Thomas Albero

The Future 50 feature in the January issue of SmartCEO magazine recognises Thomas Albero of Alliance Material Handling Inc among the area's top chief executive officers.

Albero, Alliance president and CEO, discusses how the Jessup-based firm transitioned to employee ownership, kept strong financials, worked through a downturn and built a team.

"Between 2004 and 2008, we managed two ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) transactions that made us one of a few 100% employee-owned forklift dealerships in the country," Albero says. "This change in ownership has significantly impacted our ability to retain customers and has also increased our marketshare. Every employee within our company has a much better understanding of how his or her actions and performance affect the value of our company's shares."

Albero discusses marketshare and profitability as factors in growth. "Marketshare certainly does not add to profitability unless we manage the additional segments of our business carefully," he notes. "We manage marketshare on a monthly basis to determine how many forklifts we sell compared to our competition and, more importantly, what our visibility and our positioning was in deals that we did not win."

A July 2001 merger of three businesses created Alliance. "Shortly thereafter, 9/11 took place, and the materials handling industry took a major drop in business across the nation," Albero says. "Over a period of two years, we re-evaluated the entire management team and combined five different branches into two. We had to select the right leader of the group and mix each group so that each former company had a critical leadership position with each branch."

Sharing the load is critical. "Great leaders must leave their egos at the door and instead focus on what needs to be done to build a great company," he observes. "They must also surround themselves with a great team. No individual can do it all, and a great leader must never be afraid to hire someone that has more skills in certain areas that are not strengths of that particular leader. They must welcome spirited discussions and always be looking for the next great idea, no matter where it comes from."

Albero, 46, joined Alliance in 2002 and was appointed CEO in 2005.

In addition to its Jessup headquarters and power centre, Alliance has facilities in Winchester, Richmond and Chesapeake, Virginia. Alliance represents the Crown, Clark, Combilift, Doosan, Princeton, Sellick and Genie brands of lift equipment and Cascade's line of forklift attachments.

Based in Baltimore, Maryland, SmartCEO magazine also publishes editions for the Washington and Philadelphia metropolitan markets.