Built to Innovate: Essential Practices to Wire Innovation into Your Company’s DNA

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EXECUTION AND INNOVATING

TWIN ENGINES POWERED BY EVERYONE IN THE ORGANIZATION

The materials company W. L. Gore was founded in 1958 by maverick engineer Wilbert Gore and his wife, Genevieve, usually known as Bill and Vieve. Bill Gore was fascinated by the innovative potential of a then little-known substance known as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). A few years later, PTFE would become famous as a coating for cookware under the brand name of Teflon. But in the meantime, Bill Gore and his son Bob had discovered that PTFE could be “stretched” in the lab to form a microporous structure that is 70 percent air.

The Gores commercialized PTFE as Gore-Tex, a waterproof yet breathable fabric membrane ideal for creating all-weather garments. To this day, ...