W.L. Gore’s Guiding Principles and Core Values
In addition to the sponsor program, Gore associates were asked to follow four guiding principles:
1. Try to be fair.
2. Encourage, help, and allow other Associates to grow in knowledge, skill, and scope of activity and responsibility.
3. Make your own commitments, and keep them.
4. Consult with other Associates before taking actions that may be “below the waterline.”
The four principles were referred to as fairness, freedom, commitment, and waterline. The waterline principle was drawn from an analogy to ships. If someone poked a hole in a boat above the waterline, the boat would be in relatively little real danger. If, however, someone poked a hole below the waterline, the boat could be in immediate danger of sinking. The expectation was that “waterline” issues would be discussed across teams and plants before decisions were made
The operating principles were put to a severe test in 1978. By this time word about the qualities of Gore-Tex fabric was being spread throughout the recreational and outdoor markets. Production and shipment had begun in volume. At first a few complaints were heard. Next some of the clothing started coming back. Finally, much of the clothing was being returned. The trouble was that the Gore-Tex fabric was leaking.
Peter W. Gilson, who led Gore’s fabrics division at the time, recalled, “It was an incredible crisis for us at that point. We were really starting to attract attention; we were taking off-and then this.” In the next few months. Gilson and a number of his Associates made some below-the-waterline decisions. First, the researchers determined that oils in human sweat were responsible for clogging the pores in the Gore-Tex fabric and altering the surface tension of the membrane so that water could pass though. They also discovered that a good washing could restore the waterproof property. At first this solution, known as the “ivory snow solution,” was accepted.
A single letter from butch, a mountain guide in the Sierras, changed the company’s position: “my parka leaked and my life was in danger,” butch wrote. Gilson noted, “That scared the hell out of us. Clearly our solution was no solution at all to someone on a mountain top.” All the products were recalled. Gilson remembered: “we bought back, at our own expense, a fortune in pipeline material-anything that was in the stores, at the manufacturers, or anywhere else in the pipeline.”
In the meantime, bob Gore and other Associates set out to develop a permanent fix. One month later, a second-generation Gore-Tex fabric had been developed. Gilson told dealers that if a customer ever returned a leaky parka, they should replace it and bill the company. The replacement program alone cost Gore roughly $4 million.
Sometimes when retail customers were dissatisfied with a garment, they returned it directly to W. L. Gore stood behind any product made of Gore-Tex fabric even though analysis of returned garment often revealed that the problem was not due to the Gore-Tex laminate. According to Sally Gore, even if garment manufacturers were responsible for design flaws, the Gore-Tex name was still at stake: “So we had to make good on products that we were not manufacturing. We now license the manufacturers of all our Gore-Tex fabric products. They pay a fee to obtain a license to manufacturers products with Gore-Tex laminate. In return, we oversee the manufacture and we let them manufacture only design that we are sure are guaranteed to keep you dry, that really will work. Then it work for them and for us-it’s a win-win for them as well as for us.”