Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/316641
6 • May 26, 2014 • Powersports Business NEWS www.PowersportsBusiness.com www.PowersportsBusiness.com NEWS Powersports Business • May 26, 2014 • 7 INDUSTRY LEADERS PAST EXECUTIVES OF THE YEAR: 2013 Keith Wandell, CEO, Harley-Davidson Motor Co. 2012 Rob Dingman, CEO, American Motorcyclist Association 2011 Scott Wine, CEO, Polaris Industries 2010 Jack Snow, CEO, Sheffield Financial 2009 Bennett Morgan, President & COO, Polaris Industries 2008 Eric Bondy, CEO, KYMCO USA 2007 Paolo Timoni, CEO, Piaggio Group Americas 2006 Michael Lock, CEO, Ducati North America 2005 José Boisjoli, CEO, BRP 2003 Jeff Bleustein, CEO, Harley-Davidson 2002 Tom Tiller, CEO, Polaris Industries 2001 Ray Blank, Vice President, American Honda 2000 Fred Fox, Chairman and Founder, Parts Unlimited PAST INDUSTRY LEADERS: 2013 Roy Olivier, CEO, ARI Network Services, Inc.; Sam Yourd, Vice President of Marketing, Motorsports Division, GE Capital Commercial Distribution Finance; Cristiano Silei, CEO, Ducati North America; Sam Dantzler, President, Sam's Powersports Garage, Sam Dantzler Consulting 2012 Bill Jenkins, Vice President of Sales, Kawasaki Motors Corp.; Chris Carlson, President, Sportech; Jim Woodruff, Partner, National Powersport Auctions; Keith Wandell, President, CEO and Chairman of the Board, Harley-Davidson 2011 Yves Leduc, Vice President and General Manager, BRP North America division; Steve Johnson, President/COO, Tucker Rocky Distributing; Paul Vitrano, General Counsel, MIC; executive VP, ROHVA; Claude Jordan, CEO, Arctic Cat 2010 Chris McIntyre, President, EagleRider; Malcolm Smith, President, Malcolm Smith Motorsports; Laurn Rice, Vice President, ADP Lightspeed; Holger Mohr, CEO, Custom Chrome 2009 Philip McCaleb, President, Genuine Scooter Co.; Brian Etter, CEO, MAG; Christopher Carter, Owner, Motion Pro; Cliff Clifford, CEO, National Powersport Auctions 2008 Bob Miller, President, Helmet House; Jon-Erik Burleson, President, KTM North America; Mark Blackwell, Vice President, Victory Motorcycles; Dan Patterson, CEO, Lehman Trikes 2007 Gregory Pierce, General Manager, GE Money's Powersports Division; Craig Shoemaker, President, Western Power Sports PSB will be times when you need to do a "Crazy Ivan" to shake the competition off your tail or to forge forward into untapped markets. If you run the numbers, measure the potential for success and decide to go for it, then do. … Let the num- bers dictate when you expand or contract, not your ego or the opinions of others or what other companies are doing; this has been the undoing of many companies. … Do not let your com- petition dictate your business, pay very close attention to them, learn from them, measure their successes and their losses, but ride your own race. … Find a purpose beyond what you do for a business, a reason beyond your job to help you get out of bed in the morning and get to work, and most importantly, care about what you do. For me this is knowing I have a respon- sibility to my team and the faith they place in my wife and I that we keep them employed and my brands relevant in this market. I know that suc- cess in my company will allow me to take care of my family, my employees and allow me the opportunity to give back to my industry and my community in a way that is larger than I could otherwise. … Believe in yourself, even in the darkest hours. Be solution minded, not problem reactive. Be honest with yourself and listen well to others, really listen. … Make the hardest calls first, own your mistakes and make sure you always honor anything you shake hands over. THERE'S MORE ONLINE Read what Tim has to say about… The formation of SpeedMob, Inc., his new 'boutique distributor' The importance of providing a personal touch with customer service Restoring his passion for riding Mark-Hans Richer doesn't blame dealers for being a little nervous at his appointment as chief marketing officer of the Motor Co. As he claims, there were two marks on his motorcycling soul: he started in adver- tising in Chicago working on packaged goods and McDonald's burgers ("Strike one," he says). A stint in automotive in Detroit didn't necessarily lower the raised eyebrows, as he says he heard "he's going to turn us into automotive" more than a few times. "I knew they had nothing to worry about because that is the LAST thing I would wish on us — no 'Summer Sellathon' please," he said. That, and his passion for motorcycling is unquestionable. "I have owned and ridden street motorcycles for 29 years including all over the world (for example, I paid a local guy off the street $20 to 'rent' his bike for a day in Cameroon in 1994 just because I had to scratch the itch), and have a deep respect for this brand and our passionate and creative customers," Richer said. "I felt a strong responsibility from day one at H-D to make sure we did all we could to preserve and grow what I consider to be an important institution, and my experiences outside of the indus- try have been useful, even if for knowing what NOT to do. You learn something good from all your experiences as long as you know how to apply them." These days, those applica- tions have included guiding the marketing efforts of the Project Rushmore and Street 500 and Street 750 motorcycles, highly successful initiatives that helped Richer be selected as a 2014 Powersports Business Industry Leader. What is the biggest opportunity for the industry, and how can the industry take advantage of it? The biggest opportunity for the industry is to stop thinking as much about product segments and start thinking and organizing around consumer segments. Powersports still seems a little trapped in the idea that cc size or "standard" vs. "touring" or other engineering or industry conventions determine consumer appeals. It's the other way around — custom- ers lead, and when you look through that lens, it is liberating. What they want is not always what we would prefer to give them or find easiest to classify — the Street Glide is the number one selling "touring" bike in the world, for instance. Our neat rationalities do not always win. What has been the biggest challenge in your current position and how have you dealt with it? Our biggest challenge has been respecting the substantial strengths of the Harley-Davidson brand — and by that I mean our ideals, our products and experiences, our dealers and customers — and yet not being trapped by our prior successes. Change is hard in general, but when you're very successful as we and our dealers have been, it is that much harder to go further. But we are making those transitions, and customers of all kinds have responded by voting with their dollars — we've gained double-digit market share in every consumer segment since 2008. It's gratifying. And yet we can always be even better. What is the best advice that you can give others in the industry? The best advice I can think of is to see your customers, regularly, both retail and dealer customers. THERE'S MORE ONLINE Read what Mark-Hans has to say about… The growth not only of H-D outreach customers, but core customers, too Launching the Street 500 and Street 750 at EICMA Passing on the "generational baton" Determining which alliances are the right fit for the brand What is the best advice that you can give others in the industry? I think our industry does an outstanding job of making compelling products. The best advice I could give is to put as much effort and focus on people and process. The Indian acquisition and launch required the entire Polaris team's collective efforts. We have great people working on the Indian Motorcycle business directly and supporting us indirectly. It begins with senior leadership support and commitment to the end goal, like the support we received from the board and Scott Wine (CEO) and Bennett Morgan (COO). We have exceptional people on our engi- neering, operations, international, HR, finance, sales and marketing teams, who all played a huge role in the success of Indian. We were supported indirectly by the great people in our ORV, Inter- national, PGA and Snow businesses, whose prof- itability allowed us to invest in Indian Motorcycle and not cut corners. It's a terrific story of how all the people in your company can really have an impact on a growth initiative or new business. We also focused on our processes right from the beginning. As an organization, Polaris is committed to becoming a Lean Enterprise and we applied Lean Production Tools to our processes as we built the Indian Motorcycle product and business. The more waste you can remove from your processes and the more value added to the customer, the more success- ful your organization can become. THERE'S MORE ONLINE Read what Steve has to say about… The leadership traits that made the Indian launch come to fruition The key ingredients for those seeking success in the industry Building off Victory's success to launch Indian Prospective Indian dealers Sarah Schilke wasn't born into the motorcy- cling industry — her family didn't even ride — but after she became a licensed rider herself and was hired into a motorcycle safety pro- gram, she was hooked on the sport and the industry where she's remained ever since. Schilke has spent time working for the American Motorcyclist Association and the International Motorcycle Shows, and she combined her passion for motorcycling with her love for Germany — where she studied in high school and college — during her time at Fairchild Sports and Hein Gericke. Now Schilke is the head of marketing and public relations for Schuberth North America, a post she took four years ago during the company's launch. In January, she cele- brated her reelection on Motorcycle Industry Council Board of Directors. When she was newly elected in 2007, Schilke became the first woman to hold a place on that board, and has just begun her third two-year term at that post. She's also a 2014 Powersports Business Industry Leader. What has been the biggest challenge in your current position, and how have you dealt with it? Probably the most obvious challenge is that we're basically still a startup company. We started at the tail end of the industry slump, so we didn't start up when things were going great and everybody wanted new products, so it's been a challenge to get the word out and to get people interested on a shoestring budget. I think starting any new business is difficult, but it's a fun challenge, and we've done a lot of grassroots efforts, worked with our core audi- ence and tried to branch out that way and start slowly and build really solid strategic partner- ships that have paid off, and are helping us to expand even more now. What's the biggest opportunity for the industry, and how can the industry take advantage of it? Right now we're finally seeing a rebounding of the economy, so that's a huge opportunity that we can take advantage of. Everyone's been scaling back over the last couple years, and now that the economy is starting to pick up again, we can slowly come out of the scaling-back phase and embrace people getting back into motorcycling, as well as going after new riders to the sport and just really taking advantage of everything hopefully going on an upward curve again. What is the best advice that you can give others in the industry? In order to move the industry forward and expand the industry, it's really important for people who work in the industry to be aware of what goes on outside of their own experience in motorcycling. A lot of us are riders, and a lot of us look at the world of motorcycling through the kind of motorcycling activities that we like to do. But it's important to recognize all of the other ways that people participate in the sport and all of the ways that are different from the way that you're into it — the different kinds of bikes people buy, the different ways that they use those bikes, the different kinds of apparel that people use — because there are so many different aspects of motorcycling that you can't have tunnel vision and just focus on one area. THERE'S MORE ONLINE Read what Sarah has to say about… How she impacts the industry as the first woman on the MIC Board The importance of women riders Her role as an advocate for motorcycle safety MARK-HANS RICHER SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT & CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER / HARLEY-DAVIDSON MOTOR CO. SARAH SCHILKE HEAD OF MARKETING & PUBLIC RELATIONS / SCHUBERTH NORTH AMERICA P01x08-PSB7-News.indd 7 5/14/14 2:01 PM