Case study Alpino

1. Introduction

Alpino is world leader in designing and manufacturing headsets to be used with laptops and computers. Founded in India in 1998 it quickly expanded by exporting different types of headsets through channels that offered these to call centers and game enthusiasts. As revenues and profit continued to grow in the targeted direction the company stepped up its game by opening web shops and warehouses in Indonesia, Canada and the Netherlands.

2. Structure and staff

As of February of 2022 the company is made up of the following: Mumbai, India : headquarters, one flag store, a web shop, warehouse and a factory Toronto, Canada three warehouses, a web shop Amsterdam, the Netherlands one warehouse, a web shop Jakarta, Indonesia one warehouse, a web shop The warehouses handle the orders of the web shops and take care of shipping and goods returned by customers. The company is structured as a typical pyramid; wide at the bottom and small at the top. Each warehouse has a general manager who ensures day-to-day management of the employees. A general manager is in charge of 15 to 17 team coordinators that manage the employees of the warehouse. The general manager is to report to the Worldwide Warehouse Director (based in India). Both WWW-Director and the Factory Directory are members of the management team. Apart from those mentioned, the management team is staffed by a Purchase & Logistics director, Finance director, HR director and CEO. With the expansion in 2022, Alpino is now employer to around 42,000 employees.

3. Diversity

With Alpinos recent expansion the Alpino management team feel that they are much more in the limelight now then when Alpinos operation was restricted to India. To be considered a reputable company is important to share with the world what Alpino stands for and steer employees behavior in the desired direction. In order to show what Alpino is about and what kind of behavior is expected clear policies must be drawn and communicated on all relevant subjects. Currently, one subject particularly has become urgent to communicate about. That subject is diversity. Public pressure is building to hear Alpinos stand following an article in the Harvard Business Review which mentioned several companies, including Alpino, that remain silent on their stand. Head of HR has identified three specific themes Alpino needs to consider in their stand on diversity: nationality, LGBTQ+Q+ and religion. With its locations in various countries Alpino employees represent a number of nationalities. Unfortunately, the management team and managers of each location remain homo genetic in their composition: in India all management positions are filled by people from India etc. The management team welcomes a policy that in the future will result in a mixture of nationalities on all management levels. Additionally, Alpinos management team is in favor of measures to support LGBTQ+Q+ employees but have no idea what the company could do to help. Being a large company Alpino must have thousands of employees identifying as part of this community, but generally they are not visible. Therefore there are no issues relating to LGBTQ+Q+ employees that need urgent attention but it is assumed some members of this group might run in to problems without management being aware. Regarding religion the management team already had heard of issues as some Muslim employees wanted to celebrate Eid al-Fitr after the yearly fast but were not allowed the two days off they requested due to limited capacity at the specific location. An other issue related to some employees not accepting a female manager at one of the warehouses. After the local HR manager intervening it became clear that Christian employees objected based on their religious believes. A local newspaper turned it into an article that fortunately did not cause much of a stir but next time an similar issue could get out of hand.

4. Alpinos request

Alpinos management team want to be presented a policy on diversity including nationality, LGBTQ+ and religion. The policy should describe:- description of what Alpino does to facilitate, reject or honor the diversity aspect(nationality, LGBTQ+, religion). These measures need to include to which position(s) or location they apply.- the situation Alpino aims for per diversity aspect,- the reason Alpino aims for the situation as described and if relevant: how does Alpino benefit? Please make sure that the policy needs to ensure that local values and norms of the locations involved are not violated. Furthermore, the management team wants to emphasize that the policy or parts of it should not be copied from an existing source as this can lead to backlash from the public and/or the company involved.

5. Presentation

Prepare a 15 minute presentation a policy statement that relates to the subjects and describes Alpinos stand and what Alpino does to facilitate and/or honor that specific diversity aspect. Clear, specific measures on all diversity subjects mentioned (nationality, LGBTQ+, religion) that specify which position(s) are involved and to which location(s) these apply. The statement and measures are to be effective to accomplish the aims as stated by the management team, should not violate local legislation, local values or norms and is not copied from an existing source. It will be taken into account that checking for local legislation, values and norms might be difficult due to language.