C-162 Part 4: Case Studies
The company was widely known as the world’s larg-
est manufacturer of snowmobiles and one of the biggest
makers of all-terrain vehicles and personal watercrafts in
the United States.^6 In 2013, Polaris Industries employed
seven thousand people at eleven manufacturing loca-
tions and five research and development centers world-
wide. The company had over three thousand dealerships
and operated in more than one hundred countries.
Polaris produced its first snowmobile in 1954 under
co-founder and former CEO Alan Hetteen.^7 Textron, Inc.
bought Polaris from its original Roseau, Minnesota own-
ership group in 1968.^7 Then in 1981, Textron, Inc. sold
the Polaris division to a group of private investors led by
W. Hall Wendel Jr., a Textron division head.^8
The snowmobile business kept the Roseau, Minnesota
plant busy six months out of the year but company
managers wanted to figure out how to fill the other six
months, so they extensively surveyed their snowmobiler
customer base and decided in 1985 to diversify and pro-
duce all terrain vehicles (ATVs).^7 The company once
again diversified by manufacturing personal watercrafts
(PWC) in 1992, and eventually became a world leader
in both ATV and PWC production and sales. In 1987
Polaris became a publicly traded company.^7
As a result of its diversification strategy, Polaris was
able to manufacture products all year. Snowmobile man-
ufacturing took place in the spring through late autumn
or early winter and personal watercraft were manufac-
tured during the fall, winter and spring months. Polaris
has had the ability to manufacture ATVs year round
since May 1993. ATV production starts in late autumn
and continues through early autumn of the following
ye ar.^5
Because of the seasonality of the Polaris products and
associated production cycles, total employment levels
varied throughout the year. Approximately 3,000 indi-
viduals were employed by the company. Polaris’ employ-
ees have not been represented by a union since July
- The company announced layoffs in their Osceola,
Wisconsin plant in early 2011 due to the recession.^9
Expansion Into Motorcycles7,10
Matt Parks joined Polaris in 1987 as a district sales man-
ager for California, Nevada, and Arizona to develop the
dealer network. He was named ATV product manager
in 1992 and earned a spot at the company’s headquarters.
W. Hall Wendel Jr. asked him to do research on prospective
acquisitions or expansions. Parks, with the additional
title of general manager of new products, considered
such things as go-karts, golf carts, lawn-and-garden
products, chain saws, and Hula-Hoops by investigating
the various industries in terms of competition, size, level
of service, and new trends. Parks and others studied the
off-road motorcycle market when two dirt bike compa-
nies were put up for sale. Then a European motorcycle
company asked to distribute their bikes through Polaris.
“That sparked a study of the motorcycle business that
uncovered signs of a promising market. Along with the
dirt bike research, we did a quick study of the street bike
business at that time, and we were kind of interested.
We thought, ‘You know, this makes some sense,” recalls
Parks.^11
In 1993, Polaris distributed over 300,000 surveys
through the company’s Spirit magazine for Polaris vehi-
cle owners to measure the readers’ interest in buying a
wide variety of products from Polaris. “Motorcycling did
really, really well [in the survey],” said Matt Parks.^12 The
survey results were personally interesting to Parks since
he was a lifetime motorcycle rider and owned several
motorcycles, including a ’74 Norton, ’66 and ’91 BMWs,
a ’77 Harley XLCR and an ’81 Ducati. Motorcycles also
caught the interest of Wendel who at the time owned a
Harley-Davidson.
In pursuing the possibility of motorcycle production,
Victory became the project’s confidential codename.
Parks came up with the name because it was a nonsensi-
cal name with positive connotations. “It’s ‘V’ for victory.
It’s nostalgic; it has World War II connotations.”^13
Parks along with Bob Nygaard, Snowmobile Division
General Manager, proceeded with investigating the
motorcycle production possibility by hiring two outside
firms to assist them in conducting further confidential
research on motorcycles. They chose McKinsey and
Company, one of the largest and most prestigious con-
sulting firms in the world, and Jerry Stahl, an advertising
executive who was very familiar with recreational motor-
sports and the motorcycle business. Stahl also had expe-
rience with Harley-Davidson’s advertising campaigns.
From May through August of 1993, Parks & Nygaard
assessed the Polaris infrastructure, including the com-
pany’s sales force, dealer network, service and warranty
operation, and parts and accessories division. They also
looked at Polaris’ current customers to see what types of
things they were interested in and whether they would
buy a motorcycle from Polaris. Polaris analysts and con-
sultants also analyzed statistics from the Motorcycle
Industry Council (MIC) in terms of the location, dis-
placement, and types of bikes sold in the industry.
The research showed there was industry capacity
for another manufacturer in the cruiser business. The
research also revealed that Polaris dealers would like to