Capstone Course

Capstone Course: Week 5: Implementation, Strategic Controls, and Contingency Plans



Implementation, Strategic Controls, and Contingency Plans

Introduction

Albany International Corporation was founded in 1895 by three businessmen in Albany, NY. Originally, the Albany Felt Company, the name was changed to Albany International Corporation when the company merged with Appleton Wire Works, a U.S. company, and Nordiska Maskinfilt, a Scandinavian company. The company recorded revenues of $914.4 million in the fiscal year ended December 2010, an increase of 5% over 2009. The company's operating profit was $81.2 million in fiscal 2010, as compared to an operating loss of $38.2 million in 2009. Its net profit was $37.6 million in fiscal 2010, as compared to the net loss of $33.5 million in 2009. The company is listed in the New York Stock Exchange with the ticker AIN. The company employs over 5,000 as of yearend 2011. The company made turnover of US$ 914.4 million in the same year.

Implementation plan

The objectives of the plan include an enhancement of the company's operating and financial performance in the next 3 years. The functional tactics that can be used in this plan include ADKAR model. This model is one of most commonly known and followed change management models especially for companies that belong to the retail industry. Albany International Corporation will have to develop and implement a multilateral change management approach that can address the need to correct and repair the damage that has been done. The action item would include diversification of operations, additional of brands, and extension of markets (Mintzberg, Ghoshal, Lampel & Quinn 2003).

The strategic plan is to be implemented under Joseph G Morone, President and Chief Executive Officer of Albany International. The executive board of the company should use professional bureaucracy system to enhance the participation of all stakeholder. It would require empowering the employees, enhancing the channel partner participation in defining the market development planning. Customers should also be allowed to provide their views on company's service, product availability, taste and preferences, pricing structure. Effectiveness of the strategy implementation will be dependent on the 360 feedback mechanism (Barney 2007). Strategic plan that would enable improving the efficiency and performance of the organization based on resources level is as follows.

$100 million investment should be used to improve the manufacturing facility with a focus on improving processing and filling operations. This would help in reducing overhead and other operational costs.

Company should extend its logistics base through heavy duty truck. It should purchase five trucks that would be sued as a mean to transport the finished goods from factory to warehouse. Including, a loader and un-loader machine should be used at warehouse site to avoid breakage and damage to the products during the movement process (Pearce & Robinson 2011). This would improve the service performance of logistic division that is currently dependent on the tractor and trailer.

Company should install mixers and cutters in the production process to improve the cutting process of ingredients. It would directly enhance the production capacity of the company and ...