Keith Wandell: Resilient podcast

Keith Wandell, former CEO of Harley-Davidson, on value-focused leadership

How did Keith Wandell manage to preserve such a strong corporate culture at Harley-Davidson while revving up performance? Keith sat down with Deloitte Risk and Financial Advisory’s Mike Kearney to discuss his time as CEO of this iconic company.

When Keith joined the organization in 2009, sales had plummeted 40 percent in just a few short years, driven by the country’s financial downturn. The keys to successfully transitioning to his new role and getting the iconic brand back on track:

• Humility. Acting like any other employee in the organization.
• Curiosity. Asking a lot of questions to get to the root of the problem.
• Vision. Focusing on the future state and making tough decisions to move the company forward.

And what does Keith look for in executives driving change?

They have to have fire in their belly. If they have that, we can teach them the rest.

Listen to the full episode to hear more about Keith’s time at Harley, his advice for leaders, and why it’s so important for organizations to tie everything back to their core values.

Back to top

Related article

Keith Wandell, former Harley-Davidson CEO speaks in the Wall Street Journal about revving up performance during tough times.

Back to top

Resilient: Award-winning podcast

Resilient achieved a Gold-level award in the podcast category of the 2016 MarCom Awards for this episode featuring Keith Wandell, former CEO of Harley-Davidson. The MarCom Awards recognizes outstanding achievement in creative programs. MarCom is one of the oldest, largest, and most prestigious creative competitions in the world and is sponsored and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP).

Back to top

Stay ahead of the curve

Subscribe to receive the latest Resilient podcasts and related information about the series.

Resilient is an award-winning podcast series that features authentic, engaging, and thought-provoking conversations with leaders. Hear interviews and personal stories about how CEOs, senior executives, government officials, board members, and people outside of the business world embrace complexity to lead, navigate, and disrupt to accelerate performance. And discover what they learned about resilience amid risk, crisis, and disruption.

For more in the series, visit the Resilient Podcast library page.

Back to top