Ducati Group's Strategic Plan

Starting from a company of less than 75 workers and owning less than 20,000 SCU for production, research, quality assurance and conduct warranty work Off The Chain Bikes has doubled the plant capacity and hearing doubling the workforce within two short years. The company is successful by targeting and capturing lucrative market shares by heavily investing in the desired technical specs and design styles of one of the most influential Racing bikes. Our keen ability to thoroughly research market demands, predicting competitive strategies between the four market majority shareholders by reviewing and interpreting the marketing reports and our aggressive design and development plans have significantly increased our market share and increase shareholder value. Our core competencies and strategic goals will be realized by carefully following our established plans and aggressively price our bikes to increase total market share.

Current sport bikes were inspired and derived from their traditional core competencies such as engines with futuristic design and good handling.

The turnaround success of Ducati was the direct result of Federico Minoli’s implementation of a differentiation strategy. As a company that was heading towards bankruptcy, Ducati was saved and revamped by Minoli’s specific vision for the company that were precisely presented in an extremely realistic manner. These goals for the company included double-digit growth for Ducati and equaling Harley-Davidson’s profit level.

1. What is the nature of the opportunity? Could the Ducati brand be expanded beyond motorcycles? Why or why not?

Ducati has developed and managed their value chain very well. This contributes substantially to their strong position. I’ve already discussed Ducati’s effective management of Inbound Logistics and Operations. Ducati’s Outbound Logistics approach is oriented around brand management in each of its markets. This is accomplished through dedicated, single-franchise dealerships instead of multi-franchise dealerships. This decision means that Ducati seeks a high-value customer experience with lower volumes in lieu of a mass-market approach. This is a strategy that is consistent with being a niche player; it makes sense for the Japanese firms to have multi-franchise dealerships since they are close substitutes of each other.

According to me, the motorcycle industry is very attractive. The main reason to back my claim is the level of competition in the industry. There is a very high level of completion between all the companies present in this particular segment. The main factors that drive this rivalry are different positions of different players within the industry, differences in technical know-how, different marketing campaigns, differences in core nature of the products and differences in strategies. The players in this particular industry don’t fight over price of their products, they rather compete with each other in terms quality of their products and the nature of their services to different segments of customers. Each player had its own unique strategy and nature of the product for a particular segment of customers, this tends to intensify the competition amongst companies in the industry.

Firstly, picking up Ducati as its target company is quite opportunistic. From the traditional investment style’s point of view, TPG is interested in those companies that had grown rapidly but still had the corporate structures of very small companies which caused great stress to the management of the business, and the assets of their target companies always being considered to be divided in order to improve the business riping for LBO. Besides, TPG is expecting to add complexity to the doing the deals and realize fiscal efficiency. Ducati is thus to be an ideal target from these

1. What is the nature of the opportunity? Could the Ducati brand be expanded beyond motorcycles? Why or why not?

Bicycle consumers evaluate bicycles for their technology to include low weight, durable, stylish, and performance. Consumers are also concerned about price and service. Also the demographic of peer ownership will influence consumer purchasing criteria. Clearly the college in Colorado had a few select brands. Some manufacturers are fortunate to capture these traits within their brand. Trek has successfully secured 24% of the market and is a respected brand.

The success of Harley Davidson (HD) is due to the American motorcycle icon’s effective Strategic Management. HD’s vision, mission, goals and objectives strive to exceed the requirements of its main stakeholders. Although these needs are not always met, the company has unique relationships with is stakeholders. The company stays on course with its strategic plan, despite the economy and the decline of American manufacturing and what might be considered its dwindling U.S. consumer base.

Honda Motor Company is considered one of the best car companies in the world .It is also one of the largest ones too. Honda marketing team play a big role in determining the growth of its business.

| * Only motorcycle company that dominated the World Superbike Championship in years preceding 2003 * Broad range of bikes (dual sport, sport touring, super sport) with leading edge technology * Its development in the U.S. in early 2000’s has supported Ducati steady growth

Lance Armstrong’s relationship with Shimano also worked in Shimano’s favor. It was well known that a strong majority of the components on Armstrong’s racing bike were made by Shimano. This created a brand image for Shimano that was nearly impossible for any other brand to imitate, largely due to the fact that there are very few other high profile cyclists in the world.

Honda Motor Company is considered one of the best car companies in the world .It is also one of the largest ones too. Honda marketing team play a big role in determining the growth of its business.

Ducati Motor Holding S.P.A. is an Italian company that designs and manufactures motorcycles. Headquartered in Bologna, Italy, Ducati is owned by Audi through its Italian subsidiary Lamborghini. In 1926 Antonio Cavaliers Ducati and his three sons, Adriano, Marcello, and Bruno cavaliers Ducati; founded Society Scientific Radio Brevet Ducati in Bologna to produce vacuum tubes, condensers and other radio components. In 1935 they had become successful enough to enable construction of a new factory in the Borg Pan gale area of the city. Production was maintained during World War II, despite the Ducati factory being a repeated target of Allied bombing. Farinelli began developing a small pushrod engine for mounting on bicycles. Barely a month after the official liberation of Italy in 1944, SIATA announced its intention to sell this engine, called the "Cucciolo" (Italian for "puppy," in reference to the distinctive exhaust sound) to the public. The first Cucciolos were available alone, to be mounted on standard bicycles, by the buyer; however, businessmen soon bought the little engines in quantity, and offered complete motorized-bicycle units for sale. In 1950, after more than 200,000 Cucciolos had been sold, in collaboration with SIATA, the Ducati firm finally offered its own Cucciolo-based motorcycle. This first Ducati motorcycle was a 48 cc bike weighing 98 lb. (44 kg) with a top speed of 40 mph (64 km/h) had a 15 mm carburetor