Next, please!
Harley-Davidson Germany helps with company succession
- Comprehensive training for successors in dealerships
- Nine successors have completed their first training session
(Neu-Isenburg, 13.03.2017) Anyone who has built up their own company and made it what it is naturally does not want someone else to drive the company into the wall at some point. Letting go and handing over a company is a difficult process that, according to studies, is faced by more than 25,000 owner-managed companies in Germany every year. According to the Institute for SME Research in Bonn, more than 80 percent of handovers are due to age and the majority of handovers aim for succession within the family.
However, because only those who take appropriate measures in good time and approach the process professionally will be successful, we support
Harley-Davidson supports its authorized dealers in planning and implementing succession. For this purpose, the „Dealer Development“ department has developed a special training program for successors in cooperation with the training provider VTI under the name „Management of the dealership for juniors“. Nine designated company successors - employees and family members of Harley-Davidson dealership owners - aged between their mid-20s and mid-40s successfully completed the first training session this year.
As part of the training, which began at the start of 2015, the future entrepreneurs were given the tools they need to professionally manage a Harley-Davidson dealership. In order to minimize disruption to ongoing operations at the dealerships, the numerous two- to three-day training sessions on topics such as employment law, sales, employee appraisals and balance sheets took place during the off-season. The training took place not only in the training rooms of Harley-Davidson Germany GmbH, but also in the respective dealerships themselves, as the future young entrepreneurs were to gain an insight into as many different companies as possible. Practical relevance therefore also played an important role, as even the best business studies do not necessarily qualify you for working in the field.
The first training series ended in February with detailed, individual final discussions - and in the near future the graduates will take over „their“ company, while Harley-Davidson is already preparing for the next training session.
„Harley-Davidson dealers who have invested many years of effort and passion in their business deserve to have a successor who meets their high standards,“ explains Martina Göbel, Regional Dealer Development Manager at Harley-Davidson Germany GmbH, „and we are sure that we have set our nine successors on the right path.“
Text & image credits: Copyright Harley-Davidson
