There’s an interesting story on Portfolio.com about Ducati that follows the company from Cagiva to the purchase by the Texas Pacific Group and the eventual sale to the Italian Investindustrial Holdings equity group. The differing ideas about how to market the brand and what styling best suits the taste of buyers of this particular marque and how exclusivity affects who purchases the bikes makes for an interesting read. Many motorcycle companies deal with this issue in different ways and it shows how engineering may not be the primary factor for writing the check.
Since we focus so much on the technical side of motorcycles here on The Kneeslider, it’s interesting watching the image factor play such a sizable role at Ducati, not surprising, but interesting.
Link: Portfolio.com
willie schmitz says
It’s a tough job keeping motorcycle companies solvent. Ducati was delisted last May. It’s currently trading under the DMHYY.PK symbol. There’s very little interest in trading their stock. Harley (HOG) took a bath a couple of months ago also.
The Japanese companies are connected to heavy industry. This will keep them solvent and keep the costs down.
Might be best for the smaller companies to be privately held and not have to comply with all the expenses of a publicly traded company. Once again there’s a lack of interest in this area with the current financial situation of this country and globally.
Hopefully all will survive.
Brian says
I like the part from the Guggenheim curator:
“Design really is a fickle beast that isn’t tamed by mere business plans,†says Falco. “It’s not a matter of cutting pennies here and there in manufacturing and shipping, but of appealing in some elusive way to the whims of the customer.â€
I’m sure Pierre Terblanche would agree with that. Motorcycles are fashion, right? As for the 999, I don’t believe he deserves to be the scapegoat for the company’s poor management issues at the time. After all, he’s the man behind the Supermono, the Sport Classics, including the Paul Smart Replica, the Hypermotard, and not to mention the MH900e for which all 2000 examples sold out in months over the internet. Who predicted that would happen??
Good article, though.
hoyt says
Pretty good article. The content seems to have been written by someone involved in motorcycling.
Bummer that the insightful writing was accompanied by 6 photos (out of 10) of rich/famous Ducati buyers. I realize those photos depict part of the story, but did you need to express that one point of the story with 60% of your photo album?
interesting quote:
“Ducati increased its revenue in the first nine months of 2007 to $464 million, 44 percent higher than in the same period in 2006; operating profits soared more than 200 percent, to nearly $40 million.”
And I thought KTM was growing fast
hoyt says
Brian – I agree. Who knows what the 999 could have looked like if Pierre was not told “no” by bean counters. At the very least, the exhause would have been different.
I like the 999, but from what I read, it was not “allowed” to reach its full potential.
Hugo says
I wonder what would have happened if the 999 had had the “technical” features of the new 1098 (which aren’t that big after all), so the lighter frame, etc. If a motorcycle has is some way a “radically” new design it is often accepted if the technical innovation is just as big. Another interesting thing is the weight of the new single sides swingarm of the 1098 and the 999 swingarm. Durbahn weighed them both: http://durbahn.de/1098_startpage_engl.htm
The 1098 SSSW weighs a wopping 10.1 lbs more! So much for styling 😉 Terblanche had to endure a lot of critisism about the 999, but what would you do if you had to design the succesor of the Tamburini maserpiece 916? You either do it the Porsche way, evoluting not revolution, or do what Terblanche did and make something completely different where the risk is a lot bigger.
greer says
Very interesting article, hoyt thanks for the link to durbahn’s site, I’ve read about him before but didn’t know he had a website.
greer says
doh, i mean hugo
Hugo says
Interesting in this matter is that Terblanche has quit as head of ducati design. He didn’t work on the 1098 which was already an indication that his days as head of design were over.
Brian says
Well Hugo, “quit” is such a harsh sounding word. I like the term “moving on”.