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Ken Chapman & Assoc. |
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Article Harley Davidson Their passion is legendary, just as the object of their passion is. Many of them are members of an organization called HOG and in June of 1998, more than 140,000 of them rode through the streets of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to celebrate their love. They are owners of Harley Davidson motorcycles. June of 1998 marked the ninety-fifth anniversary of the Harley Davidson Motor Company. An organization that began when twenty-one-year old William S. Harley and his twenty-year-old friend, Arthur Davidson decided to motorize bicycles in a small wooden shed in 1903. That first year, they hand built and sold three motorcycles. It did not take them long to find success and expand their enterprise. Each year, they produced more motorcycles. As motorcycle racing came into existence and gained popularity, Harley Davidson dominated. When World War I broke out, the allies quickly discovered the value of motor cycles in the war effort. Harley Davidson estimates that the company provided most of the twenty thousand motorcycles used by the U. S. Army in the war. And after the Armistice, the first American to enter Germany did so on a Harley Davidson motorcycle. For more than a half century, the company thrived. One of its strengths was that it was a family-owned business whose employees and customers felt connected by their love for Harley Davidson motorcycles. And the company continued to grow, to update and improve their motorcycles and to gain fans. By the early 1970’s, Harley Davidson owned nearly eighty percent of the large motorcycle market in the United States. In the early 1960’s, the company went public to raise funds so that it could modernize and better compete against Japanese manufacturers. In the late 1960’s, AMF bought the firm. After a proud sixty-five-year history in Milwaukee, the company’s headquarters was moved to New York and vehicle final assembly was moved to Pennsylvania. The people on Harley Davidson staff were demoralized. Over the next decade, Harley Davidson’s reputation slid. Motorcycles became notoriously unreliable. Police officers in departments around the country, who were once proud to ride the company’s American-made vehicle, began to buy Japanese products which were cheaper and more dependable. By 1980, Harley Davidson possessed slightly more than thirty percent of the market that it had once dominated. And for the first time in its history, the company lost money. Harley Davidson’s future looked grim. The thing that saved Harley Davidson was one of the things it always had going for it — the passion of employees and customers for the motorcycle that bore the company’s name. In 1981, thirteen senior executives of the company bought the company. They quickly began to turn Harley Davidson around. They streamlined operations, improved manufacturing methods, and introduced new policies. To harness the enthusiasm of Harley owners, they created HOG, the Harley Owners Group [which has more than 600,000 members today]. In 1985, Harley Davidson earned a profit for the first time in five years. A group of people left the company during those years, but the employees who stayed were dedicated. In the years to follow, Harley Davidson decided to harness their commitment, knowledge, and enthusiasm in an unique partnership that began between labor and management and it expanded to include all of what the company identifies as its various stakeholders — customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders, and society. Today the enthusiasm and partnership are paying off. Harley Davidson manufactures and sells more than two hundred thousand motorcycles in countries around the world every year with net sales of more than 2.9 billion dollars. What saved Harley Davidson? It was enthusiasm. It was the enthusiasm of thirteen executives who bought the company and kept it from going under in 1981. It was the enthusiasm of the employees who stayed with the company under difficult circumstances in order to produce better motorcycles as forty percent of the organization’s workforce left. And of course, it was the enthusiasm of the customers who have long considered Harley Davidson to be the pinnacle of motorcycles. That enthusiasm has made the company the financial success it is today. There is no substitute for enthusiasm. When the members of the team are enthusiastic, the whole team becomes energized and that energy produces power. Think about people who bring an enthusiastic attitude to the workplace. One of the things you and I note right away about them is that they tend to be people who take responsibility for their own attitude, thus for their own enthusiasm. Successful people understand that attitude is a choice and that includes enthusiasm. People who wait for external forces to help them spark their enthusiasm are at other people’s mercy all the time. They are likely to run hot or cold based on what is going on around them at any given moment. On the other hand, positive people are positive because they choose to be. They take responsibility for being positive, upbeat, and passionate. For more information about Ken Chapman and Associates’ Leadership Development Programs, contact Ken Chapman at 205.366.0265 or email Ken at kchapman@leaderscode.com. <End> |
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