CEO Interview: Getting New Riders High On the Hog

摘要

Growing up a few block from Harley-Davidson's original Milwaukee factory, Jim Ziemer saw, heard and smelled its employees burn rubber down his smelled its employees burn rubber down his street as they tested new motorcycles. At 15, he rode a Harley for the first time. A year later Ziemer bought his first bike-a Honda. "I had a paper route. It was all I could afford," he says sheepishly. Other than that purchase and a two-year stint in the Army, Ziemer, 56, has been a Harley lifer. He started working at the company at 19 as a freight-elevator operator (weekly salary: USD104). Moving up the ranks, he reached the chief executive's office in April 2005 (weekly salary: USD11,998).