W.L. Gore

One the companies I admire most - along with the rest of the corporate world - is W.L. Gore. The company is recognized for its invention of GORE-TEX® fabric but it produces so much more.

Gore is an Incspiration on many fronts, often required for true success:

Culture - First and foremost, Gore has succeeded at building a culture that is truly innovative. Beginning with Bill Gore, the founder, the company has flourished with a "flat lattice" organization. Everyone is an associate, they have "sponsors" not "bosses" and leaders are defined by their "followership" - basically emerging as leaders of a group of their peers.

Design - Success at product development at Gore is really a function of the culture. If you have a good idea, you are basically allowed to run with it over a defined period of time and develop your own "followership" to bring it from ideation to market.

Leadership - Leadership at Gore was defined by Bill Gore's original four guiding principles and is followed today. In fact, Terri Kelly, current CEO rose from the internal ranks, having started out of college and maintains Gore's philosophies. They are:

• Fairness to each other and everyone with whom we come in contact
• Freedom to encourage, help, and allow other associates to grow in knowledge, skill, and scope of responsibility
• The ability to make one's own commitments and keep them
• Consultation with other associates before undertaking actions that could impact the reputation of the company

Gore is consistently on Fortune's "100 Best Places to Work For" list, ranking 5th in 2006 and 2nd in 2005.

Sources: www.gore.com, Business2.0 "Best-Kept Secrets of the World's Best Companies" April 2006

iPod

There is no doubt that Apple “got it right” with the iPod. Looking around the bookstore café, while I write, there are about 30 people, almost half of which are listening to an iPod. In Austin, where I live, this is probably even on the low side for a typical gathering of people. There is no doubt that Steve Jobs, the product manager - Danika Cleary, the designers - under Jonathan Ive, the engineers -under Tony Fadell and the factory workers at Apple have all profited by this inspired product. Apple nailed it.

As rare is this success is, that isn’t enough. I believe that your future relies on not just matching the monetary success of the iPod that Apple enjoyed but absolutely rocking everything in your wake like the iPod has. What really set the iPod and Apple as the new standard is how they inspired consumers and a myriad of accessories, add-ons, stylized copies and pulled through profit for iTunes, competitors and more. Sure, Apple will get licensing fees from some of these accessories and add-ons but for the most part, they’ve indirectly created wealth for thousands through new product lines for speaker manufacturers, new small businesses, spawning of entrepreneurs making custom crafted leather holders, diamond studded slips and what ever else can inspire an individual or company to think of next.

Back to my visit to Borders - a quick walk around the store and I count seventeen (17) iPod accessories for sale in the bookstore. That is a small inventory compared to Target, Best Buy and others. When you get a coffee shop to carry items for the product you’ve made – and it isn’t a coffee maker, then you’ve nailed it!

Sources: Wikipedia

Incspiration (ink·spir·A'shun) n.

Incspiration (ink·spir·A'shun) n. A company that has attained a significant competitive advantage through inspired leadership, products, systems, people or a combination there of.

Incspiration is a term that I coined to represent my interest in seeing inspired corporate leadership in the form of:

• Executive Leadership
• Product Design
• Process and Systems - offering significant competitive advantage
• Work Environment and Culture

The goal of Incspiration is to highlight case studies that can give entrepreneurs, leaders, start-ups, large corporations and others, insight into how to gain significant competitive advantage and meet their most cherished goals.

It is my intent to show that inspiration is the "next big thing" in business but not just as a trend but as a requirement for success both in the past and for years to come.