The History and Social Responsibility Initiatives of Harley Davidson - Research Paper Example

The History and Social responsibility initiatives of Harley Davidson Introduction Harley-Davidson is not just an alternative to hundreds of highly successful brands, but a unique motor company that has grown to become a legend being admired around the world. Perhaps no other brands incorporated the spirit of American dream, the freedom and the adventure as Harley Davidson did. No other brands in motorcycle market can embody the history of Harley-Davidson since it is a passion as well as lifestyle that most people feel always superior with the brand. This paper addresses the brief history of Harley-Davidson and explains its relentless efforts in ensuring environmental and social responsibilities. Brief History of Harley-Davidson Many of today’s large multinational brands were once established as a small upstart or lucrative business form, but their entrepreneurs transformed the same to Fortune 500 or world’s first class brand by continuously developing better business ideas, discovering further new business opportunities and seizing the same. The history of Harley-Davidson is similar to that of a fascinating tale as it involves the vision of two young engineers who started their own business. Its history goes back to 1903 when young entrepreneurs- William Harley and Arthur Davidson- discovered the business opportunity for basic transportation and developed a bicycle frame with French-designed single cylinder gasoline engine to provide a vehicle for the customers to meet the basic transportation need (Leffingwell, p. 11). Neither William Harley nor Arthur Davidson had any big dream of a manufacturing company, but they in fact were thinking to produce an outboard motor for their own purpose to reach their favorite fishing spots easily. In 1903, they built the first production of Harley-Davidson with the help of a more powerful motor. William Harley begun in the bicycle business and Arthur Davidson trained as a pattern maker with help of other draftsman, they worked together and brought the premier machine that was basically a bicycle frame fitted with a single-cylinder four stroke machine (Rafferty, p. 10). Harley-Davidson’s first machine production was complete by the summer of 1903. It was not just loop-frame bike, but a more primitive vehicle with quite smaller engine attached to the pedal bicycle frame. The second machine was more advanced than its first one, because, its loop-frame model was a natural trap for the unwary and careless people (Holmstrom, p. 15). Within three years after the first motor is produced, Harley Davidson Company became known in its way to prosperity as it increased production of motors to around 50 motorcycles. Until 1906, the company had only a backyard shed for production processes, but Harley and Davidson expanded the manufacturing plant to nearly 2400 square feet of plant space. Before 1910, the brand attained wider popularity for efficient construction, user-friendly motorcycle, durability and so on (Rafferty, p. 12). As Holmstrom (p. 13) noted, after 1908, Harley Davidson began to veer from the facts for marketing purposes. Though there were two different machines in design and outlook, their identities turned to make them single machine. Company grew to achieve several recognitions of excellence in business and marketing landscape. In 1942, Arthur Davidson recalled the growth of the company- Harley Davidson grew just like Topsy with luck, but it was not just that luck because management strategies and effective decision making helped the company stay stronger for years. Harley Davidson redesigned its engineering by changing the front frame down-tube to straight from its previous styles and designs. The 1911 single model was made with increased capacity of using gasoline by enlarging the tank capacity to store around 2 gallons of gasoline. By 1912, the manufacturing of Harley-Davidson motor products expanded to a large six-storied building and started overseas business from Japan. By 1915, the company became the largest motorcycle company in the world with around 2000 dealers around the world. After 1930, the company saw many record breaking and award winning products and effective marketing strategies. A three-wheel servi-car that the company introduced in 1932 became a familiar police vehicle and has added greater reputation to the company’s brand. Most of the changes such as Eagle’s design printed on oil tank, 1340 CC capacity etc that its products witnessed these years also brought back wider popularity and positive zeal about the brands in its customers’ life (Harley’s history). In 1960s and 70s, the company continued to manufacture newer and yet different designed bikes. Though some of its designs became undesirable to many since Confederate flag, which was long seen a symbol of racism, printed on its oil tank, the company concentrated on increasing quality of its motors from 1980s onwards and attracted customers back to maintain back the market leadership. When Harley Davidson strategically aligned with Ford in 1990s, the partnership made both of them stay highly strong in the vehicle market (harleysonline.biz). Environmental and Social responsibilities of Harley Davidson In recent years, businesses the responsibility of a business for noneconomic concerns are hotly debated. People around the world are highly concerned about the goods they prefer, brand they choose and the company they get familiar with not only in terms of the quality, but also in terms of how far the business or the brand they choose are concerned about the social responsibility. Social responsibility is thus the obligation of a company towards society and social issues (Bateman and Snell, p. 147). A social responsible business therefore takes responsibility to maximize the positive impacts and minimize the negative impacts of its working or manufacturing or its products on society. Many companies add social responsibility initiatives to its business strategies only for the name sake, but sincere efforts in reducing negative impacts such as greenhouse gas emission, pollution, waste disposal etc turned many companies not just socially responsible but helped them increase the brand loyalty and customer base. When it comes to Harley Davidson, the company has long been putting in greater efforts in sustainability and social well being of the people it concerns about. Harley and Davidson brother put forth the sign of social responsibility to motorcycling by manufacturing durable machines for honest value for the dollar customers spent. Throughout the history of Harley Davidson, the company produced cleanest, durable, most silent, most comfortable and most economic motorcycles and this itself shows whether the company has fulfilled its responsibility to the society in its history. As Scharwath noted, since 2004, Harley Davidson has focused much on sustainability and it has added sustainability as core to its overall business strategy. The reports in released in 2009 and 2010 also declared the same. The new strategic focus of sustainability of Harley Davidson has also been structured in a way that a sustainability sub-committee is selected within the board of directors and they were made more responsible for ensuring the sustainability efforts. According to latest reports, the company could reduce carbon emissions by 42 percent. The carbon emission in 2004 was 79,232 metric tons, but it is reduced to 46,184 in 2010 (Scharwath). The importance of social responsibility has dramatically increased in recent years and this is very evident from the fact that more than 90 percent of the Fortune 500 companies explicitly write about their social responsibility initiatives throughout their reports, websites, promotions etc (Bueble, p. 1). Social responsibility needs to be perceived as a strategic business tool to improve community well being through discretionary business ideas and practices and by contributing corporate resources. While perceiving social responsibility in such a wider meaning, Harley Davidson needs to improve its communication to customers regarding electricity consumption, purchased materials, social effects of motorcycle or product use etc. More specifically, the company needs to design and develop products and take managerial decisions about materials to be used in manufacturing by considering social responsibility efforts in mind. Doing business in contemporary business environment Many factors such as competition, advanced technology, globalization, consumers awareness about ethics and social responsibility, changes in customers attitudes etc largely influence the business and make tremendous changes in the business environment. To survive in today’s competitive market, businesses need to face challenges and overcome them with highly effective business strategies. In today’s changing business landscape, many high flying multinational companies crashing down whereas others witnessed heavy burden for their profits to come by. Many well experienced managers often take bad decisions and get their businesses crumbled down in recession or dot-com bubble burst. In the competitive landscape of business, managerial practices need to be highly effective and strategically formed so that businesses can keep a track on its success path. Overall, the strategy should work. For most of the critically important segments of a business such as marketing, financing, purchasing, human resources, distribution and so on, the management should discover, design and develop those strategies that can help them stay competitively strong in the market. achieving competitive advantages is therefore significantly important to ensure business success. When it comes to Harley Davidson, it remains to be the leader in Luxury motors market, but it still has wider opportunities in other market segments. Strategies such as supply chain, social responsibility, knowledge management, product differentiation, standardization, product customization facility for customers etc have been embraced by many companies to improve the results. Companies need to look at individual consumer rather than looking at mass customers, because each individual in the market, especially in today’s changing market environment, is unique, distinct and separate from the other in terms of how he wants and needs his product to be. Conclusion This piece of research paper has addressed the brief history of one of the most influential and highly successful motorcycle companies- Harley Davidson and detailed some of the most important ups and downs in the history of the company. This paper has also explained the concept of social responsibility in relation to the recent practices of Harley Davidson and discussed the need to bring effective business strategies in today’s competitive business environments. References Bateman, T.S and Snell, S.A, Management: The New Competitive Landscape, Sixth Edition, The McGrawHill Companies, 2003 Bueble, E 2009, Corporate Social Responsibility: CSR Communication as an Instrument to Consumer-Relationship Marketing, GRIN Verlag Harley’s history, Harley’s history, Retrieved from http://www.powerpassion.nl/harley/story-engels.html Harleysonline.biz, History of Harley Davidson Motorcycle, retrieved from http://www.harleysonline.biz/ Holmstrom, D, Harley-Davidson Century, MotorBooks International, 2004 Leffingwell, R, Harley-Davidson History & Mystique, Revised edition, Crestline Imprints, 2003 Rafferty, T, Complete Harley Davidson: A Model-By-Model History of the American Motorcycle, Illustrated edition, Crestline Imprints, 1997 Scharwath, K, Harley-Davidson Embraces Sustainability, but Will Its Customers?, Retrieved from http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/03/harley-davidson-sustainability/, 2012 Read More