Harley Davidson
Performance Analysis There are many ways to analyze the performance of a company, some more popular than others. According to the Barney text the accounting method is the most popular way of measuring a firm's performance (Barney, 2002). Some of the reasons for the popularity could include the fact that accounting measures of performance are publicly available on many firms and they communicate a great deal of information about a firm's operations. Other methods of performance analysis include firm survival and the multiple stakeholder approach. The first method we will review is the accounting method. Through this accounting approach we will analyze specific ratios and their possible impact on the company's …show more content…

This influence can be used to either raise or lower profitability factors depending on the manager's motives. The second limitation is there can be a short-term bias to the data. This short-term bias happens when long-term, multiple-year, investments are not generating revenues that exceed the cost. The last limitation is that the firm usually does not properly value the intangible resources and capabilities which are productive assets but difficult to measure. The next performance measure we will discuss is the firm survival measure, which is by far the easiest of all methods to use. In this method the past survival of a company is used to determine performance levels. Thus, it is assumed, that a company that has survived for an extended period of time must be generating at least normal economic performance (Barney, 2002). In looking at only the past survival of Harley Davidson I would rate the performance as high. They have recently celebrated their 100th anniversary and that alone is a huge accomplishment. The final performance measure we will discuss is the stakeholder approach. In this approach all stakeholders are looked at individually and the performance is viewed from their perspective. The stakeholders of Harley Davidson include customers, employees, management, executives, suppliers, partners, equity holders, debt holders, and society at large. Evaluating the performance of Harley Davidson through the eyes of each stakeholder proves to