Ducati Essay

our business. As the president and the CEO of Bikes Bikes Bikes, I am proud to present to you the

Question #1 If you were CEO of Harley-Davidson, how would you compare the advantages and disadvantages of using exports, joint ventures, and foreign subsidiaries as ways of expanding international sales?

Starting from a company of less than 75 workers and owning less than 20,000 SCU for production, research, quality assurance and conduct warranty work Off The Chain Bikes has doubled the plant capacity and hearing doubling the workforce within two short years. The company is successful by targeting and capturing lucrative market shares by heavily investing in the desired technical specs and design styles of one of the most influential Racing bikes. Our keen ability to thoroughly research market demands, predicting competitive strategies between the four market majority shareholders by reviewing and interpreting the marketing reports and our aggressive design and development plans have significantly increased our market share and increase shareholder value. Our core competencies and strategic goals will be realized by carefully following our established plans and aggressively price our bikes to increase total market share.

Harley-Davidson, Inc. since its inception has specialized in selling dream motorcycles that are of high quality and distinctive in styles. The company in the past have seen turbulent business environment to the extent of leveraged buyout, infiltration of foreign made bikes as well as government regulations. Yet despite these factors, Harley-Davidson continues to reap profits, yield high growth of approximately 15% a year and retain its customer base (Official Website 2004). This position in the market is however limited to the US whereas in other countries of the world Harley-Davidson products remain luxury item requiring emotional attachment with American iconism.

Ducati entered into the accessories, apparel business and custom design components giving customers individuality and high performance, respectively.

Honda has continued to embrace the changes that happen around its operations to ensure sustainability and profitability. The current global motorcycle manufacturing sector is full of competition. It, therefore, becomes crucial for every manufacturer to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses and then identify the opportunities to exploit to gain competitive advantage. Honda is Japanese based automobile company; it has numerous subsidiaries in Asia, Europe, and North America. Due to the advancements in technology, Honda will be required to make use of the latest technological trends to stay competitive. The business level strategy at Honda is in line with its enterprise and corporate strategy. The corporation also conducts Research and

Ducati has developed and managed their value chain very well. This contributes substantially to their strong position. I’ve already discussed Ducati’s effective management of Inbound Logistics and Operations. Ducati’s Outbound Logistics approach is oriented around brand management in each of its markets. This is accomplished through dedicated, single-franchise dealerships instead of multi-franchise dealerships. This decision means that Ducati seeks a high-value customer experience with lower volumes in lieu of a mass-market approach. This is a strategy that is consistent with being a niche player; it makes sense for the Japanese firms to have multi-franchise dealerships since they are close substitutes of each other.

Consumers are not limited to a single market, many of them will be purchasing multiple bikes, but all of them have specific preferences. Successful company will meet customer’s needs and maximize sales by growing the potential market size as well as taking sales from competitors.

Firstly, picking up Ducati as its target company is quite opportunistic. From the traditional investment style’s point of view, TPG is interested in those companies that had grown rapidly but still had the corporate structures of very small companies which caused great stress to the management of the business, and the assets of their target companies always being considered to be divided in order to improve the business riping for LBO. Besides, TPG is expecting to add complexity to the doing the deals and realize fiscal efficiency. Ducati is thus to be an ideal target from these

1. What is the nature of the opportunity? Could the Ducati brand be expanded beyond motorcycles? Why or why not?

In this paper we will perform a complete analysis of the Harley-Davidson Corporation including their corporate and business strategies, strengths and weaknesses, environmental opportunities, the five industry forces, and financial situation. Harley-Davidson has many attributes, which will be apparent in the following analysis. The paper will attempt to define the different components of the analysis and put them all together in a way that seeks to explain the way that they contribute to the overall success of the company and its stakeholders.

Historically Harley-Davidson to be a Niche Marketer, which is they had focused in on one particular aspect of the market. Kotler and Keller identified the following characteristics of niche marketing; customers have a distinct set of needs, they are willing to pay more to the firm that best suits their needs, it is not likely to attract competitors, gains economies through specialized products and it has a size, profit and to grow. Almost all of these hold true for the “heavyweight” segment of motor cycles that Harley-Davidson produced.

The Motorcycles and Related Products segment was responsible for virtually all of the change in consolidated revenue as the result of increases in both motorcycle unit shipments and Parts and Accessories sales. Year end data indicate that the domestic motorcycle market continued to grow throughout 1993 and demand for the company's motorcycles continues to exceed supply. International demand remains strong with export revenues totaling $262.8 million during 1993, an increase of approximately $23.4 million over 1992. The Board of Directors approved a comprehensive manufacturing strategy designed to achieve the goal of a 100,000 units per year production rate in 1996. Basically, it is an enhancement of the Motorcycle division's ability to

The success of Harley Davidson (HD) is due to the American motorcycle icon’s effective Strategic Management. HD’s vision, mission, goals and objectives strive to exceed the requirements of its main stakeholders. Although these needs are not always met, the company has unique relationships with is stakeholders. The company stays on course with its strategic plan, despite the economy and the decline of American manufacturing and what might be considered its dwindling U.S. consumer base.

After an investigation by the US International Trade Commission, in 1983 President Reagan imposed a 45% tariff on imported bikes and bikes over 700 cc engine capacity. The new management deliberately exploited the past appeal of their big machines, building motorcycles that purposely adopted the look and feel of their earlier models. Quality increased, technical improvements were made, and buyers returned. Harley-Davidson once again became the sales leader in the heavyweight (over 750 cc) market.