Harley-Davidson’s Interim CEO Outlines New Five-Year Plan

Harley-Davidson plans to scale back its rapid expansion to keep the company healthy in a world of uncertainty.

The current global situation has shaken up every conceivable industry, from farming to oil and everything in between. Obviously, the motorcycle industry has been hit hard as well.

Just before things started to get weird, Harley-Davidson made waves by parting ways with longtime CEO Matt Levatich. Levatich’s main project at Harley-Davidson these past couple years has been his “More Roads to Harley-Davidson” program, aimed at bringing fresh blood — and new money — to the brand.

With Levatich out of the picture, interim CEO Jochen Zeits has more or less scrapped the program. According to Visor Down, the new plan will help Harley-Davidson to save money and scale back some high-dollar projects.

The new five-year program involves a calculated effort to strengthen the core of Harley’s brand — big, burly American-style cruisers — while still expanding into other markets, albeit more cautiously. It seems that the freewheeling days of rapid expansion are behind us, for now.

We’d expect to see fewer new products like the LiveWire, Bronx, and Pan America in the coming years. Instead, expect to see more offerings in line with the midyear release of the Softail Standard — a stripped-down, budget-friendly Softail that’s just begging to be customized by the sort of Millennial young blood the company desperately seeks.

Less is More

Zeits wants the company to focus on the markets that matter. He also wants to streamline the entire operation, trimming unnecessary or underperforming parts of the business. Think of it as an organizational bonsai tree — snip off the sick parts to help the rest of the organization flourish.

To that end, Zeits wants to delay or cancel new product launches altogether. As the world prepares to go back to work, we expect some major teething issues and supply problems will have to be worked out. Simply put, there are a lot of reasons why it’s an awful idea to launch a new motorcycle right now.

It’s not all about downsizing, however. Part of the plan includes leaning heavily on the parts business and the general merchandise business to keep the lights on. It’s a solid plan. For years, our metric-riding friends have joked that Harley-Davidson is a t-shirt company that just happens to sell motorcycles.

Those folks have a point. As it stands, we know way more people that own Harley t-shirts than Harley motorcycles. Focusing on selling parts and accessories to existing owners — or new owners — and selling shirts, hats, and badass chain wallets to everyone else can help them weather this (hopefully temporary) storm.

Personally, we think it’s a smart move. “More Roads to Harley-Davidson” was a great plan when the economy was riding high. With the unforeseen rapid changes the world has faced these past few months, though, it was simply untenable. Harley-Davidson’s new plan should see them well into their 125th birthday and beyond.

Photos: Harley-Davidson

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Cameron Vanderhorst

Cam VanDerHorst has been a contributor to Internet Brands' Auto Group sites for over three years, with his byline appearing on Ford Truck Enthusiasts, Corvette Forum, JK Forum, and Harley-Davidson Forums, among others. In that time, he's also contributed to Autoweek, The Drive, and Scale Auto Magazine.

He bought his first car at age 14 -- a 1978 Ford Mustang II -- and since then he’s amassed an impressive and diverse collection of cars, trucks, and motorcycles, including a 1996 Ford Mustang SVT Mystic Cobra (#683) and a classic air-cooled Porsche 911.

In addition to writing about cars and wrenching on them in his spare time, he enjoys playing music (drums and ukulele), building model cars, and tending to his chickens.

You can follow Cam, his cars, his bikes, and his chickens at @camvanderhorst on Instagram.

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