Executive Summary
Riordan Manufacturing is a global company specialized in the manufacture of plastics. The company has a total of about 550 employees and its annual revenues are approximated to be 46 million dollars. The company produces products such as beverage bottles, custom plastic and plastic fan parts. These products are manufactured at Albany, Georgia, Pontiac, Michigan, and Hangzhou, China. Riordan’s headquarters are located in San Jose, California. The company has a wide client base including the Department of State Defence, aircraft manufacturers, appliance manufacturers and beverage bottlers and makers. The company is in dire need of a new management and leadership program to enhance the nurturing of young individuals in the company. The main objective of the leadership and management program is to enhance the future stability of the firm and also ensure that employees are responsible. Leadership programs help identify new leaders and nurture them to take over from the current crop of leaders. The current system of the leadership and management program at Riordan Manufacturing is ineffective and requires restructuring or introduction of a new leadership and management programs as proposed in this paper.
Introduction
Riordan Manufacturing is a key player in the plastic industry. It deals in the production of plastic for home appliances, beverage bottles, plastic bags and other equipment made of plastic. The company’s headquarters is in San Jose, California. However, its production activities take place in Albany, Georgia, Pontiac, Michigan, and Hangzhou, China. The company’s internal structure outlines its system of management and how the operations are run within the organization. The company has an inefficient system of leadership and management development. The company has 17 executives and 15 top level managers. These total estimate of the company’s employees is 550. The proportion of the managers to the people they lead is quite low, indicating that the leadership and management system is inefficient. The company needs a new system of management and leadership to ensure that future leaders and managers perform their roles exceptionally well. There are several leadership and management development programs that can develop the level of leadership and management at Riordan Manufacturing.
Summary of the proposed development program
Riordan Manufacturing needs to develop a management and leadership program that is inclined towards serving its employees, clients and to help develop new innovative products and diversify the company’s fortunes. This can only be achieved if a comprehensive development program is identified. The program can be a combination of several management and development programs, which are designed to address various issues in a company. A combined development program is effective because it meets the needs of employees, clients, management, products and all other issues that the company management may want to address.
Technology leadership and management development program
This development program is focused on improving the technological innovativeness at Riordan Manufacturing. The company faces challenges in its manufacturing process since the cost of production is quite high. More so, there are opportunities of improving and saving the company a lot of money if they focus more on recycling old plastics into new products. Therefore, the company needs new technology to help identify various ways of improving productivity and efficiency in the company. This will save the company a lot of money hence; it will improve profitability. Leadership development programs in technology would help the company transform into an efficient and conservative company with no pollution, environmental friendly products and cheap production levels. The program will help identify charismatic and innovative leaders or professionals who will be responsible for the technology leadership development.
Commercial leadership development program
Riordan Manufacturing should also be transforming into a company that is market driven. The marketing staff requires massive strengthening to ensure the company will have a strong presence all over the world in the future. The company needs to tap into some of the growing markets such as Africa, Asia and Latin America where its products have not yet reached. This is only achievable if there are able and talented individuals taking charge of the marketing department. The commercial leadership development program involves the identification of young members in the marketing department and nurturing them. It involves training on various marketing issues and giving them experience in different areas to help them learn how to handle different marketing situations. Commercial leadership development programs will also help Riordan Manufacturing expand its marketing department to reach the level of that of a global company. The company has relatively a very low number of marketing staff compared to other global companies. The program would help improve the marketing activities and strategies used by the company to increase its sales across the globe.
Operations leadership development program
This form of management and leadership development is designed to help in offering necessary hands-on management and leadership experience. It helps provide vibrant and accelerated leadership nurturing and development to people with executive level potential. Riordan Manufacturing has few executives whose performance currently is outstanding. To ensure that this trend goes into the future, it is necessary to start a management and leadership development program that is entirely inclined towards improving the operations experience. The day to day operations within Riordan’s major production companies in the US and China require people who can steer the company capably. A development program would be instrumental in identifying people with potential and the will to work to achieve the organization’s goals.
Objectives
The objectives of this proposal are all inclined towards the various proposed leadership and management development programs. The objectives of the proposal for Riordan Manufacturing can be outlined as follows;
- The last objective will be to enhance and raise the operational standards in the company to ensure that there is maximum productivity and employee performance. This is achieved by ensuring that the employees have undergone the operations leadership and management programs.
Goals
The goals in this case would imply the goals of the program, leaders, the organization and managers. The goals of the program would be to ensure that the company has specialized and experienced managers and leaders who can steer the company into prosperity through technology, marketing and operations. These areas are important to the organization hence; this program is inclined to boost the areas that require improvement and adjustment.
The goals of the managers and leaders are similar because the managers are also the leaders in the organization. The main reason for undertaking the leadership and management program is to identify a crop of new leaders in different levels and areas of specialization. These leaders would then be nurtured and trained to undertake their duties in a professional and effective manner. The objective of the managers and leaders is to ensure continuity in leadership, to increase the level of production at Riordan Manufacturing. It is also to provide experience and training to young and new employees, which will help raise the productivity of the company.
The organization’s goals are long term in nature. Riordan manufacturing is dedicated towards ensuring that it provides quality services and products. The company’s goals include expanding into a global company with market presence on all the continents. The company aims at diversifying its products to ensure that it meets the various requirements of its clients and to increase the sales. The level of technology used is intended to be raised and the marketing approach realigned. The company also aims at ensuring that the company operations run smoothly. These goals will be achieved through the implementation of the leadership development program that will raise the expertise of managers and leaders in technology, operations and marketing.
Therefore, the leadership and management development plans intended to be undertaken by Riordan Manufacturing will be instrumental in raising the performance of the employees, organization and the productivity. The levels of production and performance will be raised when the experience of managers in technology help improve production while the operations managers raise the company operations. Finally, the commercial leadership development plan will promote the market presence in various places all over the world. Therefore, the leadership development program is an integral part of the realization of Riordan Manufacturing’s organizational objectives. The programs will ensure that the 550 person workforce is fully exploited because the leaders will have the experience on how to harness the labour force and the resources available to produce admirable results.
References
Gill, R. (2006). Theory and practice of leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Nahavandi, A. (2009). The art and science of leadership (5th Edition ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Yukl, G. (2010). Leadership in organizations (7th ed. ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
