W.L. Gore & Associates, most commonly known for its Gore-Tex fabrics, actually makes unbelievable number of products – more than 1000! Among those worth to be mentioned are Gore's medical products, such as heart patches and synthetic blood vessels, its cutting-edge fabrics, which are worn by astronauts as well as trekkers at the North Pole, filters for reducing air pollution at large factories, assemblies for fuel cells that convert hydrogen to electricity, and… guitar strings.
Privately owned Gore doesn't release its annual financial data, but it’s well-known that its revenue has steadily grown during the last years: from $1,58 bn in 2004 to $1,98 bn in 2005. In some businesses the company has become the market leader, f. ex. with its smooth Glide dental floss and Elixir guitar strings, which last three to five times longer than normal strings. Fortune repeatedly names it among the “100 Best Companies to Work for” (in 2007 Gore listed on the 10th).
The company was founded in 1958 by Bill L. Gore and his wife Genevieve in Delaware. Professional chemist Gore had worked for DuPont for 17 years as an engineer. Having created his startup, he developed a process for insulating electrical wire with DuPont's Teflon and this became Multi-tet, the company's first product. Robert W. Gore, son of the founders, in 1971 created a very strong, microporous material, patented as GoreTex, and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006 for that invention.
But Gore’s culture is much like Gore-Tex, its most famous product.
This culture was invented, nurtured and cultivated by Bill Gore. In his company he tried to create the ideal environment for a guy like himself - a somewhat crazy buttoned-down engineer (Gore & Associates' strategy still depends on its engineering prowess: the company insists that its new ideas have to be "unique and valuable" - dramatic improvements, not me-too products). During his DuPont career Bill Gore became a fierce enemy of hierarchical, sluggish corporations. He liked to say that "communication really happens in the car pool", meaning that at a hierarchical company the car pool is the only place where people can talk freely. But his following observation was even more interesting: Gore discovered that traditional pyramidal DuPont’s structure vanished during crises, when specially created working teams operated out of the old rules, took risks and often made big breakthroughs.
So why, Bill wondered, should we have to wait for a crisis? And he broke all the rules, creating absolutely nonhierarchical organization without any statuses and titles. In W.L. Gore & Associates you can’t find descriptions of administrative functions and the word “boss” is not used at all. All the employees (from an ordinary salesman to the marketing department’s head) are called associates. One remained official position is CEO, but this is not more than a concession to the juridical requirements. Employees’ business cards typically contain the name of one of the four Gore’s business divisions (fabrics, medical, industrial and electronic products), but making a phone call a person introduces himself just as an associate. Today 7500 associates in 45 locations around the world work in Gore.
There is one business legend often told at W.L. Gore & Associates. In 1965 Bill Gore was passing around a new plant and suddenly realized that he didn’t recognize every employee anymore. It motivated him to state a principle of no more than 200 people working under one roof. And everyone must know everyone by face and name. Gore & Associates doesn’t have a magnificent headquarters, as traditional corporations usually do. Its low buildings are dispersed on the large area and often totally autonomous. Gore is forced to occupy skyscrapers only for its offices in Europe because of the very expensive land there.
Bill Gore was also possessed by the idea of "natural leadership." According to this idea people aren’t born as leaders. They become leaders by actually leading, and if you want to be a leader there, you have to recruit followers. In that case you as a leader become a talent magnet: you attract other talented people who want to work just with you.
And all the above doesn’t mean chaos. The company necessarily has some structure and there is indeed a CEO, Terri L. Kelly, who joined Gore as a process engineer in 1983. There are four business divisions, each have a "leader", as do certain companywide support functions (HR, IT) and specific businesses and cells. But as a Gore "associate," a person supposed to change role over time to match his or her skills. Gore encourages risk taking. Its employees devote about 10% of their working time to thinking over new projects even if they seem to be absolutely fantastic. But when Gore people are unhappy to promote a failing initiative, they'll still have a "celebration" with beer or champagne, just as if it has been a success. Even though Gore is private, it rewards its associates with stock. Everyone who has worked there for at least one year receives the equivalent of 15% of their salary in the form of stock in the private company, which they can cash out if they leave.
Background links:
The Fabric of Creativity, Fast Company In this article there are a lot of additional facts about Gore’s history, corporate culture and innovations.
100 Best Companies to Work For 2007, Fortune Here you can find statistical data about company’s employees, jobs and benefits.
Свобода, равенство и братство, «Управление компанией»
Gore.com
