哈雷-戴维森：破解大公司病

    说起来，为新到货的T恤衫贴标签不是大公司的高管们该做的事，但是哈雷-戴维森（Harley-Davidson）的渠道战略总监迈克•佩顿偏就这么做了。去年，他在公司位于宾夕法尼亚州的两家销售网点工作了好几天，这段经历让他受益匪浅。

    在处理一项摩托车零件保修服务的过程中，佩顿获得了这几天中最深切的感悟。“我发现，经销商往往要将同一信息输入两次，两种系统不兼容导致了大量重复工作。”他指出，“如果只坐在总部的办公室里，就会对经销商的情况想当然，也就不会知道我们的系统和流程有这么的难用。”

    几年前，哈雷-戴维森的管理层就开始认识到，由于公司业务的持续扩张（2009-2013年新增118名经销商，目前仅在全美就有697名经销商），管理层级越来越复杂，业务流程和项目也越来越繁琐。尽管公司自认为非常关注客户需求，可经销商们牢骚满腹，员工对公司的认同感也非常低。

    针对这种状况，公司举办了经销商的内部交流活动，让他们互相交流和借鉴好的做法。当时担任哈雷-戴维森制造部门主管的基斯•万德尔迫切想要了解销售一线出现的问题，他决定一大早就去对经销商进行走访。

    一位经销商直截了当地向他发问：“你究竟有没有使用过系统？”万德尔承认自己没有，并表示他应该尝试一下。

    此后不久，万德尔一连好几天时间都在一家经销店工作，马上就体验到了哈雷经销商们遇到的挑战。他意识到，站在经销商的角度换位思考，这种简单的实践对于弥合公司各层级之间日益拉大的差距很有必要。

    其他几位高管也纷纷效仿。逐渐，这种做法变得流行起来，高管会在周末和节假日等门店最忙的时期到那里待上几天。最终，这种自发行为演变成了一个体验项目，员工都能报名参加。

    佩顿表示，这个项目令“员工的敬业度在过去几年间发生了翻天覆地的变化”。万德尔的确有他的一套，能够在实践中找到变通的方法，为企业带来巨大而积极的影响。现在，他已经成为了哈雷公司的首席执行官兼总裁。

    基思•费拉齐是法拉奇绿讯营销咨询顾问公司（Ferrazzi Greenlight）的首席执行官，也是《不要吃独食》（Never Eat Alone）和《谁在支持你？》（Who’s Got Your Back?）的作者。大卫•威尔基是企业高管交流平台World 50的首席执行官。（财富中文网）

    译者：南风

    审校：Patti

    Putting labels on a new shipment of t-shirts may not seem like the best use of a senior executive’s time, but for Mike Peyton, director of channel strategy for Harley-Davidson, the days he spent working at two Harley stores in Pennsylvania last year were an eye opener.

    Peyton’s most profound realization came when he had to process a warranty claim on a motorcycle part. “I realized there’s lots of double work—the dealer has to enter the same info twice—because one system doesn’t communicate with the other,” he says. “Sitting in the head office, it’s very easy to make assumptions about how dealers do things—with no knowledge of how difficult it can be to use our systems and processes.”

    A few years ago, Harley-Davidson HOG -1.79% executives began to see that the company’s steady growth (it added 118 new dealers between 2009 and 2013 and now has 697 dealerships in the U.S. alone) had led to more complicated layers of management and a mushrooming number of complicated processes and programs. Although the company considered itself to be keenly aware of its customers’ needs, its dealers were not happy. Employee engagement scores were very low.

    So Harley began to form informal groups of dealers who could share business practices and learn from each other. Hoping to pick up some insight into the problems the front line faced, Keith Wandell, who was then head of Harley manufacturing, decided to go to an early dealer meeting.

    When a dealer turned to him and asked bluntly, “Have you ever actually tried to use that system?” Wandell admitted he hadn’t—and that he probably should.

    Soon afterward, Wandell spent several days working at a dealership and got a crash course in the challenges that Harley dealers face. He realized that the simple practice of walking in the dealers’ shoes was essential to bridging a widening gap between layers of the company.

    A handful of other executives followed suit. Gradually, the practice—in which executives spent several days at stores on their busiest days, weekends and holidays—caught on. Eventually, it became institutionalized as a program that employees could sign up for.

    Peyton says there’s been a “dramatic shift in employee engagement just in the past couple of years” because of the program. Wandell has proven he has a knack for figuring out changes in practices that will deliver a big, positive impact on the business, and he’s now Harley’s CEO and president.

    Keith Ferrazzi is the CEO of consulting and research firm Ferrazzi Greenlight and the author of Never Eat Alone and Who’s Got Your Back?. David Wilkie is the CEO of World 50, a private community for senior executives to share ideas.