Harley-Davidson Inc.'s top marketing executive has left the company less than a month after Harley announced that it was beefing up spending in marketing and product development — both areas aimed at boosting sales for years to come. Mark-Hans Richer had been senior vice president of marketing since 2007. Previously he spent nine years with General Motors in various divisions. As part of the management changes at Harley-Davidson, Sean Cummings, who was hired in 2014 and most recently led the company's Latin America region, has been promoted to senior vice president of global demand. In his new role, Cummings will lead the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific regional teams, as well as the go-to-market functions, principally marketing, retail excellence and sales operations, Harley said.He has more than 30 years of international experience in the power sports and recreational products industry, according to Harley. Richer and Cummings could not be reached for comment Wednesday.In a statement, the company said: "In his time with Harley-Davidson, Mark-Hans was instrumental in achieving our transformational goals, including expanding our reach to both core and outreach customers, and we thank him for his contributions.

The changes are an important piece of the company's recently announced plan to build on its leadership position in the market and grow demand, with a key objective to lead in every market."In October, Harley said it planned to increase spending in marketing by about 65% in 2016 and spending in product development by 35% — about a $70 million increase in those areas.The changes come as Harley has experienced intense pressure from competitors, including Japanese motorcycle manufacturers and Minnesota-based Indian Motorcycle Co."We expect a heightened competitive environment to continue for the foreseeable future, and now is the time for us to dial things up," Harley President and CEO Matt Levatich said in an Oct. 21 conference call with analysts, following disappointing quarterly sales and earnings.At that time, Harley also said it planned to eliminate about 250 salaried positions, largely by the end of the year, across the company.Still, Richer's departure caught some people by surprise, including Chaz Hastings, a former Harley-Davidson corporate employee who now owns Milwaukee Harley-Davidson, a motorcycle dealership on the city's north side."

Mark-Hans has done what the dealers have felt was a remarkable job. He was well respected by the dealer network," Hastings said. "There have been some people who have left Harley recently who have decades of tribal knowledge inside the company." Some of the company's long-term issues include the need to keep its legacy customers satisfied while, at the same time, attracting new people to the brand.motorcycle shops salisbury ncBrands must not neglect the "growth market" of older consumers to focus solely on youthful audiences, Richer was quoted as saying in October at the Association of National Advertisers' Masters of Marketing Conference in Orlando, Fla."oneal motocross boot bucklesI'm going to go heretical on you, and say that youth does not own cool. motorbike for sale wirral

Youth does not own growth. , an online service that offers insights into the advertising industry. Marketing and advertising are in a period filled with uncertainty."We don't consume television, newspapers, and the printed word the way we used to. So I am not surprised that a long-standing company like Harley, with long-held traditions, could be challenged by what's going to work," said Genevieve Schmitt, publisher of Women Riders Now, an online publication aimed at female motorcyclists."motorcycle repairs pietermaritzburgMark-Hans did a tremendous job while he was at Harley, but perhaps it's time for someone new, with some new ideas that will be more in line with these new marketing avenues," Schmitt said.harley davidson sales job salaryIt’s no secret that women are paid less than men, even when occupations are held constant, and even when those occupations are high-pay and high-skill. trike motorcycle for sale toronto

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median weekly earning for American female physicians working full-time is $1,497, while for men it is $2,087. A 2013 BLS report shows pay inequity by occupation for women of all races: women in architecture and engineering occupations earn 83.7% to the dollar in comparison to men and in computer and mathematical occupations 81% to the dollar in comparison to men. motorcycle helmet gives me headacheWhen Forbes analyzed 2012 median weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers data from BLS for the top-paying professions, they found that women earned on average approximately 83% to every dollar made by men. Since choosing a STEM profession or climbing the corporate ladder simply guarantees a higher salary, not an equitable one, how can pay equity be achieved? Much of the recent media focus on this issue has covered what women can personally do to close the pay gap.

Clearly, women do need to do their research, know their worth, and negotiate effectively. But there’s also a role here for organizations to play. Women’s actions alone will not solve the systemic pay gap. At Novant Health, we tie pay directly to market value, which leaves a very narrow range for negotiation and helps close unfair pay gaps. The following are a few processes that have been accumulated from my  and my colleagues’ experience that can address the systemic nature of the pay gap. 1. Determine the level of knowledge, responsibility, and value to the organization for each job to eliminate pay disparities between female-dominated and male-dominated jobs that are comparable in complexity or physical hazards. Managers, with their HR partners, should evaluate job offers to ensure they’re based on the value the position brings to the organization and not on what the candidate earned previously. This reduces the potential for women, especially women of color, to be penalized on future salaries based on past pay inequities.

The offer may be tempered by internal equity and the candidate’s experience, expertise, or skill set. 2. Monitor promotions and raises to ensure they are bias-free. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, there is equitable development of talent when women and men who have similar qualifications at their time of hire are proportionately: Since career interruptions may affect pay or job level, interruptions may be a variable in a multiple regression analysis or otherwise used as a factor for interpreting an individual result. A regression analysis provides a projection rate of promotability or trajectory of careers. 3. Perform an annual pay equity analysis to determine if pay is based on relevant variables such as market value, experience, last three performance ratings, and so on. This analysis should be run during the time period that the company is considering merit increases; the manager can then adjust the pay of anyone whose pay is not aligned with the projected pay or provide the extenuating circumstances that explain the difference.

4. Discuss and defend the distribution of employees’ raises in a peer group setting. Pay increases or bonuses should be based on annually established goals for threshold, target and maximum. The initial discussion should take place between managers across business units in a department, although an HR partner may facilitate the discussion. The review forces managers to set realistic goals with their staff and support increases with observable results. Having an open discussion about pay increases should surface if one unit or one demographic is getting too small a portion of the pie. If there are factors that support a business unit having a skewed distribution, then pay can be allocated accordingly. As part of this process, managers should also be held accountable for how the members of their team are developing. 5. Support transparency in compensation. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management publishes the salary and wage range for each federal worker pay grade, along with cost of living adjustments — and federal workers’ gender pay gap is only 11%, which is considerably less than the national average.

Other organizations publish the criteria and formula used to determine pay and merit increases or bonuses, internally, along with the pay range. A few, such as, Whole Foods, publish individual salaries on their intranet. Publishing individual salaries is perhaps taking transparency too far — knowing another employee’s salary without knowing the criteria and formula used to determine the salary may make salaries appear arbitrary. But publishing the criteria and formula provides rationale and a goal and dispels misperceptions. 6. Be explicit about who is responsible for equitable pay. Australia’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency recommends “[an] explicit statement on where accountability for pay equity lies. This should include roles and responsibilities of people managers, human resources officers and employees in the remuneration process, and whether there is a remuneration review committee.” The path to pay equity involves organizations correcting their systems and processes.