The Un-manager

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Basically, Dave's process, which he calls "membrane distillation," involves passing water vapor from salt water through a Gore-tex membrane. Impurities are left behind and then the vapor condenses against a cold surface to recover potable water. He claims membrane distillation is considerably more efficient and less expensive than any other technique currently available. Even though he has only small units being tested, Dave says he is about ready to market them commercially. "We'll start with the $100 million-a-year market for pure laboratory water," he says, "and then we'll move to making drinking water from seawater. Worldwide, the market is probably worth billions. It's a little bit mind-boggling when you think of all the possibilities."

Could it be that virtually anything is possible in some kind of corporate paradise structured on the lattice? Is the lattice the answer to every problem? "No," says Bill Gore. "For example, established companies would find it very difficult to use the lattice. Too many hierarchies would be destroyed. When you remove titles and positions and allow people to follow who they want, it may very well be someone other than the person who has been in charge. The lattice works for us, but it's always evolving. You have to expect problems."

Sometimes, it appears, the lattice can even make life difficult for those it serves. Burt Chase, head of wire and cable, says the unhappiest moment of his 20-year career was caused by a sponsor who wouldn't sponsor. "I still don't know what his problem was," Chase says. "At the time, I was selling on the West Coast, and I had three men working with me. Time after time I'd tell my sponsor that if he didn't come through for me on one thing or another, I'd have to let the men down. He'd nod and say: 'Uh, huh, I'll take care of it.' But he never did. Finally, I had to go directly to Bill Gore. I guess Bill told him that there were some very unhappy men out there and that woke him up. Anyway, it's still a potential problem that we work very hard at avoiding."

And sometimes customers don't quite know what to make of it. "I was taken aback that something that loose could really work," says Eric Reynolds, founder of Marmot Mountain Works Ltd. of Grand Junction, Colo., and a major Gore customer. "I was also taken by the romance of it all, the idea of free spirits working together. But the more I've seen of it the more I think that the lattice works best in research and development projects. I think the lattice has its problems with the day-to-day nittygritty of getting things done on time and getting products out the door. I don't think Bill quite realizes how the lattice system affects customers. I mean, after you've established a relationship with someone about product quality, you can call up one day and suddenly find that someone new to you is handling your problems. It's frustrating to find a lack of continuity. But I have to admit that I've personally seen at Gore remarkable examples of people coming out of nowhere and excelling."

Associates asked to describe the lattice in operation act as if they have just been teased with an insoluble riddle. They do their best to capture a phenomenon that at times requires them to invent a new vocabulary. But in the end it becomes clear that the lattice to them is like breathing, something done every second and rarely thought about. "You don't come to work here and say 'Okay, now we've got to do the lattice system," says Carmela Avallone, head of fabric inspection. "The lattice is a feeling, a state of mind." And ultimately, they say, that feeling finds its way back to Bill and Vieve Gore.

Late on afternoon, Bill and Vieve were swapping stories about their adventures in the mountains of the world. Vieve suddenly changed the subject and began talking about a meeting the company had held for the associates on the previous Saturday. Some 600 associates filled an auditorium at the University of Delaware, she said, to listen to a detailed presentation about the company's results for the year and plans for the future. This was done regularly, she said, but this year was a little different. "My son, Bob, got up to speak," she said. "And then behind him were slides projected that he had put together showing Bill as a young man. There was even a picture of him going off a diving board. Bob looked at the pictures for a while and then he turned to the associates and said: 'My father was a young man once,' and that's how he introduced Bill."

As Vieve was telling the story she never stopped looking at her husband, and at the end of it she had tears in her eyes. And he never looked away from her, because they were talking really only for each other. He was looking at her and smiling faintly with utter tenderness.Vieve didn't say any more, but Carmela Avallone finished the story later. "When Bill got up," she said, "everyone started clapping, and then they stood up, and it went on and on, and there weren't many dry eyes that day."

"It's much better to use friendship and love," Bill Gore once said, "than slavery and whips. The results will always be much better."

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