Not sure how a guy that ran a golf driving range company translates into marketing motorcycles, maybe he can do well, he certainly can't be worse than the last foreigner CEO

I guess there is no top talent from the industry that could lead HD, but, it's better than Jochen from Germany and had a background in "global sustainability strategy" yeah that works well in the market with gas driven loud heavy motorcycle circles.

Basically he's got cred in the investment community, ran Top Golf and Yum Brands Pizza Hut.

Maybe HD is going to get into branding a Pizza Pie....

Link


Harley-Davidson names new president and CEO to replace Jochen Zeitz. He's coming from Topgolf


Harley-Davidson Inc. has named a new president and CEO in a transition aimed at helping the motorcycle maker through difficult times — including fallen sales, management turmoil and tariffs.

Milwaukee-based Harley has named Arthur Starrs, CEO of Topgolf International, to replace Jochen Zeitz — who this year announced his retirement but will continue as senior adviser through February. Starrs will begin his new position in October, said the Aug. 4 announcement.

As CEO of Dallas-based Topgolf, Harley-Davidson said, Starrs was responsible for establishing it as one of the world's premier sports entertainment companies. He managed a portfolio of more than 100 global recreational venues with over 30,000 employees.

Topgolf operates sports entertainment centers. They combine the concept of a golf driving range with interactive games, scoring and social activities.

Arthur Starrs has been named president and CEO of Harley-Davidson Inc. Starrs is an executive well known to many consumer investors, UBS analyst Robin Farley said in an Aug. 4 research note.


Under his 4½ years of leadership, Topgolf's revenues grew more than 50%, from $1.1 billion in 2021 to $1.8 billion annually. The brand expanded across Europe and Asia.

Between 2013 and 2021, Starrs held leadership roles at Yum! Brands' subsidiary, Pizza Hut, most recently as global CEO.

During his time at Pizza Hut, he led the brand to more than 18,000 locations across 110 countries. Before joining Yum! Brands, he served as chief financial officer for Rave Cinemas and began his career as an investment banker at Wasserstein Perella.

"It's a huge privilege to be joining Harley-Davidson as President and CEO, and I am grateful for the opportunity to help steward this incredible company," Starrs said in a statement.

'I have long admired the unique position Harley-Davidson has in the hearts of its riders and fans; there is no brand that brings the same level of community and rebellious spirit as Harley-Davidson.

This is long winded, excuse me but there was really no way to Readers Digest it.

A lot of you know that I worked in Harley dealerships on a part time basis from 1999 to 2022, P&A sales. Been riding motorcycles since 1967, started riding Harley Davidson in 1987.

When they named Zeitz as CEO I saw a disaster in the making. A CEO with absolutely no understanding of the market. Certainly he was on the BOD since 2007 but being on the Board and leading the ship, two different things.

Unfortunately today the typical corporate mindset is that anybody can do any job with training. To an extent yes, but how well can they do it without any true understanding of that particular market?

Zeitz was touted for his time and success as CEO of Puma, the athletic shoe company.

In the last five years many missteps have been made and are still being made. Embracing of DEI. The discontinuation of the 500 and 750 Street, an entry level bike aimed at urban commuters and utilized by the H-D Riding Academy. The Street went away and somebody realized “Hey,we need a low cost easy to ride bike for teaching, now what do we do?”

Well, they “fixed” that by importing a Chinese branded H-D that is sold in S/E Asia but it is not FMVSS or EPA certified so it can’t be sold here. So if a new rider needs to buy a small displacement commuter bike at present they,have to go outside of the H-D family to do that.

That’s some brilliant marketing strategy there! Nothing like building brand loyalty.

Then we come to the discontinuation of the 883 Sportster in favor of the “new” Sportster at about double the price of the 883, sure it has a new liquid cooled engine but it looks like a cartoon bike IMO, H-D riders embrace tradition usually. The Pan Am launch, problems left and right but it was during Covid so I’ll give them somewhat of a pass.

The MoCo discontinued the Dyna series in favor,of the Softail, another great mistake. Sure they “improved” the Softail but it’s still a Softail, a Dyna had a lot better potential as a performance bike. Then we come to the touring aka baggers. The prices have gone way up, average mid 30-40k range.

Not to mention the Livewire, the touted electric motorcycle that was spun off into its own company with H-D being a majority stockholder. Think this year they sold maybe 50 or so bikes……

Let’s not forget the 5-6k e-bicycles too….

Harley is forcing the mom and pop stores out in favor of dealer groups owning multiple stores. If you’re on the road touring and your bike breaks down you could find yourself a few hundred miles from your closest dealership. And the dealer group stores are to be showplaces. Guess who ultimately pays for that in inflated bike prices, matrix parts and accessories and motorclothes prices. Matrix pricing for those not familiar is the dealer escalates prices to increase their bottom line. That’s why prices can vary dealer to dealer radically.

And while we are on the dealership subject, P&A sales have new restrictions on them too. A lot of us here have had a bad experience at car and truck, powersports, lawn equipment dealers but still like the product and swear never to go back there. So you still own that item and need a part, you assume “I’ll just go to the Internet and find another dealer.” Sure, you find a dealer that has what you need and ask them if they will ship it to you. Then you find out that that dealership CANNOT sell to someone outside of their assigned marketing area, part of the dealer agreement for exclusive territories. If for some reason your assigned dealer has told you he doesn’t want your business any longer you are in the same spot. So you can vote with your feet as long as you don’t mind steeping on them yourself at the same time.

Most dealers refuse to work on any bikes older than ten years old. So if you d need it serviced you have to take it to an independent shop. Harley also prohibits parts sales to independent shops so you either have to have aftermarket parts installed or you get to chase your own parts down.

Yeah, the MoCo is stepping on its own appendage and I really don’t care.

Would it fucking kill HD to hire someone who actually loves motorcycles AND has a record of success in this sector? The last CEO was a clusterfuck and then some. Why is this company so committed to making terrible decisions?

Cutting Erik loose effectively slit their throat with regards to making bikes that younger people and middle age fools like myself enjoy riding.

Dammit Harley!

Yeah yeah I know it’s early but if/when this doesn’t pan out you can imagine how shocked I will be about it.

So, new H-D's will putt around leaking grease?

The tube frame sportster 883/1200 based Buells are IMO the best thing Harley/Erik Buell ever made in my life time. Their decision to quit on this line and not throw down against the mighty & iconic Ducati Monster is why they struggle HARD to recruit new blood to their brand.

FUCKING IDIOTS they are.

All they had to do was stick with this formula and refine it:

(I own a fuck ton of motorcycles. This is the one I ride daily.)

stickman428,

I don’t understand it either. It’s almost like the BOD and many of the stockholders want it to fail. Here’s an excerpt from the Milwaukee Journal regarding the vote in May:

“Harley’s bylaws require any director who does not receive more than 50% of the votes in an election to submit their resignation.

In the May 14 election, Zeitz received 51% of the 99,556,399 company shares cast as votes, according to the results released May 19.

More: The power struggle at Harley-Davidson has ended with election of the entire company board
Directors Sara Levinson and Tom Linebarger, also targeted for dismissal from the board in a withhold-the-vote campaign, received 57.7% and 59.3%, respectively.”

I’m wondering if the investment firms that have to be a big voting bloc actually want to liquidate the MoCo.

In the early 2000’s the MoCo was encouraging dealers and dealership employees to buy stock in H-D, direct purchase and no fees. I as well as other coworkers invested, my holdings were very small, you know, other things get in the way.

Since 2014 the stock has fallen from a high of 56 dollars per share to around twenty five dollars a share recently and the vote to keep the BOD and CEO in place (despite Zeitz’s prior decision to leave by the end of this year) I sold all of it off.

I don’t foresee my buying new bikes in the future, my 82 and 02 are just fine.

They've had CEOs try to turn HD into a t-shirt company, an Indian/Chinese import company, and an e-bike company. I'm sure this will be another gimmick.

IMO, they'll keep ignoring the market by continuing to produce $30k and $40k bikes that young buyers don't want and can't afford, and they'll keep making an order of magnitude more models than a company can profitably produce.

I occasionally poke fun at HD that their best selling model is a trike as their customer base is aging out, but if this is another gimmick CEO then it won't be a joke much longer.

I want to see an American brand succeed in the motorcycle market. It’s why I sought out a Buell, I wanted something new and different from the Japanese sportbikes I had grown bored owning and riding.

I had NO IDEA I would fall head over heels in love with the tube frame X1.

Harley has made terrible decisions. There is a video of Erik Buell holding back tears taking about the separation from Harley Davidson and its ramifications on warranty’s etc. THAT was the moment that radicalized me fully against HD.


It’s a damn shame they cannot find a competent leader to right the ship.

Why not hire a motorcycle guy that knows production and how to build motorcycles from within the company to run it? Then focus on quality, improving the traditional touring models, like Shovelhead said bring back air cooled and updated Sportster and Dyna models.

Many say they need to make affordable entry bikes, I say forget that HD can't compete with Thailand, India, and China. Focus on making very high quality, relatively simple, easy to maintain motorcycles, with very good suspensions and brakes, that are nice to ride. Every lead engineer tasked with designing a new model should be required to ride the prototype from coast to coast. After that ride he can work on correcting the ergonomics as well as any other problems.

Bring back a modernized tube frame Buell for your standard and semi-sport bike, those were delightful motorcycles to ride. After a pretty good start, the early Buells were plagued with various problems and recalls which tarnished their reputation and hurt sales. By the time they got the bugs worked out they discontinued them.

While we are on the subject of Buell, an observation here.

It made no sense that Buell was treated as a completely different brand for sales, service and parts and accessories. A H-D dealer had to have a Buell franchise so sell or service the, making it harder for some potential buyers to experience the brand and for owners to get service work,

P & A, two separate brands, two different parts catalogs and part numbering systems. It made no sense that a bolt used in a Buell and the same bolt used in a H-D had two different part numbers. Many service tools, same situation. Unnecessary duplication.

The early 2000’s were the zenith of H-D, they could do no wrong in their minds.

Is this new CEO responsible for removing the dining rooms from Pizza Hut? If it is, Harley may still be doomed!!

Just sat in on an HDMC webinar where the top brass swore that this gentleman was the best candidate out of hundreds of applications and they spent a lot of time making this decision. Good news is he is supposed be buying his first bike this week from his dealer in Dallas!

A mild ray of sunshine from the webinar is that the new guy is looking to buy a house and relocate to Milwaukee as they are ramping back up operations at the HQ on Juneau Ave. That's a big deal since they went to all flannel wearing remote lesbians during covid and basically boarded up the historic headquarters. I've been there several times, it's a very neat place and the place the head of the company needs to be at to truly understand the vibe.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: JonDaddy82,

It seems the Board is obsessed with the idea that HD is a "lifestyle" brand that needs better brand management and appeal to affluent urbanites. The kind of brand that sells on image and exclusivity, but not really on quality or utility.

Given the amount of clothing and accessories HD sells, they may have a point. but the last guy didn't know shit about bikes, and it sounds like the new guy doesn't either. And none of the marketing matters if they don't have bikes to sell that people want to buy. An electric HD is like Rolex selling a digital watch.

There is a huge difference between marketing shoes or sporting goods contracted out to lowest cost producers in Asia, or managing fancy driving ranges, and designing, building, and servicing an American motorcycle.

Younger people don't want slow and heavy bikes with crude handling, they want faster sportier bikes. There has to be a way for HD to create a "retro modern" bike that appeals to younger riders while capitalizing on HD style and history.

They can keep the traditional bikes in the lineup too, until the buyers age out.

Mustang, Corvette, Challenger/Charger, are all modern AMERICAN cars that have navigated this path of keeping the tradition while modernizing and staying competitive. The guys that buy Corvettes are buying the C8 even though it really weird to see them in a mid-engine car. it's still a Corvette, and it's as fast as many exotics selling for far more.

Well, so the new CEO is buying his first bike.

I’m not impressed…

I was looking for a cruiser/bobber in summer of 2023. I have a Ducati Panigale V2 for excitement. I wanted something a little slower...

I rode a bunch of bikes and shopped everything in the category. Nothing Harley Davidson made was better than any other brand. And their "image" is not really the affluent suburbanites they seem to somehow believe it is. I ended up liking the Indian Scout Bobber best. Triumph Bobber was a close second.

The Indian now has about 3,000 miles on it and I am considering a bagger to add to the stable. Checked out Harley again. Again not really impressive and they are more expensive than better bikes. I still have not made a decision, but with my experience with Indian, I am leaning that way again.

The Leadership of Harley needs to figure out a way to make the best motorcycle they can and sell the tshirts to guys and gals that actually ride motorcycles.

Old joke that is still bears some truth to the Harley image -
Do you know the difference between a Harley and a vacuum?
How you attach the dirtbag...

How people perceive the HD crowd:

https://youtu.be/4h4VepNuGB4?si=elHLVbj-aJWe_QcQ

(South Park episode.)

They are done, unless they change the culture around their product. That culture is dying out, regardless.