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Matthew Levatich, the CEO of Harley-Davidson since 2015, stepped down recently. As he left, Levatich said, \u201cI am proud of what we have achieved during my time as CEO, in one of the most challenging periods in our history.\u201d\xa0

It's well known that Harley has been struggling for some time and sales have been declining steadily year to year. There\u2019s just not a big demand for the bigger expensive touring bikes that make up the core of its model line. The company\u2019s loyal base of older customers, who drove a Harley revival during the 1980s and 1990s, is aging and purchasing fewer new motorcycles.

Because the company needed to do something quickly, they selected Levatich as CEO back in 2015 to try to save the company.\xa0 Levatich joined the company back in 1994 and served as a chief operating officer from 2009 through 2015 prior to becoming CEO.\xa0 So, he had a good background and knowledge within the company.

What former Harley CEO Levatich did in 5 years

Levatich authorized dozens of new models for both the U.S. and foreign markets.\xa0 Harley certainly sees growth opportunities in the foreign markets and has clearly been targeting them. But that\u2019s been tough because of competition from existing brands that are solid in those markets.

Levatich expanded the output of motorcycles overseas, looking for more customers, especially in Asia.\xa0 But, the smaller motorcycles aimed at those markets are less expensive than the bigger touring Harley models that they rely on in the U.S. and that has hurt the company's overall sales revenue.

He also tried to get the company into different markets such as the Adventure Riding with the Pan America, which is supposed to be released in 2020.\xa0 And they created the Street Fighter to get into the sports bike market, but there\u2019s no timeline on the release of that bike.

And of course, Harley created their\xa0first-ever electric motorcycle named \u201cLiveWire.\u201d\xa0However, it had some major issues after launch and a recall on it\u2019s charging system that didn't help its reputation.\xa0

Additionally, Levatich attempted to offset declining sales with cost reductions.\xa0 The company closed its Kansas City, Mo., assembly plant in 2019, Conducted several rounds of layoffs, and voluntary buyouts for employees.\xa0 The company also shifted some of its productions overseas as well to avoid tariffs. And they took some consumer and political heat for doing such.

Levatich had a mission to attract new riders with their ridership classes, which are basically a driver\u2019s ed class for new riders.\xa0 These classes were not necessarily new, as these classes pre-dated Levatich, but the company just renewed its focus on promoting the classes.

Measuring progress toward the ridership goal created tension between Harley managers and its dealers and investors and this festered over time.\xa0 Dealerships complained the learn-to-ride classes were expensive and didn\u2019t bring enough new motorcycle buyers.

Tensions between dealerships and Levatich rose even more as he READ MORE HERE & SEE MY VIDEO ==>\xa0

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