Developing a corporate compliance plan for Riordan Manufacturing

Riordan Compliance

Riordan Corporate Compliance Plan

The following corporate compliance plan has been developed to manage the legal liabilities of Riordan Manufacturing's officers and directors. The company expects its leadership to serve as models for all employees in the company in regards to ethical and legal conduct in all actions, and there are several areas of decision making and influence that the officers and directors of Riordan Manufacturing hold that require special knowledge of legal obligations and restraints. This corporate compliance plan will detail many of these specific concerns, as well as providing a basic template to ensure compliance with proper procedures, policies, and legal and ethical considerations at all levels of the business, which must necessarily come from the top of the organization if it is to be seen at al levels.

ADR

In order to maintain access to American stock exchange markets, the directors and officers of Riordan manufacturing must ensure that all required forms are filed in a complete and timely manner with the appropriate offices. It is also the responsibility of the Chief Financial Officer as well as other company staff and the board of directors to ensure that company information is reliable and up-to-date. Company officers also bear the responsibility of properly communicating all financial information regarding the company to both federal agencies and to the depositary institution in the United States that handles the sale of the company's depositary receipts. Maintaining complete and accurate records is essential in terms of ADR compliance.

ADR is a substantial means for Riordan Manufacturing to grow its business and increase profits to its shareholders, as well as providing additional security and benefits to all employees of the company. Compliance with the United States' Security and Exchange Commission guidelines in the operation of the company and in the analysis and reporting of financial data is ultimately the responsibility of the Chief Financial Officer of the company. Financial information and SEC filings should be regularly reviewed by members of Riordan's board of directors to manage both personal and corporate liability for any mistakes or outright misconduct, the latter of which should be dealt with immediately with the direct termination of any officer or employee found to have deliberately engaged in ethically or legally endangering activities. This will ensure a culture of compliance in the company.

Enterprise and Product Liability

The liability of the enterprise in legal matters can be all but eliminated by simple ethical care and duty being practiced by the company's officers and directors. Refraining from engagement in any activities that might tend to limit fair trade and/or establish a monopolistic tendency as defined in various anti-trust acts will greatly limit the enterprise's liability in this regard. This is primarily the responsibility of the board of directors, who must guide Riordan manufacturing in its pursuit of growth without overstepping the bounds of fair business practice. The proper and fair use of information within the company will also limit potential legal liabilities that the board and the enterprise could be opened to.

Product liability is a major concern for the company, and Riordan Manufacturing must have a top-down policy of adherence to all safety laws and quality measures. In this matter, Riordan Manufacturing -- from its corporate officers to its assembly-line workers -- must strive to maintain higher-than-legal standards for all of its products and operations. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission may develop standards as it sees fit whenever an undue real or potential danger is exhibited, and its is the goal of Riordan manufacturing to maintain pre-emptive standards that will hold the company not simply in compliance with legal safety standards, but will propel the organization to the forefront of the industry in matters of safety compliance. Operations officers must maintain rigid quality control to bring this to fruition.

International Law

Maintaining international viability and the maximum growth potential requires compliance with international laws, both in the day-to-day operations of the company and in its larger corporate actions. Site managers of foreign operations sites must be prepared with the proper information in order to maintain legal standards in the country of operation; oversight by company officers in this regard will maintain consistent standards and procedures across all of Riordan Manufacturing's operations. Trade borders and boundaries will also be respected, and Riordan employees and officers must make it standard practice to ensure that all products and raw materials are labeled with their country of origin and/or destination as needed, and that this information will be filed with appropriate governmental and international agencies.

The use of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), as it is a more stringent and more internationally-recognized method of accounting and reporting financial data than the United States' more loosely-defined GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) will also ensure the company's compliance with international law in all areas of its business and operations. The planned transition of GAAP with IFRS principles and standards, and the likely elimination of GAAP as an acceptable system in the near future, also warrants the inclusion of IFRS policies in Riordan's compliance plan. Compliance with these accounting principles, as practiced by the Chief Financial Officer and overseen by the board of directors, will lead to the employment of specific legal standards in the actual financial operations of the company, as well, strengthening international compliance overall.

Tangible and Intellectual Property

The protection of Riordan Manufacturing's patents and property rights is something the company takes very seriously, and as such it must also take into account these rights as they apply to others in its compliance procedures. All developments, production lines, and company publications must be thoroughly checked for originality, and any externally-derived information or processes must be verified as either legally purchased for the express purpose to which they were used, used in a manner that is in compliance with international fair use standards as defined by international copyright treaties, or can be shown to belong to the public domain through the lack or expiration of copyright.

Riordan Manufacturing must be equally zealous in its compliance with laws that establish the protection of tangible as well as intellectual property. From officer-level planning to site-specific managerial oversight of the resources used and products manufactured, the strictest standards of non-infringement and company originality must be maintained. This attitude of oversight and compliance must extend to the design of products, the machines used in the manufacturing process, and all other physical implements used in the company's operations. Company officers, in making production plans and acquiring materials for use in production, must ensure that goals and needs can be met without any possibility of infringing on the tangible or intangible property rights held by others.

Human Resources

Though company officers and directors will not typically be involved in the majority of human resource management decisions, company compliance with all applicable human resource management laws and standard must begin at the highest levels of the company, and oversight of specific practices and instances must extend to this height in the company as well. Maintaining a proper diversity in the company must begin with the officers of the company, if not with the board itself (which is less under the control of company guidelines). Racial and gender-based discrimination cannot and will not be tolerated at any level within the company, and this policy should be highly visible.

Human resources management will largely consist of on-site oversight, but overall standards and strategies should be regularly reviewed and updated by company officers. Employee benefit packages (especially healthcare and other areas of governmentally-mandated benefits) and pension plans must be carefully and conscientiously maintained, with the primary -- even the sole -- purpose of providing Riordan Manufacturing's most important resources with the incentives and the capabilities of remaining productive and contented members of the organization. Compliance in these areas automatically follows from the proper treatment of the company's employees; instituting a company-wide policy of the primacy of Riordan Manufacturing's employees over other concerns requires continual action and oversight by the board of directors, but will ensure the highest standards of compliance in human resource standards.

Governance

Governance at all levels and in all areas of Riordan Manufacturing will be attuned to the principles of compliance with the highest of ethical standards. Each officer of the company is to be held entirely responsible for the actions of those departments and activities over which they officiate; the instillation of the commitment to compliance and ethicality in the lower levels of management in the company must come from the company leadership. The company officers will therefore be the final seat of responsibility and ownership for all aspects of corporate governance and matters of compliance.

The board of directors of Riordan manufacturing must also maintain the same levels of compliance in the governance of the company through the disclosure of any and all possible conflicts of interest in the making of their business decisions. The shareholders' profits must be secondary only to strict legal and ethical compliance in the discussions and actions of the board. This will ensure the proper governance of the company to its own maximum benefit, with a clear understanding of board decisions and their relation to the company's growth and profits. Disclosures should be made to the company at large and publicly, and not simply amongst the members of the board or to the shareholders in a more private manner; public scrutiny is a large guarantee of compliance in the directors' governance.

Summary

Compliance must be made a priority by the company leadership if it is to be a feature of the company's operations as a whole. Officer and director control of all major business decisions and day-to-day operations should be maintained with clear oversight controls and well-communicated standards and expectations. Communications with external elements, including governmental agencies and partnership entities, should also be maintained with the same alacrity and integrity. Openness and disclosure in general, as well as careful analysis of available information and documentation, are called for in all company activities to ensure compliance. Riordan Manufacturing will retain its position as an industry leader and standard-setter if this compliance plan is full implemented.