But they must be careful before jumping into new state-of-the-art purchasing software. Improperly implementing new supply-chain programs, or failing to process-map a business before starting, can waste lots of money (Harris, 2010)
It also facilitates an organization's awareness on their relative opportunities and threats allowing them to plan considering their capabilities focusing on the available resources (Worthington & Britton, 2006). The understanding of the external environment works to improve an organization's competitive advantage and potential sustainable growth with the industry dynamics at play (Peng, Wang, & Jiang, 2008)
Harley Davidson External Business Environment Strategic Business Plan Outline The Analysis of H-D's External Environment The industry external environment compounds an array of comprehensive forces that relate to the organization. External environment analysis of an industry facilitates an understanding of an organization position comparative to other organizations in the same industry (Worthington & Britton, 2006)
Harley Davidson has 9700 employees worldwide (Ibid). Most factory employees are unionized under the United Steelworkers (USW) and International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (AIM) (Fisher, Wilson & Hahn, no date)
Recent years have seen a turnaround in the company's fortunes, but this has led to some conflicts with workers. In York, a strike occurred as workers sought to gain improvements to their compensation as the company was engaged in a successful turnaround of its business (Meyer & Waddell, 2007)
This includes all internal stakeholders -- managers, workers, unions and dealers. The circle concept fostered a "spirit of cooperation" that resulted in a Joint Partnership Committee (JPIC), formed between management and the unions to improve operations (Teerlink & Ozley, 2000)
An emerging marketing model known as tribal marketing was identified as relevant to Harley Davidson. The approach is centered on the idea of community rather than meeting the needs of one individual or customer (Cova & Cova, 2002)
Instead of targeting an individual with a certain set of attributes, a marketing campaign may focus on various tribes or groups of people with certain characteristics. In some cases, the tribal approach can be centered on a product itself as is the case with most Harley related groups (Harad, 2011)
Despite a large number of firms in the industry, Harley is the dominant player with over sixty five percent market share in the U.S. market (Molavi, 2010)
Because these products are primarily used as recreational vehicles, they are heavily influenced by the populations' level of disposable income. In fact some even use a motorcycle index to gauge the overall state of the economy (Watson, 2012)
The loss of business from HD that was faced by Lehman proved out to be bigger than the gain that Lehman Trikes made when entering into an alliance with HD. This is shown as HD announced restructuring of the same manufacturing facility that was responsible for to produce Tri Glides in York, PA (Looney, 2011)
Despite support from the politicians from Republicans and Democrats, HD could not maintain its market share in the U.S. due to external market environment (McBee, 2011)
Another important impediment in HD's continuous growth has been 'recessionary' economic phases, last one being post 2008 global financial crisis (GFC). Due to decreased sales of its motorcycles and competition from Honda, HD had to cut 50% of its jobs at one of its manufacturing plant in York, PA (Looney, 2011)
These tools will help generate an appropriate picture of HD's external environment and help assess company's likely opportunities and threats in the future. PEST analysis Political Political environment that prevails around the business of HD can be termed as "every president (and most presidential wannabes) except Obama has made a conscious effort to link himself to the American manufacturer (HD) since Reagan made an appearance at an assembly plant in 1987-especially the Republicans" (McBee, 2011)
As of January 2007, Harley Davidson held a 49% share of the heavyweight segment in the U.S. And a 30% share worldwide (Fredrix, 2007)
While the large drug makers are still showing strong revenue and profit margins they are running into increasing trouble with the FDA and other governing bodies that control these types of issues. They are also having problems with lawsuits and drugs being removed from the market due to dangers, side effects, and deaths (Barrett, 2005)
GM, Pfizer, And Harley Davidson Stock Price Outlook for the Next Year General Motors (GM) - for the next year, GM has a good outlook for its stock price. It has often been said that what is good for GM is good for America in that what happens with the stock market and the American economy often has much to do with how the largest companies are performing (Levinson, 2006)
Harley Davidson's stock price outlook is more difficult to predict. In general the company has performed steadily and well throughout its history, but it just recently moved into the Chinese market (Sui, 2006)
Harley Davidson has traditionally targeted an audience of middle-aged men, in recent years targeting "older white male boomers" specifically (Hagerty, 2011)
These attributes reflect back well on males, especially those who are trying to reconnect with those aspects of their own personalities, much of which may have been subsumed as they progressed into adulthood. Often the riders are not any of these things -- many are older and quite cautious in life (Johnson, 2011)