...Explain what happened to the Gore-Tex brand after the patent expired in 1996. Once the main patent on the Gore-Tex fabric expired, the company lost all rights to its invention, and it opened the door for other companies to offer comparative products at a lower price. Many companies make waterproof membranes now, and some have advanced past Gore-Tex in terms of durability and function. Gore no longer has the ability to protect the make-up of The Gore-Tex brand so competitors have flooded their once exclusive market with “generic” versions (knock-offs). These competitors are many and diverse so there is no single company that competes with them in every area. A fabric that would enable moisture to escape and at the same time prevent moisture from entering would seem unachievable, but that is precisely what the Gore-Tex® fabric does. Rain coats incorporating the Gore-Tex® fabric were first introduced way back in 1976, hence the patent for the breathable fabric expired in 1996. However, new patents are still active on improved methods of making Gore-Tex® fabric. There are now many generic versions of breathable fabric on the market. The success of the product has largely been witnessed in the 1990s as outdoor pursuits grew rapidly in popularity during this period. This led to an explosion in sales of Gore-Tex related products, such as coats, back-packs, shoes and trousers. Indeed, clothing manufacturers who used the Gore-Tex fabric in their garments, such as Berghaus, Karrimor and...
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...Confirming Pages g Frank Shipper Greg L. Stewart Salisbury University CASE 26 W. L. Gore & Associates: Developing Global Teams to Meet 21st-Century Challenges1 University of Iowa Charles C. Manz University of Massachusetts–Amherst n 2010, W. L. Gore & Associates celebrated its 52nd year in business. Founded in 1958 by Bill and Vieve Gore in the basement of their home, Gore had grown into a global enterprise famous for its high performance fabrics, medical products, and next-generation electronic products, as well as its use of self-empowered teams of employees (called associates at Gore). In its earlier years, the company had endeavored to restrict the size of its different corporate facilities to 200 associates or fewer, a practice that helped keep the number of teams at a given facility to a manageable number and facilitated cross-team coordination. More recently, however, to better cope with the challenges of a global marketplace, increasing numbers of teams were composed of associates in different facilities, sometimes facilities that were spread across three continents; the coordination of team members working in different facilities was enabled by online communication. In 2010, Gore’s products were sold on six continents and used on all seven continents, as well as under the ocean and in space. The company global operations required teams of associates to tightly coordinate their activities in developing, producing, and marketing...
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...Assane DIOUF MBA-Bronx Campus MG- 800 Case 4 : WL Gore Introduction W.L. Gore started as a small company in their basement and has grown into a giant manufacturer with the company’s products being used globally in almost all sectors, including automotive, aerospace, chemical processing, electronic, manufacturing, healthcare, military, and textile industries. W. L Gore and Associates is best known around the world for producing high performance fabrics, medical products and electronics using polytetrafluorethylene; an artificial fiber referred to as PTFE. The company was founded by Wilbert L. Gore (Bill) and Genevieve Gore in 1958 after Bill left his job at DuPont. Today, W.L. Gore with the guidance of the Gore Family is renowned for not only the products that they produce, but also for their unique culture and design that has set the pace for which others such as Google try to emulate Swot The first and most apparent strength of the W.L. Gore company is its diversity of products. The company is able to market to a variety of industries on a global level, including electronics, medical industry, IT, aeronautics, and telecommunications. This diversity affords the company some protection financially should there be any negativity in a given market segment. Another important strength of the company is its strong growth and financial performance over the long-term. According to the information presented, it has been profitable for 37 years and has consistently ranked...
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...Week 3 Gore-Tex Case Study 1. Explain what happened to the Gore-Tex brand after the patent expired. What activity can firms use to try to maintain any advantage developed during the patent protection phase? When the original patent expired, Gore-Tex lost all rights to their invention. This allowed other companies to make similar products at a lower price. They now have many competitors. To maintain the advantage, Gore-Tex needs to use their packaging to continue identifying themselves as the superior creator of this type of products. They need to continue selling their brand by placing their labels in highly visible locations. 2. List some of the wide range of products where the Gore-Tex fabric has been applied. “Today the organisation divides its products into four main groupings: medical products; fabric products; electronic products; and industrial products.” (Trott 99) * Medical- implants, vascular grafts, dental implants, and patches * Electronics- cabling used in telecommunication, aerospace, medical industries * Fabrics: waterproof and laminates for backpacks, raingear, coats, gloves, and shoes Reference: Trott, Paul. Innovation Management and New Product Development, 4th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions. <vbk:9781256085539#outline(8.12.7.1)>. 3. It seems that Gore Associates is heavily oriented towards technology; what are some of the dangers of being too heavily focused on technology? Many times, being too focused...
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...about management innovation without tipping your hat to W.L. Gore, the venerable maker of Gore-Tex and a host of other pioneering materials and products as diverse as synthetic vascular grafts, Elixir guitar strings, and Glide dental floss. Lauded as "the world's most innovative company" time and time again, Gore's wholly original (and endlessly inspirational) model for creating a true democracy of innovation is firmly rooted in the story of founder Bill Gore. More than half a century ago, in 1958, Bill Gore quit DuPont to start a business aimed at imagining and commercializing new uses for polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)—the material popularized as Gore-Tex. But he wasn't simply interested in inventing new materials or selling products, he was bent on creating an entirely new kind of company—one that unleashed and inspired every person in it, one that put as much energy into finding the next big thing as milking the last big thing, one that was robustly profitable and uniquely human. Bill Gore concevied of W.L. Gore as a kind of experiment in management innovation—one that is still ongoing. The questions that drove him at founding are crucial questions managers everywhere must grapple with today: Was it possible to build a company with no hierarchy—where everyone was free to talk with everyone else? How about a company where there were no bosses, no supervisors, no managers and no vice presidents? Could W. L. Gore preserve a sense of family and collegiality even as it scaled...
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...Organizational Behavior – Gore-Tex case 1. What impresses you about this company? Is it well-managed? To what extent does the management style match what business schools tell you about 'how to manage'? High-performance organizations are categorized as businesses that constantly perform better than their competitors and they want to bring out the best in people. A flat lattice arrangement emphasizes on putting together groups of like-minded experts who work together on a common objective. What impressed us is how the Organizational cultures impact and affect the individual components of the processes and performance within Gore- Tex and also in Gore Tex all the employees are allow to be associates which in other word give incentives to work harder as they feel responsible for the company . Therefore, Gore-Tex has enhanced its organizational culture to be designed for high performance, in order to boost and execute the best possible strategy. 2. How successful was Bill Gore in defining the business, developing a strategic vision, and crafting a strategy to achieve performance objectives? The case states that Gore-Tex has been very creative and successful with due to its unusual organizational structure and management. Gore-Tex’s flat lattice arrangement allows direct communication among each other and accountability to members of the multi-disciplined teams. With such open channels of communication, employees (associates) are able to meet and discuss projects and other...
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...Case: Creative Jobs at W. L. Gore Professor Doyle Young Regarding the case of ‘Creative Jobs at W. L. Gore’, husband and wife Bill and Vieve Gore founded W. L. Gore & Associates; the basic principle for work at Gore is teamwork, there are no managers, there are just teams of employees assigned to work on opportunities. Once hired the employee is given a “sponsor”, the sponsor is someone who is committed to the sponsored employee success and provides the employee with learning opportunities, getting him or her involved in a particular project or helps the employee build relationships with others in the company. After getting adjusted a new employee is expected to balance autonomy in how they work with the responsibility for meeting team goals. (McGraw-Hill Companies, (2011), Fundamentals of HRM Fourth Edition, New York, NY, pages 119-120) Gore creates an environment in which each employee owns his or her own destiny and makes an individual commitment to the success of the company. It's an exciting and stimulating atmosphere because employees have the freedom to work in businesses or on projects that they are extremely passionate about. That passion pays off in business results. (All Answers Ltd., (2003-2016), Study of W. L. Gore, England and Wales, http://www.ukessays.co.uk/essays/management/study-of-wl-gore.php) Some strengthens you acquire working around teams would be that since you were hired based off your talents, skills and knowledge and not to fill a specific...
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...BMW V GORE: 517 U.S. 559, 116 S. Ct. 1589, 134 L. Ed. 2d 809 (1996) By Bianca Prado Sue Ganske BUL4310 2/11/16 Copyright 2016 Bianca Prado BMW V GORE: 517 U.S. 559, 116 S. Ct. 1589, 134 L. Ed. 2d 809 (1996) When I was first looking through the list of cases, the letters BMW stood out to me. The reason for this is because I am person who’s always been into luxury high class vehicles and never in my mind did I believe BMW had a case with a buyer. This is when I immediately knew I had to look further into the case and find the main key points that made me find this case so intriguing. In this particular case BMW V GORE the petitioner who is BMW, was selling slightly damaged cars for their full price values and never reported the damages to the buyers as they purchased their cars. The respondent Dr. Gore, was one of many who had purchased one of these damaged BMW and was then awarded actual damages, from the 4 million dollars on punitive damage he was given, it was later reduced to 2 million dollars by the Alabama Supreme Court. In BMW V GORE, it began in 1990 when Gore had purchased a black two door BMW from an Alabama franchise of BMW of North America which happens to be the Plaintiff. Gore went nine months driving the car with no problems. He even mentioned that he wanted this car to make him feel “Young and alive” again like his teenage years. After having the car for nine months, Gore decided it was time for his car to get detailed which led him to take it...
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...Rondell Data Corporation and W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc. Question: President Bill Hunt is clearly uncomfortable sacking Frank Forbus, that too on Christmas Eve. He says, “I can’t understand why we have such poor luck in the engineering director’s job lately”. If the present trend at Rondell continues, future engineering directors too would, quite likely, find their jobs on the line; even as yet other new products are likely to overshoot schedules. Based on a comprehensive examination of the case, what would you suggest to help Rondell with their present problems? Answer: Rondell Data Corporation is grappled with inter departmental conflicts with rampant blame game. Every department beginning from sales till production kept blaming each other. Each one had their own goals and were aligned to achieve those. For example: Sales people were more inclined towards meeting the customer needs, in a broader terms the market demands as and when required. Moreover, they were more gripped towards maintaining the reputation of Rondell, i.e.“providing varied and differentiated products to the consumers, right from its inception”. So, the sales department took up orders and kept giving false promises of delivery dates to the consumers which at most times overshoot the scheduling...
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...Case study notes This case study explores a very unique organisation: W.L. Gore Associates. It explores the role of organisational management and culture within a very innovative firm, which is responsible for some very well-known products such as the famous Gore-Tex fabric, and yet few people know much about this remarkable organisation. It is operated in a way similar to that of a cooperative such as The John Lewis Partnership in the UK, where the employees are also owners. In addition, the organisation seeks to minimise management with the emphasis on action and creativity. Case study questions 1. Explain what happened to the Gore-Tex brand after the patent expired. What activity can firms use to try to maintain any advantage developed during the patent protection phase? Competitor products emerged (generic versions if you like). To compete, it was necessary to develop the brand. This is something that has not happened. What else could it do? 2. List some of the wide range of products that the Gore-Tex fabric has been applied? All sorts of clothing, shoes, coats, etc. Also, windsurf sales and kite surf sales. What else could it be applied to? 3. It seems that Gore Associates is heavily orientated towards technology. What are some of the dangers of being too heavily focused on technology? Myopic views such as not listening to customer views, too focused on technology. Missing opportunities that may exist, which involve minor changes. Also, marketing mix considerations need to...
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...Gap Inc. In 2010 1. The five forces of analysis about the strengths of competition presents what you should be prepared for. If you are in the clothing industry then you have you have to look out for new people who are coming into the industry. You have to see how much your competition is selling their clothes for. Also how much your customers are able to buy the clothes for. 2. The main factor is having the latest fashion trends and then to be able to quickly bring that into the market. They also need to make sure their clothing store isn’t like all the ones within the customers shopping range. Another factor is being able to create brand loyalty so that the customer will stick with the product. Many rivals dedicate a considerable amount of resources for brand building and advertising. 3. The strongest overall competitive position would be TJX, they had the leading off-price retailer of clothing in the United States in 2010. They would be the strongest competitors because they sell their products at 20-60 percent below department store’s prices. The lowest competitor would be AEO, they don’t have as many stores as the other three competitors do. They aren’t bringing in as many customers as GAP is bringing in, so they don’t pose as much as a threat as the others would. 4. Their strategy in 2007 was to improve the appeal of the company’s product lines and expand its business internationally. The strategy that they are using is the best-cost provider strategy...
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...Summary: Al Gore: clear proof that climate change cause extreme weather by Severin Carrell is an article that shows the effect of climate change. In the firsts paragraphs, the writer introduce Al Gore which is a former US vice president and the fact that he thinks that climate change cause extreme weather all around the world. Secondly, to support his statement Gore gives us many arguments and one of them was that many scientific discover that there was a connection between carbon emission and the increase of extreme weather. Also, to support his statement he use a lot of statistic. For example, he said that scientific proved that water vapor increase by 4% in 30 years. Finally, Gore says that the young generation is another big factor because it’s a generation of demand. In other words, young children are claimer regarding technology and this is not often green. Response: In my view, climate change cause extreme weather because human activity. Since the Industrial Revolution has increased the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, leading to increased radiative forcing from CO2, methane, tropospheric ozone, CFCs and nitrous oxide¹. According to work published in 2007, the concentrations of CO2 and methane have increased by 36% and 148% respectively since 1750. Also, I think the future impacts of climate change will be uneven. Many risks are expected to increase global warming. For example, low-latitude, less developed areas face the greatest risk. A study from 2015...
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...Customer focus Definition | Why it is important? | Customer focus is the commitment to putting customers first and ability to deliver a consistently high quality service Customers are both internal (i.e. colleagues) and external (i.e. the community, tenants/service users or other organisations). | All employees must demonstrate a full understanding of customer needs and expectations to enable the effective delivery and development of appropriate quality services which exceed customer expectations | Level 1 | Level 2 (+ Level 1 ) | Level 3 (+ Levels 1 & 2) | Level 4 (+ Levels 1, 2 & 3) | * Identifies and clarifies individual customers needs * Takes pride in delivering high quality services and seeks to expand own skills * Resolves customer enquiries promptly at point of contact and only refers to others when genuinely appropriate * Interacts well with all customers taking into account customers diverse needs * Understands all services and accurately matches these to customers needs * Keeps customers up to date and informed * Deals with customers fairly and equitably | * Consistently makes decisions focussed on customer needs * Analyses delivery of services and provides solutions to problems * Finds different ways to satisfy customer needs * Constantly questions “how will this benefit the customer?” * Seeks customer feedback to investigate ways to improve customer experience * Goes beyond their day-to day work to assist customers...
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...AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH I. Introduction An Inconvenient Truth presents ex vice- president Al Gore and his passion to help save our planet. This documentary attempts to impact citizens through factual evidence about the reality of global warming and that it is caused by the actions of the people. Whether or not we agree with Mr. Gores theories obviously some kind of action must be taken. It is important that we as a people understand our position, so that we can shift the crisis effecting our world. Based upon the main ideas and a “ call to action” plan, Al Gore demonstrates a documentary that was personally informative and life altering. Gore distinguishes between fact and fiction. The accurate warnings and scientific analysis should not be disregarded. Gore focuses on the main issues that affects us as a whole by concentrating on the facts and setting politics aside.. Gore’s explanation of many factors that cause global warming were shocking. The various causes ranged from climate to fuels. Seasonal changes are effecting our gulf and jet streams. According to Al Gore, “the ten hottest years occurred within the last fourteen years,“ as a result we are faced with a climate shift. This shift creates hurricanes, typhoons, droughts and tornadoes to occur in unusual locations. Carbon dioxide and fossil fuel are at high levels. The more carbon dioxide released the warmer temperatures become. The disappearing canals, trees, and animals are key indicators of global warming. The melting...
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...likely to experience. The film features a strong political figure, Al Gore (former Vice President of United States), to unleash the astonishing facts and predictions related to Global Warming, which is undoubtedly one of the biggest societal concerns today. The main purpose of the film is to educate the citizens of the world about the highly severe environmental challenge of global warming by separating the truth from the fiction and the actual connections from the misunderstandings, and to reenergize the environmental movement. It tries to convince people that it is their moral imperative to hear the environmental warnings that are scientifically sound. The film documents a revolutionary slide show by Al Gore that he estimates to have given at least 1000 times across different locations around the world. The documentary contains stark visuals of the recent natural calamities, possible future disasters and the mind-boggling graphs that force the audience to take a deep interest in the issue. It uses small animated clips to explain the phenomenon of global warming, highlight its probable impact on polar ice caps and foresee the likelihood of extinction of the living organisms there. The slide show in the film is interspersed with several anecdotes from Al Gore’s personal life which act as psychological tools aimed at helping the audience realize the importance of this much ignored environmental problem. Al Gore talks about his experience when he almost lost his son and how that...
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