Harley-Davidson Strategic Plan and Self-Reflection Summary

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same goals. The accounting department needs to have strageties on practices for the whole company. Human Resources department has to keep in mind both the motivation of employees and how to making changes in job descriptions can take the company in a better direction with a better outcome. Also the IT department needs to focus on the best technology that will fit Harley Davidson’s concept. Another way the IT department can help HD is to collect data/research on their competitors.

At the end all departments must have structure in order to perform and have the results they are looking for. There must be rules, roles, responsibilities, loyalty, and termination in order to have success.

Leadership Traits

When it comes to leadership there should be traits like inspiring an action. “They should be able “to paint a vision of the future that inspires your people to do whatever it takes to get there” (Economy, 2013). It is important to have integrity because it will help inspire teams to follow a good leader. By demonstrating support to the team, will help create a good team culture. The team leader needs to demonstrate confidence and allow the team see that the leader is a leader and takes actions without waiting for upper management to tell them what to do. Another quality a leader should have is communication with their team and upper management. It is important to have to ensure everyone is on the same page and heading towards the same vision/goal.

Ethical Organizational Characteristics

It is important to have good ethical behavior. This shows that their will be smart business practice. “A business defines its ethical behaviors by creating a value statement that describes the mission and “any business can create a value statement, but an ethical business lives by it” (Phillips, n. d.). It is important to respect all characteristics the organization wants to reach. By respecting each other will allow the organization honor all that contribute no matter what role you have in the organization. Having integrity is a major characteristic for HD. Lastly, having a risk taking attitude is an important characteristic.

Learning Organization Characteristics

A leader’s role is to be open minded and have different options for training. A leader cannot assume that by having a lot of training will make HD a leaning organization. “A learning organization acquires knowledge and innovates fast enough to survive and thrive in a rapidly changing environment” (Business Dictionary, n. d.). Employees need to be skilled at producing, obtaining, and conveying knowledge. The organization of Harley Davidson is willing and capable of learning about industry segments without competing with its competitors.

Summary

When it comes to the global economy Harley-Davidson should take advantage and start a new journey. When you are growing there is a need of expanding and it necessary to take advantage of its surroundings. Harley-Davidson need to take advantage of growing around the world. It is important for HD to apply marketing and product development. Harley-Davidson can implement marketing that use the internet to obtain data and gather potential customer’s relationships. It is important to have a designed culture with the right characteristics that will allow them to take advantage of new ideas and directions that will take HD to a successful future.

Like mentioned before Harley Davidson leadership teams can expand in other type of vehicles or motorcycles to continue growing. Motorsports can allow HD to use their well-known brand name to promote that type of new product that will competitor on purchases for weekend fun.

When it comes to the teams created in each department should create the development of ideas like this. They can take the company to a successful journey. Like mentioned before the marketing team will need to work closely with the engineering teams and sales. They can help each other in the success of this project. The HR, Accounting/Finance, and IT departments are support teams that can help during the process of a new project and workflows.

Roadmap

Like I mentioned before the Harley-Davidson team needs to a structure and teams need to be oriented and focused on the demand of the customers. Also applying all traits discussed along with characteristics that can allow ethical and a learning organization create new markets. Research into the possibility of a merger/acquisition will be the next step in penetrating new markets for HD. Now as a parallel task Harley Davidson can continue to look in a smaller vehicle or motorcycle. Within the marketing campaigns they can take advantage of the audio visual internet market.

Benchmarks

Market share will be the litmus test for knowing how the brand is performing in the new markets. Increasing the profit margin per product and production cost per product will be critical in knowing how cost controls are functioning.

Risks

The economy on a global level is the largest risk for any manufacturer and the local geographic areas that HD will focus on for new markets are additional risks that must be closely watched. However the biggest risk may be to not delve into the new markets and not finding a partner to assist in manufacturing by way of merger or acquisition may push timelines farther back than can be tolerated.

Self-Reflection

Since my degree will be in business management and my course have prepared me to manage and run a business this analyzes has helped me obtain more skills followed in order to have success and competitive future. Being a manager take a lot of leadership and vision in order to make the project a total success. Having all the resources and no leadership or vision can take you to fail.

For my future I have to say that learning more about the management roles will prepare me when graduating this year. There is never a dead end for education therefore I plan to continue taking more courses to learn and become a better leader. Any department that will allow me to put my skills in practices takes team effort and plenty of energy. I learned that everyone’s role is important regardless if you are upper management or an employee part of a team. Everyone is in it together. For my personal experience I can see the responsibility of those who work for companies like Harley Davidson. It’s not just your job it’s your reputation on taking such a big brand to bigger and better places. The challenge is hard but much