W L Gore Case Study
ASSIGNMENT 2 - CASE STUDY
High Performance at W L GORE
Service/Product: Gore-Tex manufacturer
Famous for: Inventing world-renowned high-performance fabrics for leisure, industrial, electronic and medical purposes
The business strategy: Delivering continuous innovation by turning management principles on their head
High performance learning points:
• Unique form of work organisation designed to support employee collaboration and creativity;
• Leaders replace managers to deliver high levels of innovation;
• Use of informal communication to achieve high levels of trust;
• Use of ’sponsors' to facilitate continuous development and training and achieve a close link between personal development and organisational needs;
• Remuneration system based on ‘peer’ evaluation;
• Uses strong organisational culture to underpin everything that the company does.
“Delivering continuous innovation by turning management principles on their head”
INDUSTRIAL CONTEXT AND BUSINESS STRATEGY
This is the story of the UK branch of a US multi-national company that for the last three decades has achieved continuous innovation in its products. Starting with its unique textile, Gore-Tex, for which it is best known, the company has created new fluoropolymer products by sustained creative research and development and through getting close to their customers and exploring new ways of satisfying their needs. They have developed new products for next-generation electronics, for medical implants as well as high-performance fabrics, “we provide the marketplace with differentiated products that add value to the customer’s business and make a profit”, Ann Gillies, the Human Resource Manager at Gore commented. So confident are they of their ability to sustain innovation that they have a policy of moving out of product areas once their patents expire and other companies start to compete on the basis of price, to devote their creative energies to developing new products. In this organisation,
High Performance at W L GORE
Service/Product: Gore-Tex manufacturer
Famous for: Inventing world-renowned high-performance fabrics for leisure, industrial, electronic and medical purposes
The business strategy: Delivering continuous innovation by turning management principles on their head
High performance learning points:
• Unique form of work organisation designed to support employee collaboration and creativity;
• Leaders replace managers to deliver high levels of innovation;
• Use of informal communication to achieve high levels of trust;
• Use of ’sponsors' to facilitate continuous development and training and achieve a close link between personal development and organisational needs;
• Remuneration system based on ‘peer’ evaluation;
• Uses strong organisational culture to underpin everything that the company does.
“Delivering continuous innovation by turning management principles on their head”
INDUSTRIAL CONTEXT AND BUSINESS STRATEGY
This is the story of the UK branch of a US multi-national company that for the last three decades has achieved continuous innovation in its products. Starting with its unique textile, Gore-Tex, for which it is best known, the company has created new fluoropolymer products by sustained creative research and development and through getting close to their customers and exploring new ways of satisfying their needs. They have developed new products for next-generation electronics, for medical implants as well as high-performance fabrics, “we provide the marketplace with differentiated products that add value to the customer’s business and make a profit”, Ann Gillies, the Human Resource Manager at Gore commented. So confident are they of their ability to sustain innovation that they have a policy of moving out of product areas once their patents expire and other companies start to compete on the basis of price, to devote their creative energies to developing new products. In this organisation,