LinKS blog

I visited Ducati in Bologna to hear about their LEAN production methods at the factory in Bologna and the TRIBE of Ducati.

Coming into Bologna you have to realize that Bologna IS Ducati. You will see test bikes roaring the terrain and sometime going through the streets of Bologna. A great sight!

Admitted, I don’t know how to ride a bike - unless on the back seat counts. I knew where to turn to for my preparation though: The Grey Oil in Copenhagen. A motorcycle Club for “grey” (I think this refers to the hair colour) executives. Among the members are Søren B Henriksen, Dansk Erhverv and Sven Blomberg, BRF Kredit. I ended up with an invitation for the Grey Oil to visit Ducati - say when?

I was prepared to the teeth with challenging questions about brand positioning, choice of drivers and competitive bikes to beat! Well, nothing beats the sound and the special valves of a Ducati as well as their unbeatable website community and the real CEO blogging. Well done!

Program director for ISTUD Business School top execetive development and full professor at Polytechnico Milano, Antonio Roversi was leading the meeting and he knows his stuff in this area. Spending his life with some of the best Italian companies on supply chain and strategy, Antonio is also one of the true global thinkers of Italy and the key inventor of the impressive MENU for global Leadership development. www.istud.it

Ducati was simply impressive. Think about being an OPEN, inclusive TRIBE instead of closed. That is not easy, but that is what Ducati has done, branding wise and contentwise.

An interesting business development is happening for Ducati as happened to Ferrari and other great Italian brands. They are now into strategic consulting, meaning that Ducati consultants work for companies in shaping their business according to the Lean principles and other focused areas of their experience.

Somehow we where only 2 women at this visit but that was no problem - being surrounded by Italian gentlemen executives and incredible Italian bikes is really fine for me!

This entry was posted on Friday, March 16th, 2007 at 10:14 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.