1) In terms of its management and method of achieving objectives, Gore’s associates is very unique. Some impressive components of Gore Company are how the workforce/associates is set up in terms of innovation and cohesiveness, involvement of coaches and building and promoting of relationships and how less authoritative and hierarchical the company is. This is based on the fact that employees address each other by their first name and they are not obliged to disclose all information to their superiors, building company cohesiveness. It can also be seen that the company is well managed due to their sales level and ability to expand throughout the globe. These practices have broken the stereotypes taught in business school.
2) As unique as these companies are to one another, the competitive edge focuses around two main factors which are differentiation and quality. The primary goal of W.L. Gore was to create differentiated products to satisfy customer needs using PTFE and ePTFE methods and styles, clearly using a broad differentiation strategy as they appealing to a variety of customers in the areas of Electronics, Fabrics, Industrial Materials and Medicine.
3) One key approach used by W.L. Gore is that of their differentiated approach to leadership. This included many aspects such as having a variety of leaders such as plant leaders and functional leaders to handle various special tasks without consolidation of higher management. Also the reduction of job titles and hierarchy level allowed for better flow of information in the company which meant that there were faster transfers of information between associates which would contain ideas that the company can use to maintain or improve their current competitive advantage. Another aspect to maintaining their competitive advantage was through the use of rewards which were linked to achieving their goals and strategies.
The Essay on Are the Company’s Prices and Costs Competitive?
Tutor: Date: Are the company’s prices and costs competitive? The pricing system as well as cost deployed by an organization contributes to a large part in its competitive edge. Notably, in the current competitive world meticulous consideration is crucial in both pricing and costing on either products or services. Considering pricing as well as costs in Xerox, an organization dealing in consumer ...
4) The culture at Gore is based around oral communication and the building and maintaining of relationships, flexible leadership styles and rewards. This was because W.L. Gore believed that these factors would allow for a more direct transfer for information and the building of relationships would allow for a better productivity level and overall running of the enterprise. It can be argued that this company’s culture is healthy and largely supportive of good strategy execution due to the fact that by building relationships, having flexible leader styles and a stable reward system, new ideas on differentiation and innovation of can come about so which can be consider by management. This would aid in potentially improving their competitive advantage by having new productions which are different from competitors.
5) Gore instills in culture through the use of various coaches/mentors, a system called “Gorecom,” for communication purposes and monetary rewards for contributions by salespeople and other employees. The role of monetary rewards through pay and non-monetary rewards through stocks served as a means of instilling and maintaining the company’s culture and strategy. This was because when objective are achieved both in the long and short-term, these rewards were given. Therefore, employees would work along the lines of what allows them rewards and this would maintain the culture of the organization. Due to this, it should not be difficult for Gore to staff managers to maintain and direct employees to upkeep the culture.
The Essay on Organizational Culture Change Organization Company
"The way we do things around here" is the key phrase in defining organizational culture. Culture is comprised of the pervasive attitudes, values, and norms of a company. According to Hagberg and Heifetz, the people who can truly identify an organization's culture are outsiders- new hires, consultants, et cetera ("Corporate"). This occurs through a process called nor ming, where employees are ...
6) W.L. Gore’s view of leadership differs greatly from most companies. It was based on a dynamic and fluid process. Individuals who were not hierarchical leaders would sometimes step into lead based on factors such as knowledge of an areas or if they possessed certain skills. Leadership was basically seen as being without titles, hierarchy or official structure. Based on their culture of building relationships and being flexible it can be seen that leaderships does not play a significantly important role in the company.
7) Gore aid in achieving a cross-functional fit across their diverse areas due to the fact that they spread their culture and factors of it across the entire company. This culture aided in providing control over decentralized operations due to the factors such as flexibility. Associates in various sections could be easily appointed leaders when needed and due to their expertise they would be able to maintain control and direct resources efficiently towards achieving the objectives of the section. This, couple with other factors such as reward pay, would help to maintain culture throughout the organization.
8) A major factor W.L. Gore Company would have to take into consideration is the fact that markets are constantly changing. Therefore the company would have to change some of its cultural factors and practices. They may need to interact on a more virtual level as rapidly changing markets would hinder travel between countries due to cost. They would also need to conduct research to find out how much of their businesses would still be in demand and then take the necessary action to either expand or close down the business.
