates has the opportunity now to focus more resources into their most profitable sectors among their large web of products and industries.
W. L. Gore & Associates is currently in a very strong situation, and would not need to make many major changes to proceed in their successful path. Even so, a few general business strategy alterations must be made to adapt to the changing environment the company will soon find itself in. First, Gore must decide whether it wants to become involved in and attempt to win a price war in its current markets, transcend the price war by offering superior name-brand products, or continue in their current track of constantly researching and expanding to new markets, often as the sole business marketing certain product types. The only way to avoid the problems inherent with the arrival of more direct competitors in existing product markets besides becoming involved in a price war, is to strengthen the reputation of the company and products marketed. One way this could be done without actually having to change products would be to undertake more intense marketing practices that would both elevate the reputation of said products and increase accessibility potential customers have to those products. It would also be to the advantage of W. L. Gore & Associates to expend more resources on profitable product markets, and begin to pull back in those that do not benefit the company sufficiently. Also, Gore must reorganize and focus its research and development to specific and marketable new technology if it wishes to keep its position as the technological superpower in many of its industries. Instead of allowing individual associates to organize and conduct their own projects, more emphasis should be placed on massive research ventures to create new products to put on the market as soon as possible. Finally, although the unusual organization of Gore has obviously benefited the company in many ways throughout its history, changes should be made to prevent turnover, especially among recently hired associates. Many associates that are lost in the first months after being hired have potential value to the company if more practices were undertaken to help guide them in their first months, at least until they were more comfortable with the unique work environment of Gore.
Overall, W. L. Gore & Associates is in a very good position to continue on its current profits streak in the 21st century, and has relatively few problems to deal with in order to ensure that its profitable position will endure for generations to come.
