Harley Davidson has a strong organizational culture. The organization transformed its business strategy and aligned its organization strategy to meet the challenges it faced from low cost and fuel efficient Japanese competitors in the late 1970’s. However, the introduction of an online biker community could require certain changes in the organization culture. These changes discussed below will not be radical in nature and would only further strengthen the culture that exists at Harley Davidson and the contribution the culture makes to make the brand a cult.
Aspirers and owners perceive Harley Davidson to possess a brand persona that liberates, excites and gives them a sense of identity while still being part of a large family. To strengthen this positioning the organization should continue to focus on its endeavor to make it a gender neutral organization and continue to provide women a succession path in the organizational hierarchy. The organization needs to work a bit harder in achieving an ethnically diverse mix of employees.
This is as necessary as the focus on diverse mix of employees coupled with the current organizational encouragement towards ideation would help make the online community a success. The diverse mix of employees will bring together the behavioral understanding required to motivate people to join the community and ensure sustained participation in the community. As even though the initial membership can be offered free with the purchase of an Harley Davidson, subsequent years would require the community member to be motivated enough to go for a paid subscription.
The organizations current emphasis on learning should incorporate sharing of ‘learning’s’ that employees have across diverse geographical markets and with a diverse demographic customer base. This would help foster a greater understanding of the needs and wants of an online community and package offerings that would help subscribers gain the maximum. There are a lot of cross functional teams and specialized teams within the organization. This could be a challenge as well as an opportunity. The organizational culture should imbibe a sense of participation amongst various teams to promote the online community.
All teams involved including the sales function, brand promotion, technical teams and others need to feel that the selling the online concept is part of the overall organizational strategy. Also all teams/roles have to ensure that operational and strategic support is provided towards this goal. However the entire premise of the online community is the values that the brand seemingly upholds. The organization culture should be continuously strengthened around the ethos of freedom of expression and being part of a larger community to make the online endeavor a success.