Strategic Audit for Harley Davidson (1981)
I. CURRENT SITUATION
A. Current Performance
Losing money, market share, and relevance in a changing industry with new foreign competitors.
Stiff foreign competitors introducing new designs
HD was too slow in development and unpredictable in reacting
Outmoded technologies
Poor quality and shoddy workmanship
B. Strategic Posture
I. Mission "We fulfill dreams through the experiences of
motorcycling, by providing to motorcyclists and to the general public an expanding line of motorcycles and branded products and services in selected market segments (Harley-Davidson website, p.2)."
2. Objectives
a) "We deliver experiences"
b) Developing relationships with all stakeholderscustomers, employees, investors, suppliers, governments, and society.
c) Provide a good quality cycle
d) Employees are both enthusiasts and customers
3. Strategies
a) 1981 13 H-D executives, including William Davidson
(grandson of founder Arthur Davidson), conducted a
leveraged buyout of AMF to reacquire H-D and ward
off bankruptcy of the company.
b) Implemented Total Quality Management
c) Implemented Just-In-Time inventory
d) Lobbied Washington for tariffs on imports
e) Direct marketing to the loyal customer base
f) Sponsored the Harley Owners' Group (HOG)
g) Launched SuperRide to attract a new customer base
h) Offered customers a free one-year membership to groups, publications, receptions, etc.
4. Policies
a) Short-term profits more important than R&D and
retooling
b) Stiff foreign competition ignored
c) Employees has little or no input in the company
d) Very slow R&D; very slow in reacting to more advanced technological changes
II. Strategic Managers
A. Board of Directors
1. Nine members, seven are outsiders
2. Respected Americans, four have been affiliated with HD since
the early 1970s
3. Three have specialized marketing experience; four have
international backgrounds
B. Top Management
1. Thirteen top executives who conducted the leveraged buyout
2. All have worked for or been affiliated with HD since early 1970s
3. Goal was to reacquire and restructure the company to stave off bankruptcy.
III. External Environment (EFAS)
A. Societal Environment
1. Economic
a) Stagflation, or "bottle-neck" inflation, since early 1970s
When one thinks of classic Americana, they reminisce about the 1970s and 1980s and the notion of the nostalgic past in terms of what is the classic American image. It was a time of economic prowess where the blue collar factory worker would work 9 to 5 and then go to the local bar with his coworkers. However, times have since changed. The industrial plants that once dominated the Great Lakes economic region has become a shell of its past to the point where it is now none as the Rust Belt as industry left and white collar jobs became the norm. Since this degradation has settled into this once industrial cities, many cities and companies have sought to rebrand themselves in order to build from their reputations in the past to appeal to the nostalgia felt today. One such case where these is a correlation between a company and city are that of Harley Davidson, founded 1904, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Both have sought to rebrand themselves to the public and consumer, with Milwaukee seeking to transformation its image into that of a young and vibrant and city while Harley targets a new clientele. It is this shift to Harley’s "cult branding" to attract new clients that parallels Milwaukee's attempts to integrate itself to a service sector economy based on touristic leisure and the consumption of
Harley-Davidson owns a twenty percent market share followed closely by Honda, Yamaha, and Kawasaki. One thing they have had to overcome in the marketplace is the stereotypical image associated with motorcycle owners. It seems the publ...
The series of activities that are enacted by a firm that add value to a product beyond the cost of the production are referred to as the value chain. Harley Davidson offers a combination of superior performance and unique attributes within its value chain that promotes their core competencies and provides them with a competitive advantage.
Ford Motor Company Strategic Audit Abstract The purpose of this paper is to give a brief detail of the strategic audit of Ford Motor Company. The method of research used was Internet research by topic. In addition to the class textbook audit example used, other written references in the area of Ford Motor Company were used, in order to develop the subject more in detail.
External Opportunities • More people (94%) have new requirements for bicycles; the customers need bikes in different fields. • The popularity of Lance Armstrong has increased the interest on road bike, which represent 5% of the market. • The growing interest in cycling this is result in magazine coverage and the using of bikes and accessories in window displays that related to cycling.
"Harley-Davidson: At Last" as presented in Hartley's Marketing Mistakes and Successes presents the circumstances around HD's near collapse and since rinse to near mythic success. This case is a great example of marketing myopia; HD saw them-selves as full-size motorcycles' manufactures, not in the transportation, or even the entertainment industry. They believed no one bought motorcycles for transportation, but rather for leisure time use.
II. The Challenge HD has chosen the strategic direction of targeting women and the younger market that is technologically conscious in order to increase its share in the first time motorcycle owner market space. With the introduction of the new VRSC’S, and the new lowered sportster 833 L and the 1200 L, designed for small riders who want more power, also promoting the already existing HD motorcycle owners to step forward and purchase a bigger model. HD is in a position to attain a sizeable share in the first time motorcycle owners, the young males, and females’ marketplace. To target the women and the young market with the new product line, the company has adopted the following marketing objectives: to expand its current market (market expansion), diversify its product line (product diversification), and modify its marketing mix to target women and the younger demographic.
According to the article authored by Mark Rupert, what are the seven best practices in the roles and responsibilities of an internal audit function?
Despite their conception in 1903, Harley-Davidson and the motorcycle industry as a whole didn’t really take off until after the Second World War. Many people rode motorcycles during the war, with Harley-Davidson themselves supplying almost 90,000 motorcycles for the U.S. military during this time. Many veterans chose to purchase motorcycles upon returning home, as they enjoyed riding during the war and wanted to continue riding in their civilian life. This generation known as the "baby-boomers" quickly became the main target audience for many of Harley-Davidson’s marketing efforts. With sales increasing and the industry growing, many "motorcycle clubs" and "rallies" were introduced. Unfortunately, due to the lewd behavior displayed by most people associated with these clubs and rallies, bikers typically had an image of being disorderly and raucous. Harley-Davidson’s image itself took a big shot due to the Hells Angels. This was a motorcycle gang wishing to become notorious for "drug trafficking and other organized crime activities," who used only Harley-Davidson motorcycles. All of this combined to lead to a decline in demand and sales throughout the entire industry during the 1960’s. The industry was really helped out with the release of the Hollywood film Easy Rider in 1969. This film helped change the public’s perception of bikers and sparked an increase in motorcycle demand which has lasted to this day.
Italian manufacturer Piaggio ranks as one of the world’s top four players in its core business. It has consolidated leadership in the European 2-wheeler market. Piaggio should not miscalculate its competitors. Competition in the industry is very powerful, not only nationally but internationally as well. This is due to two well-established companies in this sector which are the Japanese Yamaha and Honda. Yamaha and Honda strengths are their long-run experience in the sector and the high quality image of products. Due to participations to the motorcycle championships, these two companies constantly receive positive feedbacks to their efforts in researching for first class products. In the future, other kinds of competitors are expected to arise: Chinese companies whose ability to imitate and create similar products at highly competitive prices is getting more and more dangerous (Piaggio, 2008)
Honda has established a program for its suppliers to strive for improvements in order to meet Honda’s requirements. The goals of the BP program are to improve the relationship between Honda and their suppliers, reduce manufacturing costs, and eliminate product defects. They accomplish these goals by focusing on 5 key areas: Best Position, Best Productivity, Best Product, Best Price, and Best Partners (Bounds and Arnold).
Apple brand audit In fact, about this business one can easily write a few weighty books. Without exaggeration, we can say that Apple is one of the brightest technology companies that appeared in the 70s of the last century. Due to innovative technology and aesthetic design, Apple Inc. has established a unique reputation comparable to the cult in the consumer electronics industry. In 2014 the company was ranked first in the world by market capitalization.
"We fulfill dreams through the experience of motorcycling, by providing to motorcyclists and to the general public an expanding line of motorcycles and branded products and services in selected market segments."
The major characters of the tradition audit are all information what is needed by auditors are on the paper and the manual calculators and without high communication technology. Auditors usually were limited by the place in the paper time. When a several people are working on the same auditing project for a client with offices in cities across the country, even worldwide, it takes a lots all time those auditors get the information which they need from the client, even there is risk paper information disappear for many reasons. on the another hand, mail paper information increase the auditing cost. The mistake caused by the manual calculators inevitably, no matter how fixed auditors concentrate on recalculate is, after all auditors are human. The global business become major in the modern business world, some example, several auditors who are in different locations are working a same auditing project, or auditors are in different city even country with the client, when there is issue among these auditors or between auditors and client, they only can communicate with each other by phone or be together and have meeting. Phone call can not make sure information been watched in the same time when the voice is talking about the issue, but having a meeting takes time and money make all people together, it increases auditing cost.
The evolution of auditing is a complicated history that has always been changing through historical events. Auditing always changed to meet the needs of the business environment of that day. Auditing has been around since the beginning of human civilization, focusing mainly, at first, on finding efraud. As the United States grew, the business world grew, and auditing began to play more important roles. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, people began to invest money into large corporations. The Stock Market crash of 1929 and various scandals made auditors realize that their roles in society were very important. Scandals and stock market crashes made auditors aware of deficiencies in auditing, and the auditing community was always quick to fix those deficiencies. The auditors’ job became more difficult as the accounting principles changed, and became easier with the use of internal controls. These controls introduced the need for testing; not an in-depth detailed audit. Auditing jobs would have to change to meet the changing business world. The invention of computers impacted the auditors’ world by making their job at times easier and at times making their job more difficult. Finally, the auditors’ job of certifying and testing companies’ financial statements is the backbone of the business world.