Riordan Manufacturing is a mid-size American company that was founded in 1991, employs 550 people and has projected annual earnings of $46 million. Riordan has three manufacturing locations, two in the United States and one in China. Riordan understands the importance of strategic planning and will lay out their reasoning in this paper. Competitive advantages, sustainability, innovation and ethical and social responsibilities will be addressed, as well as cultural and structural leadership and assessment and feedback controls.
Riordan Manufacturing, Inc. needs strategic plans because Riordan Manufacturing, Inc. is like any other business organization; divided into two governing sections of business operations a management section and a functional section. Strategic planning is conceptual, pragmatic, and can deliver the highest and best results for business decisions and practices. “Strategic management is a set of managerial decisions and actions that determines the long-run performance of a corporation” (Wheelen, 2010, p. 4). Strategic management possesses four phases that are designed to have business managers’ focus on internal, external, and overall policy implementation of their management systems. The four phases of strategic management are financial planning, forecast based planning, externally oriented strategic planning, and strategic management (Wheelen, 2010). The strategic management approach was developed to assist large corporations that participate in more than one industry; this approach assists management in creating and maintaining a competitive advantage, reduces risk, reduces error, and might prevent economic ruin of a business organization. Riordan Manufacturing, Inc. can benefit from developing a strategic management system because Riordan Manufacturing, Inc. was Riordan Plastics, Inc. and are currently operating in more than one industry, market, and country.
Riordan Manufacturing has more than just a fiscal or legal