Harley Davidson Motor Company Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Harley Davidson Motor Company Case Solution

Section 1: Case Background: What is Harley Davidson's goal in the case? Is culture important in the decision-making process?

The goals are important to consider before the selection of the software, as it would help in selecting the software because itwill show what exactly Harley Davidson needs.

It is clearly understood that the company wants a right product in minimum possible cost for the best quality. The first and most important factor to be considered is the selection of the software, either off the shelf software or bespoke would be better for them.

According to the goals of Harley Davidson, the bespoke would be the better option, as it wants to achieve the vision of new role in supply management. The bespoke system will fulfill this goal because it will also give a competitive edge.

Before selecting the software, some criteria must be fulfilled such as all requirements must be clearly defined, otherwise, the main objective of buying software will not be fulfilled. The case study indicated that given the survey conducted on the stakeholders, the team had the case of having accurately identifying organization requirements.

Secondly, new software should be user-friendly because otherwise, the users will make more mistakes, training cost will increase, the input will be slow, and the users will become frustrated.

Garry Berryman said that it is time to bring transformational change, which means that the change represents the major change and need to change quickly. The major change will affect the company's culture, therefore it is necessary to consider the culture of the company.

The case study indicates that there are some hurdles in transformational change; one of them is the passionate behavior of the people working there.

Therefore, it is important to consider the culture of Harley Davidson because some of them are against the change, however its software team can convince them that the new culture will improve efficiency and will be beneficial for them.

Harley Davidson’s culture is difficult to handle, particularly by the people working there, therefore, it is difficult to change. Culture, which is defined as a set of basic assumptions shared by organization members, (the ways of doing thing around) influences their behavior. The case study indicated that the people were having the problem of resources, skills because they are dependent on existing system. While considering the cultural aspect, the company needs to consider whether all employees are ready to accept the change or will there be a significant resistance. If there is significant resistance,then it must be solved as soon as possible.

The reason for resistance may be extra time needed to fulfill the requirement of a new system, which can cause affect their family lives. The cultural web model by Johnson & Scholes can be used to understand the culture. Some of the ideal steps to bring a transformational change are as follows:

Understand the existing culture (using cultural web)

Win the confidence of power structure culture

Consult the proposed changes with power structure people and get their support

Implement proposed changes.

Leaders may try to ignore the cultural issue and act as it is not an important issue but when given the hidden potential of the company's culture, it can negatively affectany leader's strategic aspirations. No matter how many top-down commands the teams has given, they will infrequently be executed, at least not with the emotional commitment and consistency needed to make them successful..................

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Harley Davidson Motor Company Harvard Case Solution & Analysis