More Foolishness
The reaction to my “ Who ’ s The Fool ” piece of last month has been quite extraordinary . I am pleased to say the response has been almost universally positive , except for three people . Just by way of a recap , the piece centered on an investment advisory published by Wall Street analysis blog Motley Fool . It called on Harley ’ s investors to start looking at whether the time had come for the board and CEO to be replaced . My response to this was and remains a great big fat NO . Not only is stability itself at a premium at this time , but while , at this stage , all we can do is to continue to speculate about the remaining 80-plus new models due to be unveiled in the next nine years , I do not understand how changing the planners mid-plan can bring anything other than damage , delay and disappointment . Regardless of what those plans actually are , it took time and considerable effort to turn the vacuum of uncertainty that the Wandell era drifted into , into one of purpose . Regardless of the shape of those plans or how long they are still going to take to come to fruition , abandoning or risking destabilizing them now simply makes no sense - either from a market , dealer or investor point of view . The dealer point of view especially . The fact that I didn ’ t mention the disquiet that exists with some Harley dealers in last month ’ s piece doesn ’ t mean I am unaware of it . In fact , I think it is pretty much an open secret that the usual handful of disgruntleds , that have manifested at every annual dealer convention since the beginning of time , has grown into a rather more vocal chorus of complaint recently . Those complaints vary from model range offer disquiet ; through the age-old problem of new dealerships being awarded too close to existing established businesses ; right out to the increasing disquiet at the experience haemorrhage being seen at Milwaukee and the growing difficulties imposed on all concerned by a really quite ghastly management culture that anyone who tries to have any kind of dealings with Harley inevitably encounters . Whether it is too many disconnected , overlapping , conflicted and competing overstaffed and inexperienced “ Cubicle Johnny ” marketing egos and departments ( that was my beef in 2012 concerning our AMD World Championship collaboration ), the unimaginative and inflexible play-book that determines dealer policy and substitutes for real and meaningful dealer relationships , or the stop-start , on-off swinging needle that sees programs set in motion , cancelled , then revisited again – across all there is an unwillingness to take ownership , responsibility and initiative . Harley isn ’ t alone in this . However , of the three dissenters from my “ Who ’ s the Fool ” piece , two were dealers , both of whom identified themselves ( thank you for that ) and one was an anonymous emailer , who said he or she is an industry expert and Harley insider , and who signed off as “ H-D Must Change ”. The two dealers were both coming at the same issues from different directions . Namely that Harley has gotten to the point of being just too difficult , expensive and intransigent to deal with any longer ( and hence the incredible and still accelerating number of dealer retirements and store sales we ’ ve been seeing the past 24 months ) or being too greedy and ( despite its theoretically successful but woefully superficial attempts
‘ convincing piece of the middleweight action ’
at “ outreach ”) apparently disconnected with where the market for motorcycles is headed . Meanwhile , my Captain Anonymous is clearly a recent ex-employee with beef and valid perspectives in equal measure . For some time , there have been rumors about a network of former Harley executives who would like to see the present CEO and board replaced by someone from the company ’ s past who is regarded as having more engineering and cultural sensitivity to where Harley ’ s strengths are and how they can be leveraged moving forward . Indeed , rumors too concerning the desire of a certain former senior marketing executive to take over the reins . For me , the biggest issue by far has to be exactly what are the plans that are in play . I am consistently hearing that Harley may be planning to get into the Adventure Tourer market - one of the few genuinely growing sectors of the motorcycle industry . is entirely possible that BMW could be manufacturing GS models ( and R nineT It customs ) in the United States within the next 36 months , and as an opportunity to
finally deploy a new engine layout ( please , please don ’ t use the M-8 or any other V- Twin ) it is a dimension that would bring new footfall to existing dealerships and give Harley something convincing for the urban riding environment ( 80 percent of the miles ridden on dual sports models are in fact suburban and downtown miles ). However , they need more . The ‘ Street ’ is never going to be a convincing middleweight offer , so Harley need to be getting busy there too . With the Royal Enfield 650 , the Triumph / Bajaj middleweight partnership , the Norton / Zongshen Ricardo 650 project , the Mahindra BSA plans ( which is likely to be being produced at their new Detroit factory ), anticipated Indian Motorcycle mid-size models ( a big shout out for Swissauto at this point ) and no end of other “ retro ” branded projects poised to offer the “ New Gen / Future Gen ” riders what they want at the price point they want it at , then that is the space that Harley has to be focussed on playing in . If they are not planning an extensive and convincing piece of the low-cost lightweight and middleweight action as a part of Matt Levatich ’ s 100 new models in 10 years , then maybe those calling for heads to roll could have a point after all . But I ’ m sure that won ’ t prove necessary . I ’ m sure Harley are not only smart enough to have seen the future coming at them from a dozen years and a thousand miles off . I am sure that , as we ‘ speak ’, their skunk works are chock full of options , projects , singles , twins and maybe even triples , all geared to meeting the riding and ownership expectations of the “ New Genners ” and all set fair to ‘ pathway ’ them onwards and upwards into everlasting Bar & Shield loyalty and glory . Someone please tell me my faith that Harley is on the path to platform righteousness is well founded ?
Robin Bradley Co-owner / Editor-in-Chief robin @ dealer-world . com