Quote Originally Posted by Scott View Post
I find myself wondering if the design and engineering people were battling the the bean-counters. When they created Indian, they didn't just plop the Victory engine in there as I might have imagined, but created a new (and by all accounts very good) engine.

That along with the Scout when it arrived seemed to indicate that they were willing to invest to make truly different bikes and not just play the badge game, and if they had continued that route, they might have really had something. But then the Octane came along and burst that bubble.

I wonder if at some point the plan was to make Victory and the Octane more unique, but the accountants convinced upper management it would make more sense to keep costs low by sharing bikes across brands.

I've always been a firm believer that when the accountants start taking charge any brand will suffer and whither until the people who actually like and understand the product (as opposed to people who just focus on the bottom line) are put back in control.
The role of a good CEO is to ask the right questions of the right people(the people who know what they are doing NOT bean counters), the most important one being: "what can I do to increase our chances of success with this product?". The next thing is to remove barriers to success, if that means silencing the bean counters whose only qualification is being able to count money, so be it.. A wise man once said "If I do what I've always done, I'll be where I've always been." Take note Polaris.