| Author | Message | ||
     Electraglider_1997 |
This guy says it succinctly and brings up points that the HD CEO needs to answer (integration). http://roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=3 8564 | ||
| Buewulf |
Nicely written. Thanks for posting. | ||
| Black51 |
I read the article. It was nicely done. I sincerely empathize with the writers of the letters. If we remove our emotions from the situation and look at things objectively we can see both sides of the coin. To Harley, Buell has always been its R&D arm. In fact, with the new water-cooled Buell I bet you will see the same thing on Harleys in just a few short years. The money that was spent developing the new bike was astronomical and Harley simply will not give up that technology. Additionally, all of the technology developed at Buell, for better or worse, was all funded by Harley. It's akin to one of us working for our company and developing something new that gets a patent. The patent doesn't belong to us, even though we developed it, but instead belongs to the company that pays our salary. Harley owns all the patents and paid for all the technology and R&D. They will not sell this at all because they wish to keep a competitive advantage and more importantly keep the technology away from competitors. Think of Buell as an enormous empty canvas. Erik got to be as creative as he wanted and make awesome paintings. Who among us wouldn't want that job? He got to do what he loved for 25 years, paint whatever his imagination wanted. Now, unfortunately it's come down to a business decision for Harley. They do not want their proprietary technology to get out to competitors and yet they want to cut the fat off the company and get lean. Companies that are great today will not be great tomorrow unless they change. Of the hundred or so motorcycle companies that began in the US in the early part of the century only Harley has survived. It nearly died after AMF bought them. But they continue as a going concern today. The economy is sluggish and so are sales. Harley is going to concentrate solely on their brand now. And it just isn't Buell or its employees. My brother has seen hundreds of layoffs at Harley in York. People that had jobs that, with overtime, could easily earn them over $100,000 per year. But that is no more. Harley is chopping more heads and outsourcing a lot of jobs and will only keep their core competencies intact. I feel bad for everyone, but mostly for the employees. People who have based their lives on their jobs and now have had the carpets ripped from beneath them. It's a sad commentary, but Harley does not want to become the next GM. Familiarity breeds contempt and so it goes that change is inevitable. Finally, I will end my maudlin diatribe with this...I believe that H-D will continue to produce the Blast as their entry-level bike and for their Riders Edge program, while keeping the rest of Buell in mothballs. And if Harley were smart, they would produce a smaller cc bike while still keeping the look of the touring bikes. For example, by dropping the 883 motor into a big-bike frame and appealing to a different market segment. But hopefully we've not seen the last of Buell. | ||
| Court |
>>>The money that was spent developing the new bike was astronomical How much? |
