In the late 1980s, Harley-Davidson beat back an assault by Japanese competitors and engineered a remarkable financial turnaround. But it subsequently faced an even more formidable challenge:
maintaining and improving on its success in the absence of an external crisis. To answer this challenge, then-CEO Rich Teerlink, partnering with organizational consultant Lee Ozley, threw out
the top-down strategies that had just saved the company and began building a different Harley-one that would be driven not by top management, but by employees at every level. What happened
next is the stuff of turnaround legend.
More Than a Motorcycle is the story behind the story of the purposeful transformation of an American icon, as told by the two individuals most deeply involved in that decade-long process. The
book chronicles the victories and setbacks along Harley’s difficult journey from a traditional ＂command-and-control＂ culture to an open, participative learning environment.
Teerlink and Ozley deliver three fundamental messages: people are a company’s only sustainable competitive advantage; there is no ＂quick fix＂ to effect lasting, beneficial organizational
change; and leadership is not a person, but a process to which everyone must contribute. They provide practical, reality-tested prescriptions for critical tasks like developing employee
alignment, building structures that support participation, and implementing effective reward programs. Finally, they draw lessons from the Harley experience-lessons about values, trust, and
community-that apply broadly to any business.
An against-the-odds story of a business road less traveled, this book encourages today’s leaders to look around the next bend-and to give every employee a view of the road from the driver’s
seat.
