Harley Davidson: Analysis of Market, Leadership, and Change Management

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Harley Davidson's operations in the global two-wheeler industry. It begins with an examination of the market, including segmentation based on motorcycle styles, price points, and utility, and discusses the challenges Harley Davidson faces from competitors and changing consumer preferences. The report then delves into the change management processes implemented by Harley Davidson, including incremental, remedial, transformational, and process/system changes. Finally, it explores the leadership roles within the company, considering both positive and negative aspects, and offers recommendations for leadership strategies, such as diversifying the product portfolio and adapting to market trends. The report draws on various academic sources to support its analysis, providing a detailed understanding of Harley Davidson's strategic challenges and management approaches.

Running head: MANAGING THE ORGANIZATION
Managing the organization
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1MANAGING THE ORGANIZATION
Question: 1
Harley Davidson operates in the global two wheeler industry. This industry is the
part of the entre automobile industry including the four wheelers market, but it is more
competitive in nature. This is due to the reason that two markets are having more
number of companies compared to the four wheeler market. Moreover, the customer
segments in the two wheel industry are also more diverse compared to the four wheeler
industry. The starting price point in the two wheeler industry is much lower and thus the
customer base is also more than the four wheeler industry. In the global two wheeler
market, market segmentation can be done in terms of different aspects. One of the
major aspects is the style of the motorbikes (Singh, Rastogi and Sharma 2013). Another
aspect is the price point of the motorcycle. The last aspect is the utility of the
motorcycle.
Harley Davidson is one of the leading American motorcycle makers operating in
the global two wheeler market. They can be considered as one of the major legacy
motorcycle manufacturers due to their rich brand history and classic product lines.
However, the legacy and the positive brand value of Harley Davidson are less effective
in the current competitive market scenario. In addition, with the inflow of the huge
number of motorcycle brands from different countries especially the Japanese brands,
market share of Harley Davidson is at stake. Moreover, the global two wheeler market is
highly segmented in nature (Corey and Millage 2014). This is due to the reason that a
certain section of the customers rides motorcycle for utility. On the other hand, another
section of the customers ride motorcycles for leisure and lifestyle purposes. There are
some companies such as Honda and Suzuki who are having both the premium and
affordable models for different customer segments. Some other companies are either
operating the premium segment such as Harley Davidson and Indian, while some are
operating only in the affordable segment such as Bajaj and Hero from the Asian region.
In along with these, one of the key features for the industry where Harley
Davidson operates is the change in the market trend or the customer preference
pattern. According to the given case study, heavyweight and classic cruiser styled
motorcycles are once preferred by the larger section of the target customers in the

2MANAGING THE ORGANIZATION
American market. However, with the initiation of the globalization, Japanese brands
such as Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha entered the market and disrupted the existed
market scenario. The market trend slowly changed towards the lighter and faster
Japanese bikes. In addition, the sporty styled theme of the Japanese bikes also created
attractiveness among the American
It has been identified that the global motor vehicle industry is still in the growing
stage despite the economic downturn in the global environment. In this context, Weiss
et al. (2015) commented that the major challenge faced by the industry is the natural
disaster, which further created the pricing pressure, rising the fuel price and overall
interest rates. Savino, Pierini and Baldanzini (2012) estimated that that the global two-
wheeler the connectors market could grow at CAGR of 8.38% during the period 2017-
2021. On the other side, Bhattacharya, Mukhopadhyay and Giri (2014) mentioned about
a significant trend in the markets is the launch of a next generation ECU connectivity
solution which is namely SmartSeal connector. This next generation SmartSeal
connector remains as the compact ECU connectivity solution, which further includes a
rugged connector holding the capacity of withstanding the demand of two wheeler
markets.
According to Bhattacharya, Mukhopadhyay and Giri (2014) one driver in the
market is the rise in the sales of luxury and ultra luxury motorcycle. Because of this
legacy of luxury as well as ultra luxury motorcycles, and the increased need for comfort,
the sales of two-wheeler vehicles across the globe have increased significantly.
Furthermore, it is also observed that in comparison to the commuter as well as the mid-
segment motorcycles, the ultra luxury and luxury such as Harley Davidson have
observed a higher torque and extending reliability and durability. Thus, Kumaraswamy
et al. (2012) mentioned that there is a state of growth in global demand for luxury
motorcycles, which includes electronic cruise control (ECC). The major key vendors of
two wheelers in the industry are such as Bosch, Hirose Eletric, Japan, YAZAKI and
others. The following figure shows the market share for two wheelers.

3MANAGING THE ORGANIZATION
Figure 1: Global market share for two wheelers
(Source: Kumaraswamy et al. 2012)
Furthermore, Weiss et al. (2015) states that one significant barrier in the market
is treated as pressure from OEMs to set price of the components low. The customer
expectation for advanced features and the safety mandates have further led to increase
in the number of electronic systems and functions in two wheelers. Nonetheless, the
durability, reliability, efficiency and the performance of electronic features may directly
the impact the operation of two-wheeler vehicles. The organizations are trying to keep a
balance between costs incurred, as there are increasing numbers of electronic
components associated with two wheelers and providing the buyers with high quality at
reasonable price. When it comes to trend, in the industry, the major player like Harley
Davidson focuses on manufacturing a heat-resistant and lightweight component for the
automotive wiring. Apart from functional strategy, Harley Davidson primary intensive
growth strategy is to penetrate in the large market. This means Harley Davidson

4MANAGING THE ORGANIZATION
develops its operation by applying intensive strategy in reaching wide customers in its
current markets like United State. Harley Davidson, for example, tends to promote and
sell more products to new buyers in United State. The major objective of such strategy
is to widen the sales network of the organization.
Question: 2
Incremental change
In Harley Davidson, various aspects are being considered in initiating the change
and transformation process. One of the major processes of change management
initiated is the incremental change. This is process of change management refers to the
continuous, small and effective improvements in the organization (van der Voet 2014).
This process of change management is being implemented in the root level. In the case
of the Harley Davidson, incremental change is being implemented in involving the
employees responsible for the quality of the products. According to the information in
the case study, Harley Davidson motivated the employees to give their feedback and
opinions in the decision making process. This helped in making the employees
responsible for the quality of the products rather than just the quantity. In the earlier
case, the employee in Harley Davidson are only responsible for building the motorcycle
at any cost without determining the quality of them. This caused in the low quality of the
products as compared to the competition. This process in Harley Davidson also
involved providence of the training to the employees regarding the quality control
process (Hechanova and Cementina-Olpoc 2013). They are being given training
regarding how the issues in the production process can be traced and those can be
solved.
Remedial change
Another type of change management being initiated by them is the remedial
change. This process of change refers to the change that is implemented in reaction to
the originated challenge or threat in the industry. In the case of the Harley Davidson,
they have faced the threat from the Japanese motorcycle brands in mainly two ways (K.
Vora 2013). According to the information in the case study, one of the major threats

5MANAGING THE ORGANIZATION
being faced by Harley Davidson is the popularity of low cost, faster and fuel efficient
motorcycles. Another challenge being faced by Harley Davidson is the entry of the
Japanese motorcycle brands in the target market of them. For instance, launching of the
Honda Goldwing 1000 posed direct challenge to the Harley Davidson due to the reason
that this bike was designed according to the choice ad preference pattern of the
customers willing to buy Harley Davidson. In response to these threats, Harley
Davidson initiated the remedial change by changing the existing approach and design of
their assembly line. It was reported that, the assembly line of Honda is much cleaner
and neat compared to the Harley Davidson. This caused in the increase of efficiency in
the case of the Honda. With the initiation of the remedial change, Harley Davidson
changed their existing approach and designed their new assembly line in more neat and
cleaner way (Catulli, Cook and Potter 2017).
Transformational change
Another process of change being initiated is the transformational change. This
change refers to the initiation of the change from the top level management and impacts
the organizational vision. In the case of the Harley Davidson, IPO was issued in the
stock market in to gain more capital for further investment. This enabled Harley
Davidson to have access to more capital to further invest in their business operation
and compete effectively in the market (Kezar 2013). Another example of
transformational change in Harley Davidson is the initiation of organizational learning
across all levels in the organizations. According to the reports, learning institute is being
initiated in the organization in order to have more formal approach of the entire internal
stakeholders. This also helped them in having an effective knowledge sharing process
in the organization.
Process and system change
The last change that is being identified for Harley Davidson is the process and
system change. This refers to the change in the internal management of the
organization in order to create more value and enhance the effectiveness of the
organizational process. Harley Davidson initiated the concept of pay for performance for

6MANAGING THE ORGANIZATION
the employees (Eijkenaar 2013). The key objective for the initiation of this concept is to
increase the productivity of the employees. This also acts as the motivational factor for
the employees due to the reason the employees will be more motivated to work more
and better to gain more financial reward. Another process and system change initiated
by them is providence of the flexibility for the employees (Swift and Hwang 2013). This
is due to the reason that employee are being given the responsibility to take their
decision regarding the need of training. This is increasing the level of responsibility for
the employees in their workplace.
Question: 3
The leadership roles in Harley Davidson are having both negative and positives
being identified. In the case of me as a leader with Harley Davidson, my first job was to
identify the industrial benchmark. This is due to the reason that for any organization, it is
important to have the idea about the benchmark in the industry. Effective determination
of the benchmark in the industry will help me as a leader to design the organizational
strategies and processes to meet the standards. Another aspect that I would have
considered as the leader is to have diversified product portfolio. This is due to the
reason that operating in the competitive market of two wheelers with single product line
is very much difficult. In the case of Harley Davidson, the bikes such as Roadsters and
Vrod came much later in the market. Before that, Harley Davidson only had
heavyweight cruiser bikes for long route driving. According to me, Harley Davidson
should have diversified product portfolio with having different style of bikes. This would
have helped them to compete with other brands effectively and attract diverse
customers. I will not recommend that Harley Davidson should have sports bikes due to
the reason that it will dilute their brand image, but they should have different designs
and styles in the highway and heavyweight bike segments such as chopper, cruiser and
bobbers.
I will also recommend that a change in product strategy for Harley Davidson. This
is due to the reason that currently Harley Davidson is only having engines above 750
cc, which is much higher compared to other motorcycles brands. Moreover, due to
having only higher engine capacity, the price of Harley Davidson is also comparatively

7MANAGING THE ORGANIZATION
higher. Thus, according to me, Harley Davidson should have the smaller capacity bikes
ranging between 250cc and 500 cc. It would have increase the target customer base for
Harley Davidson and will reduce the price. More customers can get attracted with
having lower priced models. It will also help Harley Davidson to develop their market in
the developing countries also.