another interesting paragraph from the article;
"Levatich attributed the divergent performance to "math."
"Growth percentages of a small base are easy to achieve. When you have a high base like ours, a little bit of decline shows up very quickly," he said. "We are not going to discount to increase our market share."
I see Levatich either doesn't understand math, or he's deliberately blowing smoke: on a small base, it's easy to get a large percentage
up or down. On a large base, it takes a lot more change to get the same percentage change as a small base.
And no, a little bit of decline (or increase, for that matter) doesn't "show up quickly" on a large base.
It was obvious Levatich inherited a $hite-show from Wandell, who cheapened
everything on the bikes so H-D would make more money per unit, plus more $$ from replacing the cheap $hite (sometimes several times; compensators, anyone?).
More profit = higher stock price = bigger bonus and stock options for Wandell and his cronies. Then he could sell his stock options at the higher stock price. Of course, that scheme doesn't last forever; eventually, the customers realize they're being screwed, first on high prices and low quality, then again on expensive replacement parts (still made cheaply!) and ridiculous labor prices for rushed and often-incompetent techs. Wandell bailed out at the first sign customers were wising up--all while Wandell knew his "house of cards" was going to collapse on his replacement, who would get the blame.
It's hard to pick up the cards when they've been torched to ashes and blown away by a tornado.