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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 4 page paper examining alternatives open to this motorcycle manufacturer after making a strong comeback during the 1980s and 1990s. After rectifying its quality issues, gaining control of costs and winning back the solid core of customers, Harley's task was to expand the breadth of the Harley faithful, and in socioeconomic levels that could afford the price of the bikes. While searching for just the "right" market segment, the aging baby boomers – at the height of their earning capacity; past the point of needing to "prove" anything in their careers; and with increasing amounts of leisure time – came into view. It has been this segment of the market that has been of greatest value to Harley-Davidson in recent years. This segment will continue to be important for several years into the new century, but Harley will need to develop younger customers as well. Bibliography lists 6 sources.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: CC6_KSmgmtHarley.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
itself in the same situation as most other American manufacturers in the 1980s: Japanese manufacturers were having their way with all of American manufacturing, ranging all the way from
Detroits auto industry to the manufacture of audio cassette tapes. As was the case with nearly everything else American, the manufacturing process was slow, unwieldy and far removed from
the needs and wants of mainstream customers. Those relative few who did continue to purchase Harleys far too often were associated with the outlaw image promoted by motorcycle "gangs"
and other aberrant forms of dropouts from mainstream society. Managers banded together for a buyout of the company in 1981, gaining control of
the company after it had lost its leadership position in the United States to Honda. Having been closer to both customers and employees, the new owners quickly implemented quality
initiatives and a JIT approach to production. Many companies attempted to implement Total Quality Management (TQM) in the 1980s, only to give up and proclaim TQM to be unworkable.
What was "unworkable" about TQM was any part of the approach without concurrent adoption of its underlying management philosophy. Obviously Harleys owner-managers had no difficulty in empowering employees
to take a stake in the success of the company, for it was able to gain all of the advantages of quality initiatives and lower costs in only a matter
of months. The problem, then, was to communicate these changes to customers and potential customers. Harley products had come to be known
for their decided lack of reliability throughout the 1970s, a primary reason that Honda was able to usurp the American icon. Harleys decline had not been so dramatic or
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