More Than a Motorcycle: The Leadership Journey at Harley-Davidson
Author: Rich Teerlink, Lee Ozley
List Price: $24.95
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ISBN: 0875849504
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press (August, 2000)
Sales Rank: 74,966
Average Customer Rating: 4.4 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
The journey behind the journey
I don't know how many people have written about, or talked about,or taken some credit for Harley-Davidson's success, or in some way jumped on the bandwagon to somehow be tied to the great successses that have happened at Harley Davidson. I can tell you that Ozley and Teerlink have the BEST view of them all! They were there through the ups and downs and they are closer to this organization than anyone can understand, unless of course you read their book. Their book gives you (what this reader beleives) is the "real" story with no punches or marketing hype.
A must read for anyone in business and an honest straight forward dialogue of what it takes to build a collaborative and powerful organization such as Harley-Davidson.
What took you guys so long to get this story out?
Rating: 5 out of 5
Innovative thinking
Rich Teerlink, retired CEO of Harley Davidson, and Lee Ozley, organizational consultant, have teamed up and written about Harley Davidson's transformation from a hierarchical command and control organization to what they call a "Circle Organization". The book primarily focuses on Harley's organizational change from 1987 to present. Many aspects of the organization are covered in good to great detail. In order to survive and meet growing demand and increasing global competition, Harley Davidson had to transform itself and undergo a radical process of organizational change. Attributing the traditional command and control structure to the American railroad empires of the nineteenth century, Harley sought to make change and break from this traditional form of an organization. As the authors' state, "This is a book about planting seeds and encouraging other people to nurture the seedlings". This book reads like it was written about a start up company that was an unexpected overnight success. Harley really had to toss out all of their old ideas on organizational operations and start from scratch. What is amazing is how this was done without creating animosity from within the organization.
The authors take you through the proposed and enacted plans that helped transform Harley. The Joint Vision Process was formed so that employees on all levels could share the same goals for where they and Harley wanted to be. Both Rich and Lee believe that the people within an organization have the biggest impact on an organization. They shaped their plans with this as the number one factor and this book gives excellent insight on how they implemented their ideas.
Rating: 4 out of 5
A great how-to book for OD practitioners
I'm not sure most execs would have the patience to stay with this book, but for change agents, team facilitators, and other large-system OD practitioners, this book contains valuable, comprehensive how-to information.
In true STS style, Ozley (the obvious primary author) does a wonderful job integrating Harley's new systems and methods with the real-folks' feelings and reactions as they go through an extensive organisation and culture change. More Than a Motorcycle could easily be a companion volume to Marvin Weisbord's classic Productive Workplaces, maybe even its sequel.
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