Next one please!
Harley-Davidson Germany helps with company succession
• Extensive training for successors in dealerships
• Nine successors completed the first training session
(Neu-Isenburg, March 13, 2017) Anyone who has built up their own company and made it what it is naturally doesn't want someone else to drive the company into the ground at some point. Letting go and handing over a company is a difficult process that, according to studies, occurs every year in more than 25,000 owner-managed companies in Germany. Over 80 percent of transfers are age-related and, according to the Institute for SME Research in Bonn, the majority of transferors are aiming for a succession within the family.
Because only those who take appropriate measures in a timely manner and approach the process professionally will be successful,
Harley-Davidson supports its authorized dealers in planning and implementing successions. For this purpose, the “Dealer Development” department, in cooperation with the training provider VTI, has developed a special training program for successors called “Dealership Management for Juniors”. Nine designated company successors – employees and family members of the owners of Harley-Davidson companies – between the ages of mid-20s and mid-40s successfully completed the first training session this year.
As part of the training, which began at the beginning of 2015, the future entrepreneurs received the tools that would qualify them to professionally manage a Harley-Davidson dealership. In order to disrupt the ongoing operations of the dealer locations as little as possible, the numerous two to three-day training courses on topics such as labor law, sales, employee discussions and balance sheets took place in the off-season. The event took place not only in the training rooms of Harley-Davidson Germany GmbH, but also in the respective dealerships themselves; after all, the future young entrepreneurs were supposed to gain insight into as many different companies as possible. The practical relevance also played an important role, because even the best business studies do not necessarily qualify for on-site work.
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.
“Anyone who has invested effort and passion in their business as a Harley-Davidson dealer for many years deserves to have a successor who meets their high requirements,” explains Martina Göbel, Regional Dealer Development Manager at Harley-Davidson Germany GmbH, “and we are sure that we have put our nine successors on the right path.”
Text & Image Credits: Copyright Harley-Davidson
