Internal & External Analysis of Harley Davidson

Internal and External Analysis of Harley Davidson

John Gardner

Argosy University

The Analysis of Harley Davidsons External Environment

Driving Forces

When dealing with the external environment of a company, the term driving forces come up. Driving forces can be defined as the internal and external factors that influence the decisions and policies an organization makes to stay competitive (Driving Forces, 2015). Some examples of external forces contributors would be things like competition that are entering or exiting the market, the condition of the economy, the evolution of technology, environmental changes, local demographics of a certain area of the country or the world, changes in costs and efficiency, as well as regulatory influences and governmental policy changes.

The Entering or Exiting of Competition

The motorcycle industry is an industry in which there are currently literally hundreds of manufacturers that are vying for the attention and purchasing power of the world motorcycle enthusiasts and purchasers, but unfortunately there are only really a dozen or so that offer any real competition on that same market. It is a difficult industry to initially get into due to the very high costs of having to construct manufacturing plants, getting the production processes in place, ensuring that the processes are efficient, trying to gain a clientele that would be interested in the product mix, coming up with a product mix, and advertising of the products would be just a sampling of the difficulties and expenses involved with trying to build from the ground up, which severely limits the possibilities of new competition entering this industry. The existing companies that would want to be more competitive would have to come up with some ways of increasing their brand worth, improving the quality of their products which will go a long way to improving customer satisfaction, and finding a niche that may not be utilized effectively at the time and concentrate on that area of the market.

The Condition of the Economy

The condition of the economy will generally always play a part in the purchase of newer and possibly more expensive motorcycles. The worse the economy, the more that most people will try and make their current vehicles last longer and longer, which will cause the industry sales to decrease quite dramatically. The companies and corporations that build quality products and have that reputation for those quality products will be the ones that will weather the storm of a poor economy and could even flourish during those harsh economic times that the rest of the country might be losing revenue or possibly even having to close their