Gap Analysis: Riordan Manufacturing

Gap Analysis: Riordan Manufacturing

Riordan Manufacturing, a leader in producing plastics, is confronting a number of human capital challenges. The challenges are disrupting the work environment, which ultimately affects the bottom line of the company. In order to weather this storm, the company needs to identify these issues and convert them into opportunities. The executive team also needs to understand the major players who are being affected by these changes. After understanding the issues, opportunities, and major players, the executive team will create their end state vision to help serve as a roadmap to better define their end state goals. Finally, a short and concise problem statement needs to be created to allow the executive team to focus on the opportunities that it must use to achieve their end state vision.

Issue and Opportunity Identification

Riordan Manufacturing firm is confronting issues that are affecting its ability to maintain its performance standards as a global plastics producer. The executive team is dealing with issues regarding employee motivation, transition to a new customer-relationship business sales strategy, a diverse work staff, an ineffective benefit system, and a disagreement among the executive members on the next course of action regarding the overall compensation package. These challenges will determine the company’s competitiveness in the marketplace and its ability to retain and attract top talent. These challenges when managed positively also offer opportunities in creating a balanced, team focused, loyal, and committed work force and a united executive team focused on meeting the needs of their employees and its customers.

Stakeholder Perspectives

Managers, employees, and the customers are the three stakeholder groups in the Riordan scenario. Each group has their own rights, interests, and values.

Managers

In response to trends in the company, the management is making policy changes to the company strategy. The major change is the transition from an individual based sales program to a team based, customer focused strategy. As the executive team, it is their right to make this decision in a time when there are decreasing sales and uneven profits. The switch to a team based sales program will also involve the teamwork of a sales person, product engineer specialist, and a customer representative. The interest behind the decision was to increase innovation, reach new clients, and create new products by using a team environment. The executive team values integrity. Through the private consultant and their own research, the executive team understands that there are employee issues that need to be addressed in order for the company to regain its competitive advantage.

Employees

The employees are suffering from a lack of motivation, which is a result of a lack of a favorable compensation package. It is the employees’ rights to seek alternative sources of employment if they believe their needs are not being satisfied. The employees’ interest is the belief that they should be compensated in the form of bonuses, commissions, or salary for their quality of work. There is also a value of fairness in compensation. The employees believe that they should be paid in relation to market value.

Customers

The customers of Riordan are affected by the decisions, depending on the strategy direction of the executive team. After the completion of the benefit package, the customers have the right to determine if they want to continue to do business with Riordan. Their interest is will Riordan still be cost effective after the benefit plan rollout. Certain benefits may require an increase in price to the customers in order to support the new compensation packages. Finally, what is the value of the customers. Will they value the price of the products or the services that Riordan will be able to develop under the new sales strategy.

End-State Vision

Riordan Manufacturing’s goal is to be a global plastics producer leader. It will be leader in the marketplace in recognizing and implementing solutions to satisfy the needs of its customers and employees. To support its employees, the company will have a competitive compensation package focused on the value of team work and customer-relationship management. The package will foster a loyal, committed, balanced and integrated work force. The long term benefit of this type of staff is that, “Loyal employees have greater opportunities to learn, thereby increasing their efficiency. The money these employees save you in reduced recruiting and training costs can be invested elsewhere” (Bryant, 2000). By implementing opportunistic solutions,