The History and Social Responsibility Initiatives of Harley Davidson Research Paper

The History and Social Responsibility Initiatives of Harley Davidson - Research Paper Example The paper tells that many of today’s large multinational brands were once established as a small upstart or lucrative business form, but their entrepreneurs transformed the same to Fortune 500 or world’s first class brand by continuously developing better business ideas, discovering further new business opportunities and seizing the same. The history of Harley-Davidson is similar to that of a fascinating tale as it involves the vision of two young engineers who started their own business. Its history goes back to 1903 when young entrepreneurs- William Harley and Arthur Davidson- discovered the business opportunity for basic transportation and developed a bicycle frame with French-designed single cylinder gasoline engine to provide a vehicle for the customers to meet the basic transportation need. Neither William Harley nor Arthur Davidson had any big dream of a manufacturing company, but they, in fact, we're thinking to produce an outboard motor for their own purpose to reach their favorite fishing spots easily. In 1903, they built the first production of Harley-Davidson with the help of a more powerful motor. William Harley began in the bicycle business and Arthur Davidson trained as a pattern maker with help of another draftsman, they worked together and brought the premier machine that was basically a bicycle frame fitted with a single-cylinder four-stroke machine. Harley-Davidson’s first machine production was complete by the summer of 1903. It was not a just loop-frame bike, but a more primitive vehicle with the quite smaller engine attached to the pedal bicycle frame. The second machine was more advanced than its first one, because, its loop-frame model was a natural trap for the unwary and careless people. Within three years after the first motor is produced, Harley Davidson Company became known in its way to prosperity as it increased production of motors to around 50 motorcycles. Until 1906, the company had only a backyard shed for production processes, but Harley and Davidson expanded the manufacturing plant to nearly 2400 square feet of plant space. Before 1910, the brand attained wider popularity for efficient construction, user-friendly motorcycle, durability and so on. As Holmstrom noted, after 1908, Harley Davidson began to veer from the facts for marketing purposes. Though there were two different machines in design and outlook, their identities turned to make them the single machine. The company grew to achieve several recognitions of excellence in business and marketing landscape. In 1942, Arthur Davidson recalled the growth of the company- Harley Davidson grew just like Topsy with luck, but it was not just that luck because management strategies and effective decision making helped the company stay stronger for years. Harley Davidson redesigned its engineering by changing the front frame down-tube to straight from its previous styles and designs. The 1911 single model was made with the increased cap acity of using gasoline by enlarging the tank capacity to store around 2 gallons of gasoline.