Performance Improvement Strategies for AC Gilbert: A Case Study

This article discusses the performance improvement strategies for AC Gilbert, a company with declining sales and performance. It covers the proposed processes, key performance indicators, implementation issues and failures, and contingency plans to address them. The article also includes action plans and a schedule for evaluation and continuous improvement.

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Change Management
Name:
Course
Professor’s name
University name
City, State
Date of submission

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TASK 2
Performance improvement strategies for AC Gilbert
With a declining sales and performance, AC Gilbert needs a good performance
improvement strategy to be able to attract back the customers it had over the years;
Some of the key performance improvement strategies include;
1) Capitalize on quality produced- Jack Wrather upon successfully buying majority
of the company compromised on quality which AC Gilbert Senior had focused on
for 50 years. It was prudent if quality was maintained while focusing on
advertising.
2) Advertising- Jack Wrather could have focused more on TV advertising which was
more popular in the 60s and this could have increased the sales.
3) Sales- the company should have focused more on personal relationship which
had been the culture of the company and had realized great fruit since its
inception (Bolman and Deal, 2017).
4) Manufacture more popular toys- the 60s had seen the change in culture in the
US, with children being more rebellious and less conservative. Educational toys
were no longer popular and AC Gilbert should have shifted their focus more on
popular toys like Barbie and racing cars for boys (Barney, 2014).
Strategic goals
Most of the strategic goals were pegged on profits;
1. Increases sales to $20 million per year
2. Increases quality of toys produced while increasing the lines of toys
manufactured.
3. Increase the annual profits
4. Having a management that was aware of the customers’ needs and the
relationship between the company and the customers.

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5. Have a strategic flow of goods from them to the retailers to the final customer.
Description on proposed processes or amendment to current process
When Jack bought the majority of the shares from AC Gilbert, he wanted a company
with good reputation that was going to be profitable upon his input. He had an
expansion strategy and change of management that was struggling. The process
involved producing popular toys in the market, aggressive sales through salesmen and
TV advertisement and increased line of toys to meet market demand. However he
compromised on quality and the parents realized that there was no value for money on
the toys (Goetsch and Davis, 2014).
Brief explanation of how proposal will improve performance and competitiveness
This proposed processes will increase sales and improve key performance indicators.
Increased sales on TV will increase market visibility of AC gilberts toys while producing
more line of toys will improve the market competitiveness. Change in management was
to bring people who have more clue on the market dynamics and changing trends
therefore improving the performance and competitiveness within the industry (Hill and
Schilling, 2014).
KRAs & KPIs
The following are the key performance indicators;
Profitability
Sales
Customer satisfaction
Employee retention and turnover rates
Market visibility

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TASK 3
5).Examine implementation issues and failures.
The reason why the company closed in 1967 was because of implementation issues
and failures
1. The company was too fast and drastic in changing the culture of the organization.
2. The quality of toys produced were not up to standard as have been previously
produced.
3. The company was very fast in expanding
4. It never considered the times that the company sells more that is during
Christmas period.
5. Tended to over rely on sales representatives
6. Critically analyses the causes of these implementation failures and draft a
report describing how the contingency plans will address them.
The causes of the implementation failures were drastic change in business model and
the introduction of many changes that the customers did not receive well. The
company’s rapid expansion strategies and producing more lines of toys without
regarding quality was also part of the problem (Ginter and Swayne,2018). The
contingency plan was to increase sales through TV advertisements which was popular
at the time and have close relationship with the customers as was the culture of the
company from its inception (Hayes, 2018). Changing the management to a more market
survey management will help in improving the customer’s sales and improving quality of
popular brands produced by the company. The distribution channels should also be
addressed to improve sales in the company.

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7. Amend action plans and contingency plans to address the implementation
failures.
a) Improve quality of toys produced
b) Manufacture more popular toys to veer off from the more conservative
educational toys
c) Increase sales presence
d) Change management to a more market oriented
8. Develop a schedule for evaluation and continuous improvement. Include
regularly scheduled:
a. evaluation activities, regularly repeated over a suitable timeframe
Strengthen projects
 Use multiple approaches
 Address real issues
 Create a participatory process
 Allow for flexibility
 Build capacity
b. evaluation activities to capture learnings from all work activities
Manufacturing is the first activity, then sales the distribution. These are all the work
activities that should be captured in AC Gilbert Company.

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References
Barney, J.B., 2014. Gaining and sustaining competitive advantage. Pearson higher ed.
Bolman, L.G. and Deal, T.E., 2017. Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and
leadership. John Wiley & Sons.
Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational
excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.
Ginter, P.M., Duncan, W.J. and Swayne, L.E., 2018. The strategic management of
health care organizations. John Wiley & Sons.
Hayes, J., 2018. The theory and practice of change management.
Hill, C.W., Jones, G.R. and Schilling, M.A., 2014. Strategic management: theory: an
integrated approach. Cengage Learning.