Harley Davidson Competitive Advantage

Harley Davidson had started its career in the field of automobile as a commanding leader. It led almost around 50% of the share in United States and 32% globally. The average annual gain was around 37%. The sources of competitive advantage were the race to innovations by the company. The company’s main innovations which were very unique and specific to the company were the V-twin engine which was based on power, clutch process, internal expanding rear brake and the three speed transmission which the company pioneered. Within 15 years from the start of the company it became the world’s largest motorcycle company producing around 28,000 motorcycles. Also in the early stages of the company they started to invest a lot in Research and Development ( R&D) improving its famous V-twin design and innovating the new four-cylinder engine and improving the reliability of the

Honda was more family oriented and communal, smaller, quieter, faster and more important less-expensive. By the time the market was more oriented to first time buyers and 80% percent of the sales accounted to first time buyers, the Japanese started acquiring the market and they accounted to more than 85% of the motorcycle sales in the U.S.
Harley Davidson believed in their own methods and was not ready to go any drastic change in their organization in the early stages and they suffered a huge setback in the industry and the sales, which was beginning to being dominated by Japanese companies led by Honda. The Japanese companies were skilled at mass-production. Harley Davidson did not make any unique technological innovations in this period. The company went public after 60 years, and was also taken over friendly by AMF, a conglomerate looking to diversify in leisure