An innovative company and a contemporary culture

1.What is expanded PTFE, an idea, a concept, or a new product? Explain your choice. What is Gore Tex fabric? Explain

As for my opinion, Gore-Tex expanded PTFE is a new product. Gore-Tex expanded PTFE was a material used to combat cardiovascular disease. When human arteries were seriously damaged that stop the flow of blood, Gore-Tex artificial arteries are able to replace the damaged part. Gore-Tex fabric was waterproof and windproof product which allow our skin breath. As for the mountaineers and adventurers, the Gore-Tex fabric is necessary gear for them. It can help people who work outside and in a bad weather. Even for the military personnel, they quite often use the pants, cloths, and gloves which made by Gore-Tex materials which can work well under the condition of sunlight, cold, chemicals and heat.

2.It seems that Gore Associates is heavily oriented towards technology; what are some of the dangers of being too heavily focused on technology? There are some of the dangers of being too heavily focused on technology. The first one is cost a lot. If company just focus on the technology, they will invest much more money in R&D department, furthermore, if too many projects come out based on the developing technology, which will waste tons of money. The other thing I want to stress on is that if company focuses on technology, which will lose the direction to develop company’s initial goals and ignore innovating and creating new things and lost other potential opportunities. 3.Explain how Bill Gore’s flat organization inspires new product development.

The Bill Gore’s flat organization structure provides a much freedom to the employees which can easily come up with new ideas. The factor is that the people who can make decision, it not base the seniority, but compare the knowledge. People who have enough knowledge and ideas about the projects will finally make a decision. There are not traditional bosses and managers, there is no predetermined command from boss which will kill the creativity from employees. Therefore, employees can communicate with each other directly, there is no limit who can accomplish it. In addition, there are associates who can provide the useful information and correct the mistakes
which may make by employees, which decrease the risk.

4.What has been the Gore STRATEGY to achieving success in its markets? How is this strategy now being challenged? The Gore‘s strategy that always keep on developing more patent and proprietary secrets, which allowed company achieved success in its market. They have already had over 150 patents yet, it will continue growing. However, when the Gore’s patent expired, the competitors of them will learn the information about the products, and then the company will face huge competition in their market. Especially, there are some high margin products which attract competitors to fight with the market share. Secondly, majority of company’s product depend on the PTFE material, if for any reason, if the product or the product process are unsafe for the environment aws detected, which will make Gore in deep trouble. However, this situation will appear in a lower degree, the company depends on the single raw material will cause threats to the company’s competitiveness.