For ariannna Rimes

Running head: HARLAEY DAVIDSON STRATEGIC POSITION ANALYSIS

HARLAEY DAVIDSON STRATEGIC POSITION ANALYSIS

Topic: Harley Davidson Strategic Position Analysis

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The increasing competition in the business world has pushed businesses to be creative and innovative if they are to remain afloat in the dynamic business environment. One way of an organization to be relevant with the environmental changes include defining its strategic position and coming up with appropriate plans to achieve that desired position. Designing a good organization strategic position entails analysis of the current business environment, external factors and internal factors. This will give the organization a view on how well the weaknesses and strengths can be interplayed to bring out the best fit for the organization to optimize its processes and resources for the best. Drawing a strategic position also involves coming up with goals and some roadmap to reach the goals. All stakeholders’ needs need to be identified as well as the resources available. It is important that the resources and the stakeholder needs be aligned to the organizational needs (Haines, 1995).

This paper focuses on the analysis of how well the Harley Davidson Company is aligning itself to its mission, vision and values in regard to fulfilling stakeholder needs as well as utilization of the organizational resources.

Mission: To fulfill dreams through the experience of motorcycling, by providing to motorcyclists and to the public an expanding line of motorcycles and branded products and services in selected market segments (Collins, 2001).

Vision: We fulfill dreams inspired by the many roads of the world by providing remarkable motorcycles and extraordinary customer experiences. We fuel the passion for freedom in our customers to express their own identity (Collins, 2001).

Organizational values: being truthful, keeping promises, respecting the individual, being fair and cultivating intellectual curiosity (Collins, 2001).

From the background information given about the company, is living o its mission in a great way because it is providing its customers with not only motorcycles but also a road worth experience. It has variety of products not to mention that it has expanded its operations to various parts of the world in a bid to reach many customers and have them feel the experience. The vision continues to guide the company as it seeks to offer superior value to all its stakeholders. For instance, the customers have a nice experience with Harley motorcycles because they have freedom to drive a motorbike of their choice. As for the values, the organization is adhering to its promises because the customers are getting what they have been programmed to expect. There is high degree of creativity and innovation in the organization, which tallies with the cultivation of intelligence curiosity organizational values (Collins, 2001).

Harley’s organization is very much concerned with its shareholders because they believe they are the reason they are in business. The shareholders’ interests guide their actions. The organization has various stakeholders: customers, employees, investors, government and the larger society.

Customers

This group of stakeholders for the core of the organizational activities because they are the bosses of Harley Davidson. More than anything else, customers want satisfaction from the products and services they buy from an organization. The current strategic position of Harleys is geared towards satisfying customers by providing a variety of superior products. It is therefore true that the organization strategic direction is in line with customer needs; by the end of the day they get the value of their money (Collins, 2001).

Employees

Employees are the prime movers of the organizational processes geared towards realizing the organizational goals. This component of the organization therefore cannot be overlooked. Employees need career growth and expansion in their experiences. The organization has sought to provide them with extensive training so that they stand in a good position to add value to the organizational processes. This is in line with the organizational value of enhancing intelligence curiosity, which in turn is expected to spur creativity and innovation (Haines, 1995).

Investors

In any business, an investor needs return on his or her investment through wealth creation by whatever the organization they have invested their money. The strategic position for this organization is to expand to other markets and claim a share of them. It is therefore in line with the investors needs because this expansion will increase the organizational wealth and hence that of the shareholders of maximizing their wealth (Haines, 1995).

From the above analysis of the organizations strategic positioning, I would recommend that the organization adopt cost-cutting strategies such as lean manufacturing, six sigma and just in time. It is also important that it progressively moves from demand push to demand pull strategies and especially in the countries, it is entering. I believe this will give it an edge in the market by reducing its waste and therefore costs (Grünig, Kühn & Kühn, 2005).

Strategic positioning is very important for an organization because it enables identification of organizational environmental factors and their influence on its operations. Strategic positioning also allows identification of stakeholders and how their needs and available resources can be aligned with the organizational goals. Stakeholders need to feel that their needs are being taken care of if they are to play their role in ensuring that the organization achieves its goals (Grünig, Kühn & Kühn, 2005).

References

Grünig, R., Kühn, R., & Kühn, R. (2005). Process-based strategic planning, Berlin: Springer

Haines, S. G. (1995). Successful strategic planning, Menlo Park, Calif: Crisp Publications

Collins, J. C. (2001). Good to great: Why some companies make the leap--and others don't. New York, NY: HarperBusiness