I'm officially done with KTM-Husqvarna. A good friend of mine who WAS the Eastern USA Dealer Development Rep got the call his position was being eliminated. You should see his resume. No notice. No clue. Bags packed to go to the dealer meeting.
oregonsage said: ↑ I had heard rumor that someone with a very similar job description might be over at BMW Motorrad ?Maybe that someone was ok with pulling up family roots and moving to NJ? Wonderful corporate world. Bust your butt, sell your loyal soul and get kicked to the curb. Surely the guys had value to the company somewhere. Lest I forget, it's only business... They're not going to miss me nor my three bike purchases, either.
Flyingbob....please be careful when quoting people.....I did NOT say everything you quoted above...it went like this. oregonsage said: ↑ I had heard rumor that someone with a very similar job description might be over at BMW Motorrad ?flyingbob responded with:Maybe that someone was ok with pulling up family roots and moving to NJ? Wonderful corporate world. Bust your butt, sell your loyal soul and get kicked to the curb. Surely the guys had value to the company somewhere. Lest I forget, it's only business... They're not going to miss me nor my three bike purchases, either.
Sorry, that was a cut and paste job that left out the highlighting. I regretted hijacking the dealer meeting thread. I should have added quotes. Please accept my apologies.
And I would add that I dont know the details of anyone's personal life, preferences, etc in relation to this situation. Ive been subject to corporate moves that I was perfectly happy with, and others that led me to seek new circumstances. Unless the person in question wants to publicly give their story, we are engaged in something less than 'actual news' as far as I can tell. I dont have any love for KTM, but Ive been around long enough to know that we rarely see the whole story. I hope that whoever we are talking about lands on their feet with good prospects for the future.
One door shuts, two more open. I got the 'corporate treatment' in 2010. My "It's just a dirt bike" feeling went to "The heck with them" attitude. Love my Italian bike, won't know the Austrian iteration. No need for my friend to engage this conversation. It's my statement and I stand on it. The world keeps turning.
I am friends with the person in question and yes, it is a shame for him to lose his job. Unfortunately jobs in the motorcycle industry, especially as field reps, are as stable as football or hockey coaches. Sometimes you get turfed just "because". I think the reasoning for it was to finally cut all ties with the previous Cagiva/BMW days. Our friend wasn't the only one who lost their job. The West Coast guy is out of work as well. Both were BMW era hires. KTM wants their own people. Not to keep comparing to sports, but when a new GM is hired on a hockey team, they generally want their guys working with them on the bench, not people who the old guy hired. I think this should be the final sign to all of us that Husqvarna as we knew it, is dead.
its a business culture issue. the old culture is gone and the new owners dont want to re-educate (send them to the re-education gulag) the old guard. They have their own culture bred folks to choose from. (even if this logic is tenuous at best)
In this circumstance, he was as much 'their guy' as any replacement could ever be. No honor with this group. All marketing. I'll not honor the "name" any longer. Just another dirt bike. Yep, a weird thread. Just news of how they do business. But my last comments on it. The only two guys setting up new dealers? Even with a new plan these guys couldn't contribute? They deserved to have their livelihood pulled out from under them with no notice, by a large corporation? All over the country representing this company. Bet the next fool will wonder why he busted his rear the day after he gets his notice.
Husqvarna was purchased for the decals as we all know. I am sure the new bikes are nice but I will continue to run my old Italian huskys for a long time. I can buy most wear parts from the aftermarket and I can not really afford the the sticker price let alone what some of the husaberg dealers try to add to the price. You can show you support by doing the same. Heck, I have even thought about getting some honda or yamaha graphics depending on if I have the bike red or blue.
Shoot; each one of these Husky "iterations" left a bad taste in a lot of peoples mouths. I worked for the Swedish-owned company back in the day (at their west-coast corp. office) till they got bought by the Castiglioni brothers. I felt like I was really treated badly by that guy......but hey, now I've got an Italian Husky and life goes on
I didn't listen to my mom either. Ptkatoomer, by your logic, you waited until the German buyout! The Austrian way killed it for me. Ride safe!
Its just a 'business' decision made on your friends ..I use that term all the time because, that's what these people hide behind. Because its 'business', they have an easy out like they did not do this 'bad' thing to a actual person. But they did do this possible injustice(?) to a real person. This is why you will never hear me say a good thing about almost any business. Not that there are not good businesses(BMP, Halls,Taskys)... I just have nothing for money grubbers. I just lost my web site(and cash) recently due to some business BS ... I just had to get stupid with another business to recover some small change owed me. I have other small business items happening here where I have to get stupid with people who owe me... I'm not a business person and will ween these issues out of my small simple life because I don't need their money and I don't want any headaches from these low moral people. The absolute best solution to stop these business decisions against you is to get out of debit. As long as you are in debit, any worker is always at the mercy of a business decision being made against them. I know 3/4 of you are saying you like your job and wanna go back each day. Great, but you actually have to return each day. You have no real choice unless you wanna default on your debt or get another job. -- Several of us got riffed once from our beloved(?) job a few yrs back. The Indians in the company that did not get riffed were scared silly over this, thinking they might be next. One american sitting beside me cried some crap about Xmas was coming (It is in Sept and this guy actually said that to a VP), and I felt relieved it was over. I was happy with the 6 months severance pay. It was a good thing for me. It felt like a ton was lifted off my shoulders. I was freed from that place of business. Glad I was there and it worked out well but glad I was gone also. I would not return there today even if I did get another window office .. you know, windows offices are important to many .. That was the last time I ~worked for a paycheck. -- I'm sure your friends will be OK and don't give anything to this ktm group if you don't want to. There are lots of businesses I will not give a nickel to unless absolutely necessary ... It hurts them NOT to get your money .. SP feels a little twinge every time he looses a nickel. He's that good at business.
The budgets at KTM are pretty tight these days. I think this is case of last hired. Its unfortunate though and I looked forward to working with my long time friend.
...except they spent millions on a grafted ktm to Husqvarna Moto3 GP bike...not exactly where mr. sp said he was taking the marque/kinda makes me wonder a bit,but as long as my garage is full of pre-ktm's, I'm good to go....
