Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

-. E · • ~ t ~ f' O'l ~ ~ N \l) "'" HARLEY&THE DAVIDSONS ..0 0 ..... By Gary Van Voorhis U . 0 The main Harley-Davidson plant (misnomer sin ce it has phased. out manufacturingand now serves as the main office, a parts storage and distr ibution facility, hom e of the H-D racing shop and assembly area for th e dirt track XR as well as th e new motocross model) is a huge imposing red brick building that occupies a full city blo ck. It looks lik e it has been there forever (almost) and that if the walls could talk they would spin a million tales. There are no giant signs to announce that th is is the home of Harley-Davidson or to tell you that you are en tering into th e domain of th e last survivor' of what was onc e one of many'[Henderson.Cleueland, Indian and man y others) American motorcycles. In th eir long history there has always been a Harley or a Davidson at .th e helm of the business (ex cept for a brief period after H-D became a subsidiary of AMF) as there is toda» , It was with two thoughts that CN went to Milwaukee. First we wer e interested in finding out what was Harley-Da vidson s secret for success and , secondly, a little m ore about th e personal side of th e f am ily m emb ers in volved. . It took a full two months before publications director Tom Bolfert could arrange a time wh en pres ident John Davidson, ind ustry affairs coordinato r J oh n Harley , an d design director William Davidson would be in on e plac e at one tim e. The m eeting to ok place in John Davidson 's office 'at 8:30 in th e morning and was an interesting and enligh ten ing rap session between three diverg ent personalities. .... 36 CN: For a company, any company, to survive in business fox: over 50 years is a mark of astute business savvy . What has been Harley-Davidson's secret? JD: It wasn't easy. It's (motorcycles) a complex business. I think the success of any business, and it doesn't have to be motorcycles, is having a product that is attractive to the public. You must have a distribution system' which is strong, both from the standpoint of selling the product and serv icing it after sale as well as a total package of support services: fmancing, distribution of spare p ar ts, good financial support both for. the manufacturer of the product and for the dealer organization. If you do all these things well, (and you may make a lot of mistakes along the way) I think you have a good chance to succeed. It isn't easy to d o all the things I've men tioned. CN: What about the merger with AMF? JD: AMF looks up on Harley-Davidson as their most successful co mpany that produces leisure time products. They have put a lot of operating captial into . H - D to update our engine manufacturing facility . The addition of the York, Pennsylvania assembly plant (All H-D motorcycles with the exception of the rmot ocrosser and the XR dirt tracker as assembled there. ..Editor) has greatly increased our manufacturing capability. CN : Therefore, you feel that these are the things that have .contributed to the suc cess of Harley-Davidson? JD: Yes. CN: And what about your former competitors like Indian? JD: I think you have to be very careful about the prod uct. I think the end of t he Indian was when they introduce d their new line of vertical twins. They threw all their heritage o ut the window and started from scratch. I b elieve that was the beginning of the end of Indian: that and the cost of design and retooling the full product line all at once. It is no cheap proposition to . develop a new motorcycle. . CN: Perhaps we can get into the various realm s that ea ch of you are responsible for; "'" WD: I'm an industrial designer. I'm involved with what a product looks like. I'm als o involved in a product planning co mmittee which forms some of the basic decisions of what ou r new products are going to be. I guess I'm a jack of all trades as far as the creative end go e s . I'm involve d in O U I trademarks (the No. I sy mbol) and graphics all the way through the type 01 bolt head we want beside a chain cover. T here 's a lot o r- overlap in my department with engineering so I sit in on committees that are here in my brother's Oohn Davidson) office and I sit on committees that deal with engineering. I have a departrnen t that is a p a int shop, a modeling shop, a woodworking shop, an everything shop. Really, 1 work like the people in Detroit, but on a much smaller scale. CIII : Could you explain a little further? WD: I build prototype motorcycles in full scale out of wood and cardboard and string and whatever. After they are finished they're presented to brother John, the product co mmittee ' (whi ch has sales represented as well as manufacturing) and eng ineering. This an approval meeting. We get very involved in the details of what our products look like because we feel it is very important. We try not to lose track of the whole image. There is some type of mystique about those big twins and I'm trying to hang on to that as best we can. You can't change those things , but yet you don't want to leave them the same forever. CN: (To J ohn) As president of Harley-Davidson where does your responsibility lie ? , JD: Well I think I'd have to describe my job as having overall profit responsibility for the entire company and that gets into every activity we have whether it's manufacturing, engineering, marketing or dealer relations. I guess the buck st ops here and the pro fi ts had best be reasonably good. That's my responsibility. CN: You've had a long career Mr. Harley; what are your day to day responsibilities? JH: I'm involved with , the industry affairs at this stage of the game. I'm the last of the second generation and about at t he end of the rope. (There was a lot of laughter abo ut Mr . Harley's remark. Later in the conversation 1 learned he has been with the company since 1931 a whopping 44 years.) I'm involved in the AMA, the MSF and, until we withdrew, also the MIC. In general I look after industry affairs. CN : As the H-D spokesman? WD: Yes, that's what yo u'd call it. CN: Has the merger with AMF changed thepersonal aspect of the business? JD : I don't kn ow tnat AMF has changed the family aspect so much. As you can see we are still very much involved in the business whether it be owned by AMF or by ourselves. One of the keys to the relationship is -- perhaps John (Harley) should be the spokesman since he's been around a lot longer than 1 have--that all the Davidsons and all the JOHN HARLEY Harleys have been in vo lved in the sport of motorcycles besides being involved in running a successful business. I think that 's very important in our business. All 0 f us ride and have participated in the sp ort to some degree. I believe that definitely has something to do with our image and ' the product we sell . They have some personality in them from all sides o f the Harleys and the Davidsons. JH: I think that over the years we 've had our share of battles an d arguments on one thing or another, but the Davidsons . and the Harleys respected one another and due to that respect the problems always worked out. The problems were secondary to the business and the welfare of the business. That goes way back. WD: I think the Harleys and the Davidsons have been very honest , above board and very st raight with one another. There are no games played. If you didn't like something you said so and there was no hanky-panky about it . That has a lot to d o with it. A lac k of politics. Yes. that's it . Very definitely. CN: Is there anomer generation coming up through the ranks? JD: The fourth .generat ion ? They're pretty small. There is a third generation Harley working for us now. He started about a year ago after Vietnam an d college. As for my side of the family, 1 have two da ughters and I kind o f do ubt that they'll get into the b usiness. Bill has someone whomight. WD: Yes I've got tw o guys that are mo tocr ossing their minibikes around. 1 think . they have the bug although they're 13 and 14 and it is still a long way off. My daughter is d efin it ely a four wheel person . (La ughter). CN: There has always been a mystique about owning a H-D. It's an intangible object, but could yo u try to explain it? JD: Well certainly one of the things we've done th roughout our history is to . try to stay as close as we possibly could to our customer. There are various mean s of doing that like popular programs at the dealer level and through the Enthusiast publication from the company . We've tried to stay close to the customer, to support him as a H-D owner and to confirm, in his mind, that he is riding the righ t brand and that we are here to serve him. We expect that we'll continue to do that as much as we possibly can. It becomes more difficult as we become bigger. There are more enthusiasts riding our machines than ever before. ~N: It almost seems as if riding a Harley IS something (to a lot of road riders) like belong to a cult or a special religion. JD: We're all well aware of this, but it's hard to explain. It probably has something to do with 'o ur longevity and our dealer organization be ing as strong as it is. The dealers-died in the wool enthusiasts with total dedication -- have done a lot to further the image. That and maybe being the only American company involved in the business . CN: Bill, what about mystique from the . design standpoint? WD: I'd certainly have to say that from a product standpoint the Vee -twin is a unique ·animal . You can 't compare it with anything else. It's an important aspect of the company. A lot of people call it an archaic animal but the characteristics of the erigine are a good part of the H-L' mystique . You find that you don't sit on the bike when you ride it, you become a part of it . CN: Are there times when you're able to break away from the office routine and attend a race? AL L: An affirmative chorus of answers. CN : What part has racing played in H·D's success? JD: . I think racing is ' an important promotional ' tool for us. Success in racing is indicative of success in building consumer motorcycles and racing motorcycles. CN: What do you do in your spare time?

• Cover