W.L Gore & Associates looked forward to the development of an organization which managed its operations with the help of strategically segregated functional units. The lattice structure of management proved to be a major game changer in the multi-fold growth that Gore & Associates experienced and the key was a basic approach towards well defined goals in small groups. It will be interesting and important to look at the entire organization structure from a SWOT perspective.
The mission W. L. Gore & Associates should be to ensure sustained productivity and constant addition of new products with the help of innovation and teamwork, the valuable resource management strategy must continue to make the above two possible.
Being a 2.5 billion revenue enterprise with over 9000 employees, W. L. Gore & Associates has come along way and now the vision should be to join the fortune 500 group in the coming decade.
Company SWOT Analysis
Strengths - W.L. Gore & Associates started with a clear operational strategy however maintained Lattice structure of management which ensured that all the roles and responsibilities are well identified by the employees however the hierarchical boundaries are very less, this helped to allow the employees to work together in groups with a common goal and self-manage the expectations and service delivery. Lack of bureaucracy and zero surprise for all employee levels is present as well. [ CITATION Ben08 \l 1033 ]
Weaknesses – The absence of hierarchy may suppress the value of growth, which is a major factor for employee motivation and can lead to minimal effort from them unless there are other checks in place to stop such a practice.[ CITATION Met05 \l 1033 ]
Opportunities – Multiple teams are working together with constant and consistent performance with a common goal to approach growth through innovation. [ CITATION Gra10 \l 1033 ]
Threats – Lack of control as authority not clearly defined in the organization and may lead to employee and performance issues that need a direct control.[ CITATION Met05 \l 1033 ]
Financial SWOT Analysis
Strengths – Vertical financial growth with multiple teams approaching new products in different areas, also the appraisal and compensation is based on rigorous feedback mechanism that leads to very effective productivity and earnings moreover only promotes candidates who are productive, thus saving costs and providing direct financial benefit.[ CITATION Met05 \l 1033 ]
Weaknesses – Multi-skilling of departments not possible as separate teams for different goals are working together, moreover the cost of resource management is higher due to faded leadership presence. For example, we discussed in the case study that Gore believed in the theory of Robin Dunbar and created small teams with maximum 150 members, moreover the departments work separately altogether and therefore the resource management is effective but costly[ CITATION Gra10 \l 1033 ].
Opportunities – Very strong market analysis before the product launch helped to minimize the financial risk after the final launch. New patents ensure that there is a pre-planned approach of entry and trust in the market which helps to achieve long term financial goals. Based on the study, there are over 918 patents and many more pending, which means that there are still lot of opportunities for new products to be launched and generate revenue for W. L. Gore & Associates[ CITATION WLG11 \l 1033 ].
Threats – Patent challenges have proved really troublesome for W. L. Gore & Associates in the past and the most important patent of Gore-Tex faced a federal lawsuit in the year 1981 after which the other organizations started developing similar materials at that time $700 million was the income of W. L. Gore & Associates only from Gore-Tex products. Hence unapproved patents and patent termination is a major risk and threat for the company.
Company SWOT Strategies
Communication and Lead-by-example are the key strategies that are implemented in a ‘Lattice’ organization, W.L. Gore & Associates have worked together to drive the operations across departments in a similar fashion, the communication drives the behavior and innovation is the primary objective as displayed by Elixir, Gore-Helix and Gore-Tex products. [ CITATION Gra10 \l 1033 ]
The Leadership is not defined or forced on the employees however they are allowed to choose their own leaders, as the goal is to develop resources that are able to deliver according to their commitment. [ CITATION Gra10 \l 1033 ] The absence of a pyramid structure may prove a weak strategy as there is nothing mentioned about a clear personal growth path of the employees. The opportunity is defined by the various patents that the company possesses and hence there are multiple areas that can be expected to get penetrated through the technology that is being regularly improved at W.L. Gore & Associates[ CITATION Gra10 \l 1033 ]. Lastly, the threat may be that in the absence of a pyramid system how long will the organization sustain it self as a workforce, and driving the same output across various departments is difficult.[ CITATION Gra10 \l 1033 ]
Strength and Opportunity Comparison
If we compare both of them we will find that the strengths of this organization will bring various opportunities in future and all the current Patients and products developed may be expected to bring new revolution in various other areas.[ CITATION Fla03 \l 1033 ].
Strength and Threats Comparison
W.L. Gore & Associates is now a highly valued name in the market, considering the data that we have seen in the case study from Grant, the high number of patients and the various products currently launched in the market are definitely providing the organization the strength that it can fight the resource management and patent challenged related threats, it is clear that even after loosing the patent for Gore-Tex the company recovered and reached 6000 employees in 1995, hence the threat of patent loss may not impact the organization due to continuous innovation. [ CITATION Fla03 \l 1033 ].
Works Cited
Benko, Cathleen and Molly Anderson. "THE CORPORATE LATTICE: Achieving High Performance in the Changing World of Work." Research. 2008.
Flamholtz, Eric and Wei Hua. "Searching for Competitive Advantage in the Black Box." European Management Journal Vol. 21, No. 2 (2003): 222–236.
Grant, Robert M. "W.L. Gore & associates: Who's in Change here ?" Case Study. 2010.
Metawie, Miral and Mark Dr. Gilman. "Problems with the Implementation of Performance Measurement Systems In the Public Sector Where Performance is Linked to Pay." 3rd Conference on Performance Measurements and Management Control. Canterbury: University of Kent at Canterbury, 2005. 2-14.
W.L Gore & Associates . Gore.com. 2011. 16 June 2011
