Business (And Highway) 101 - Skip The MBA And Buy A Motorcycle

.) Soichiro Honda - Lesson: Find your own way

The son of a village blacksmith, Honda was exposed to bicycles when they were
brought into his father's shop for repair. He had only a primary school education,
but showed a striking aptitude for both engineering and business. Before starting
the Honda Motor Company to make motorized bicycles in postwar Japan, he had already
built up two successful businesses, one supplying piston rings to Toyota, and another
making propellers for the Japanese air force.

Mr. Honda was anything but a typical Japanese businessman. A rugged individualist,
he refused to participate in the "keiretsu" alliances between companies, which typically
gave big banks a strong influence in business decisions. When virtually all Japanese
motorbikes had noisy, smelly two-stroke motors he decided to make a four-stroke.
That typified a willingness to plan and invest for long-term success even if it
meant ignoring prevailing "wisdom." One of the motorcycles that benefited from that
insight was the Super Cub step-through. It was introduced in 1958 and is still produced
almost unmodified today. Honda recently sold the 50 millionth Super Cub, making
it the best selling vehicle of all time.

2.) George Hendee - Lesson: You don't need to know, you need to know what you
need to know

Hendee was one of the most successful bicycle racers in Massachusetts at the
turn of the century - at one point, he won 302 races out of 309! He started a company
making his own bicycles, which sold well, thanks to his racing reputation.

Many of the very first motorcycles were "pacers" used to train bicycle racers.
They were typically unreliable but Hendee noticed that Oscar Hedstrom's ran very
well. In 1901, Hendee approached Hedstrom and told him that his dream was to start
a company devoted to making motorized bicycles. They called their company Indian,
and in short order it was America's leading motorcycle manufacturer. In 1912, Indian
sold over 20,000 units.

3.) Arthur Davidson - Lesson: Support your product after the sale

While his friend Bill Harley and to a lesser extent the other Davidson brothers
provided the technical know-how, the early business success of Harley-Davidson was
largely due to Arthur Davidson. In 1910 he set out to enroll a national network
of dealers. He also recognized the importance of factory-training for dealer service
staff, and the importance of advertising if H-D was ever to surpass Indian in annual
sales.

4.) Vaughn Beals - Lesson: Quality-control rules

By the mid-'70s after years of AMF mismanagement, Harley-Davidson had lost almost
all customer loyalty and profits were in freefall. When a group of company executives
led by Vaughn Beals offered to buy the division for $75 million, AMF quickly agreed.

After the 1981 leveraged buyout, Beals led an amazing corporate turnaround. He
funded new product development and implemented world-class quality control. It's
impossible to know what would have happened to the H-D brand if Beals had not risen
up to save it, but it's certain that no one else could have done a better job at
rehabilitating it.

 

5.) John Bloor - Lesson: Never underestimate the value of your brand, never take
it for granted

Like Harley-Davidson, Triumph was a company that had fallen on hard times - more
than once. In the 1920s the company made an ill-fated move to produce cars as well
and in 1936 an entrepreneur named Jack Sangster drove a hard bargain, acquiring
the motorcycle business at a good price. Sangster's business instincts nearly make
him worthy of a place on this list, too. He hired the brilliant Edward Turner and
after turning a handsome profit on sales, sold the company to BSA for another big
payday in 1951.

 

From the mid-'70s through the mid-'80s Triumph died an agonizingly slow death.
The brand would have vanished altogether had John Bloor, a real estate developer,
not bought the old factory in Meriden. Against all advice, Bloor decided to build
a new factory in nearby Hinckley. He spent millions designing new motorcycles that
were unveiled at the Cologne Motorcycle Show in 1990. While those first "new" Triumphs
got mixed reviews, the company has shown a remarkable willingness to go its own
way, producing a line of unique machines that once again have earned it a devoted
fan base.j

6.) Count Domenico Agusta - Lesson: Follow your passion

This Italian Count ran MV Agusta during its heyday between the end of WWII and
the early '70s. During that time, the company was really a helicopter manufacturer
with a small motorcycle subsidiary. The road-going motorcycles they made would never
warrant including the Count on this list, but thanks to his own fierce pride and
competitive streak, the company also funded the greatest Grand Prix racing team
of all time.

When the Japanese factories began to dominate in the late '60s, they drove out
most of the Italian marques. By lavishing funds from the helicopter business on
his racing team, Agusta single-handedly preserved Italian racing honor.

7.) Malcolm Forbes - Lesson: It's not what you know, it's who you know

Forbes was the son of America's first business magazine publisher. After heroic
service in WWII, he came home to work at Forbes Magazine, although he nearly became
the Governor of New Jersey - he won the Republican nomination but lost the election.
So what does running Forbes Magazine have to do with motorcycles? Nothing.

Forbes discovered motorcycling in the 1960s. He bought a motorcycle dealership
in New Jersey, which became one of the biggest shops in the country. Using his high-level
business connections, he worked tirelessly to establish motorcycle riding as a respectable
pastime. He was an extremely effective political lobbyist always ready to defend
motorcycling from legal assault. With his media-savvy background, he managed to
plant scores of motorcycle stories in the mainstream media. The social acceptability
of motorcycles today owes much to Malcolm Forbes.

8.) Floyd Clymer - Lesson: If at first you do succeed, try again anyway

Clymer was already famous as a young teenager - at 13 (in 1909) he was the youngest
Ford dealer in the country! He went on to become a winning motorcycle racer and
soon had a dealership for Harley-Davidson and Excelsior motorcycles in his home
state of Colorado. He was an innovative marketer and one of the first people to
sell motorcycles to police departments and delivery businesses. In his early 20s
he began publishing his first motorcycle magazine.

His career was put on hold when he served a year in federal prison for mail fraud.
He had been offered a chance to plead guilty and avoid prison altogether but he
always claimed he was innocent and refused to admit a crime he didn't commit. When
he got out of prison he took over the distribution of Indian motorcycles on the
west coast. Here again, he had marketing savvy, arranging for Indian motorcycles
to appear in films and lending them to Hollywood stars. When Indian faltered in
the '50s, Clymer desperately tried to save the brand but failed. He also was briefly
the importer of the eyebrow-raising Munch Mammoth motorcycle.

Last but not least, he was the publisher of Cycle Magazine from the early '50s
to the mid-'60s and ran a very successful business publishing motorcycle repair
manuals.

9.) George Barber - Lesson: Always remember where you came from

Barber was a sports car racer who gave up the track to take over the family business,
Barber Dairies, based in Birmingham Alabama. He built it into the largest privately-owned
dairy in the southeast and then, late in life, assembled the world's most important
collection of vintage motorcycles.

When the collection outgrew its original home in one of the old dairy warehouses,
he built Barber Motorsports Park on the outskirts of Birmingham. The park includes
one of the best race-tracks in the U.S., and the best motorcycle museum in the world.
The track and museum are set in a manicured landscape that puts every other U.S.
race-track to shame. After spending $60 million of his own money on the park, Barber
essentially gave it to the city of Birmingham and the state of Alabama.

10.) "Big" Bill France - Lesson: If you build it, they will come

France is best known as the father of NASCAR the builder of Daytona International
Speedway, France was also a motorcycle racer. The city of Daytona Beach convinced
the AMA to hold the 200-mile national championship race there in 1937. After a few
lackluster years, it seemed Daytona would lose the race, until France was convinced
to become the promoter. He continued to promote the race until, realizing that it
could not continue on the beach, he built the speedway. He opened his track in 1959
and the AMA saw the light and moved the race there two years later. Under France's
control, the race became an international sensation.

Mark Gardiner
was a successful
ad agency creative director and business owner before giving up that career
to pursue his dreams as a motorcycle racer. He has written an evocative memoir of
a life in racing,
Riding Man. He's one of the world's most widely published motorcycle journalists.