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W. L. Gore & Associates SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of W. L. Gore & Associates


Bob Gore, son of the founder of a privately held company (the inventor of Gore-Tex) is debating the pros and cons of going public, the main challenge of which will be the effect on a company that has developed a successful and innovative culture.

Authors :: Joseph Harder, D. Reid Townsend

Topics :: Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Tags :: Leadership, Leading teams, Organizational structure, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "W. L. Gore & Associates" written by Joseph Harder, D. Reid Townsend includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Gore Tex facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in W. L. Gore & Associates case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Leading teams, Organizational structure and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the W. L. Gore & Associates casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of W. L. Gore & Associates


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in W. L. Gore & Associates case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Gore Tex, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Gore Tex operates in.

According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.




SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix


SWOT analysis of W. L. Gore & Associates can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in W. L. Gore & Associates case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Gore Tex
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field.
4. Making a Innovation & Entrepreneurship topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Gore Tex




Strengths W. L. Gore & Associates | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Gore Tex in W. L. Gore & Associates Harvard Business Review case study are -

Strong track record of project management

– Gore Tex is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Analytics focus

– Gore Tex is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Joseph Harder, D. Reid Townsend can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Gore Tex are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Gore Tex in the sector have low bargaining power. W. L. Gore & Associates has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Gore Tex to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the W. L. Gore & Associates Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Gore Tex has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study W. L. Gore & Associates - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Gore Tex digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Gore Tex has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Gore Tex has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Gore Tex has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Gore Tex has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in W. L. Gore & Associates HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Gore Tex in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Gore Tex has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Gore Tex is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the W. L. Gore & Associates are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.



02468NatureWorks: Biotech Innovation, Sustainable Business, and Corn-based Plastic Chantal Cookware Corp. General Scanning, Inc. (A) Slicing Pie with a Razor: Ockham Technologies' Founding Agreement Carlton Polish Co., Chinese Version W. L. Gore & Associates
Net Promoter Score



Weaknesses W. L. Gore & Associates | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of W. L. Gore & Associates are -

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Gore Tex is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Gore Tex needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Gore Tex to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Gore Tex is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study W. L. Gore & Associates can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Gore Tex has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Gore Tex needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study W. L. Gore & Associates, is just above the industry average. Gore Tex needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Gore Tex has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.

Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy

– From the instances in the HBR case study W. L. Gore & Associates, it seems that the employees of Gore Tex don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.

Aligning sales with marketing

– It come across in the case study W. L. Gore & Associates that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case W. L. Gore & Associates can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Gore Tex is planning to shift buying processes online.

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the W. L. Gore & Associates HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Gore Tex has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Need for greater diversity

– Gore Tex has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study W. L. Gore & Associates, in the dynamic environment Gore Tex has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Gore Tex has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.




Opportunities W. L. Gore & Associates | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study W. L. Gore & Associates are -

Reconfiguring business model

– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Gore Tex to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Gore Tex can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Gore Tex is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. W. L. Gore & Associates case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Gore Tex can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Gore Tex to increase its market reach. Gore Tex will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Gore Tex can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Gore Tex has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study W. L. Gore & Associates - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Gore Tex to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Buying journey improvements

– Gore Tex can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. W. L. Gore & Associates suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Gore Tex can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Gore Tex operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Gore Tex to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Gore Tex to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Gore Tex can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Gore Tex in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Gore Tex to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.




Threats W. L. Gore & Associates External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study W. L. Gore & Associates are -

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Gore Tex can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study W. L. Gore & Associates .

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Gore Tex can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc

– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.

Increasing wage structure of Gore Tex

– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Gore Tex.

Instability in the European markets

– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Gore Tex will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Gore Tex with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

Backlash against dominant players

– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Gore Tex business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

High level of anxiety and lack of motivation

– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Gore Tex needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

New competition

– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Gore Tex in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Gore Tex can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Gore Tex high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Gore Tex in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Gore Tex has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Gore Tex needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of W. L. Gore & Associates Template, Example


Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study W. L. Gore & Associates needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants. We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –

First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study W. L. Gore & Associates is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.

Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study W. L. Gore & Associates is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.

Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of W. L. Gore & Associates is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Gore Tex needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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