PolarisFinalPaper
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[ INTRODUCTION ]
Polaris Industries Inc. is a for profit organization that designs, engineers, manufactures
and markets innovative, high quality offroad vehicles. It was founded in 1954 in Roseau, MN by
brothers Edgar and Allan Hetteen along with best friend David Johnson.
The company started off making farming equipment, but one weekend while Edgar was
away on business, David with the help of some other employees used spare parts to create a
“snow machine.” The team was just “messing around,” and created this machine out of pure
enjoyment, but when Edgar returned he was very upset to find that his cofounder and employees
had been “wasting their time” and “company resources.” Edgar sold the No. 1 Snowmobile to
the neighbor and told everyone to “get back to work.” However, the team discovered how much
they enjoyed building the snow machine and believed they were working towards something
great. They didn’t want to go back to making farm equipment, they wanted to make
snowmobiles. After much conversation the Polaris team was able to get Edgar on board with
making these snow machines.
Edgar, Allan, and David never claimed to have invented the snowmobile, however they
did create a perfected version of the first working and mass produced snowmobile. It replaced
the old way of winter travel (cross country skiing or snowshoeing) used to reach winter hunting
sites, and allowed farmers and utility companies to reach remote locations, otherwise
inaccessible in winter. Now 60 years later, Polaris is a recognized leader in the powersports
industry, landing the #621 spot on the 2014 Forbes Fortune 500 List. They also have dealerships
on six of seven continents and manufacturing plants in the U.S., Mexico, France, and have plans
to open plants in Poland and India. Polaris is more than just a company that produces
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snowmobiles; they make off road vehicles such as side x sides, ATV’s, Rangers, Motorcycles,
Government & Military Vehicles, GEM Electric, the Slingshot, Generators, Parts, Accessories,
& Apparel.
Polaris has grown exponentially since their conception in 1954. They now employ more
than 7000 workers world wide, including 5400 here in the U.S. They have also made 3.8 billion
dollars in sales this year, which is an increase of 18% since 2013, and they generated 381 million
in net income which is a 22% increase from 2013.
Polaris has experienced great success in their lifetime. Let’s go through a timeline of the
significant events in the history of Polaris: In 1955 they began constructing the first snowmobile,
finished in 1956 by David Johnson. David did the manufacturing at Polaris while Allan did
marketing and Edgar was the visionary. Shortly into their history in 19631964, they experienced
the “Comet Crisis.” One of the first models mass produced by Polaris was the “comet”
snowmobile. Unfortunately, the machines produced on the line had many problems and Polaris
had to buy back their machines. This nearly caused the company to go into bankruptcy. It was
because of Allan Hetteen that the company survived, he asked the vendors to expand their
contract with polaris allowing the company more time to produce and profit off their more
successful “Mustang” and “Colt” models.
In the 1970’s, Polaris became known for their winning racing teams and innovation in
snowmobile construction. “The Midnight Blue Express” nickname of the polaris racing team is a
major reason blue is a common color associated with polaris. New polaris technology and
innovative breakthroughs led to their racing success; Polaris racers won the ultimate oval
championship, the Eagle River World championship snowmobile derby, and the Winnipeg to
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St.Paul I500. These new innovations included effective liquidcooled engines, and
independentfront suspension (IFS)
During the 1980’s, their biggest accomplishment was the creation of the first ATV. The
manufacturing of the ATV led to many positive changes for Polaris; the Roseau factory was kept
open virtually year round and Polaris now had a product they could sell year round, that could be
used for warmweather use during the summer months. Customers and workers a like were very
excited for this new creation.
In the 1990’s Polaris experimented with producing watercrafts, and introduced their
Ranger, and line of Victory motorcycles. This was a huge accomplishment for Polaris because it
had more than 60 years since an American company had introduced a working motorcycle. The
debut took place at the Planet Hollywood restaurant in the Mall Of America in 1997. The
following year in 1998, Polaris had their Victory motorcycle named the “Best Cruiser” by Cycle
World Magazine.
From 20042007 Polaris really focused on their racing. They felt it was a great way to
advertise their products by hosting racing events and sponsoring racers. The next year in 2008,
Polaris was hit hard by the recession. They lost close to 300,000,000 million dollars which was
actually less than the amount their competitors lost. Even today, Polaris holds the largest market
share in the market. In more recent years, 2010today specifically, Polaris has focused their
efforts on expanding globally.They have opened manufacturing plants in Mexico, France,
Poland, and India and continue to innovate new things and improve their products.
Throughout the years Polaris has experienced few changes in leadership. Over the past 60
years they have only had 3 CEO’s since their founders. This is quite impressive! Their current
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CEO is Scott Wine who took over for Tom Tiller in 2008. Tiller acted as CEO from 19992008
and before him the CEO was Hall Wendel who performed as CEO from 1981 1999. Before
Hall, the founders: Edgar, Allan, and David acted as the owners and CEO’s from 19541999.
[ ANALYSIS OF THE INTERNAL CONSTITUENTS ]
Organizational Goals
a. Mission Statement: The Polaris Creed is their mission statement and they honor this
creed above everything else. The creed states, “At Polaris, making great products is not
just a job it is a way of life. Our employees are not only building and designing our
machines, they are also enthusiastic riders. This gives us the competitive edge as we work
to make the riding experience better.” This creed is etched in steel at the entrance of
every one of their locations. In addition to the Polaris Creed, they are also a strong
believer that the key to success is in the ethics and values of its employees. The Polaris
employees developed and defined eight values that they seek in every one of their
coworkers. These values include: team player, innovative, employee development,
customer focus, integrity, passion for excellence, problem solver, and leadership. To
prove that these values are taken seriously the Polaris Performance Management Program
evaluates employee performance not only on delivered results but also on how well they
represent the previous eight company values.
b. Objectives: Polaris has several performance priorities that lay out their strategic
objectives. The first priority is growth. To strategically achieve this growth Polaris is
dedicated to increasing revenues from acquisitions and new markets by $2 billion. Also
Polaris hopes to increase revenues by 33% within their growing global markets. Second
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priority listed by Polaris is margin expansion; the strategy implemented is to have a
strong financial performance through sustainable, profitable growth resulting in a net
income margin increase by 10% by the year 2020. Product and quality leadership is the
third priority and Polaris set a goal of annual growth by 58% ensuing the reputation of
being the best in the industry. Last priority is to maintain a LEAN enterprise, also known
as their competitive advantage by delivery significant quality and cost improvements for
their products.
c. Strategy: The vision within Polaris is to fuel the passion of riders, workers, and outdoor
enthusiasts around the world by delivering innovative, high quality vehicles, products,
services and experiences that enrich their lives. The strategy behind Polaris is to be
highly profitable, customer centric, and have an $8 billion global enterprise by 2020.
Polaris is defined as a prospector according to Miles & Snow’s Typology and adopts this
strategy to achieve these objectives. This strategy is a great strategy to use when an
American company, like Polaris, is attempting to reach a global market. As a prospector
the strategy implemented is to innovate, take risks, seek out opportunities and grow.
Polaris is a dynamic, growing company that values innovation and brining new products
to global markets.
Internal Systems
a. Organizational Structure: The organizational structure can be viewed as horizontal with
product division structure being dominant at Polaris due to a specific division for
international sales. Within a horizontal structure there is an abundance of shared tasks,
employee empowerment, and facetoface communication. There is a relaxed hierarchy that
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desired future state for the company. An employee of Polaris describes the culture as
having, “a great sales culture that knows how to get results and meet aggressive goals. At
Polaris you are constantly growing and constantly being challenged.” The mission culture
encompasses everything at Polaris where professionalism, ambition, and aggressiveness are
key values.
d. Organizational Conflicts and Power Distribution: Power is evenly distributed within
Polaris due to the horizontal organizational structure and decentralized decisionmaking.
However politics have been known to be a major conflict at Polaris. Within a mission
culture most employees are more concerned with the sale, making internal competition
very high. With the focus on number of individual sales, collaboration is low and politics
ends up taking a role in determining who gets a promotion. When capabilities or experience
aren’t the determinants of promotion it results in a lot of turnover as valuable employees
leave the company in frustration. Top leadership seems to ignore this fact making
employee morale low and eventually costing the company money and talented, experienced
employees.
[ EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS ]
a. Level of Environmental Uncertainty: The external environment that surrounds Polaris is
complex. The competition they experience makes it complex because they have many
competitors which force them to consider many different variables. These competitors
include Honda, Harley, BMW, and Arctic Cat. The external environment is also stable
because their demand for products is stable. There will always be winter in Minnesota, and
for the states that don’t have winter Polaris creates products such as ATV’s , motorcycles,
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and farming equipment that riders can still enjoy. Polaris is the lead innovator in the
powersports industries and they will always have a product for every terrain.
b. Level of Munificence in the External Environment: There are many suppliers out there
that are happy to work with polaris. Since 2008 CEO Scott Wine has been expanding and
looking into new potential suppliers and is confident there is room for growth. They have
recently been looking into obtaining suppliers in Mexico. Several of their suppliers in
Minnesota only are BTD, Cambridge Metals & Plastics, Engineered Polymers Corporation,
Intercept Industries, Plastech Corporation, ProFab, Ryerson, Supply Technologies, Team
Industries, and WSI Industries.
c. IntraOrganizational Relationships: According to Gene Rebeck in his article “Polaris Is
Trailblazing Again, This Time Overseas” (2013) Wine says, “Polaris doesn’t have a
‘notinventedhere’ problem.” It has partnered with other companies that are further along
in a technology or market that Polaris wants to add to its mix—for instance, lithiumion
batteries. “We could have developed it ourselves. Or we could make an investment in
Brammo and have access to the technology that way.” This quote really shows Polars’
willingness to work with others to make the best possible product they can. Some of
Polaris’ partners include Rapala, Minnesota Wild, and Mossy Oak Camo Brand. These
partners open up new areas for polaris to get into, such as fishing, and can offer new
marketing positions as well. Polaris does a lot of its own production having built
manufacturing facilities in Poland, Mexico, France, and several other global locations.
Many of Polaris’ relationships are collaborative as Polaris works with many dissimilar
organizations to move both companies forward.
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[ PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION/ RECONSTRUCTION FOR THE FUTURE]
After conducting our research on Polaris we were thoroughly impressed with their
achievements as an organization. Over the past sixty years they have managed to climb their way
up the Fortune 500 list, all the while gaining a large market share allowing them to conduct
business on an international scale. However, as any successful organization knows; in order to
maintain their success they must always be conscious of areas in which they can improve. With
that being said we believe there are three main issues within Polaris’ organization that needs to
be addressed. These issues included the current internal environment for the employees, Polaris’
lack of investment in global markets, and their training for HR in regards to customer service.
Our research discovered these problems on the internal and external environment levels, and also
throughout customer/past employee reviews. This section of the paper will provide more
findings on the problems at hand and also address what sort of “fit” would and wouldn’t be
supported within the organization.
First and foremost, our research has revealed that there are very mixed emotions from
both past and present employees when it comes to their experience at Polaris. The culture of the
company, from what we understand, is pretty laid back. Most who work there find the work
environment appealing in the sense that they don’t have to feel uptight and stressed about going
into the office everyday, they can have normal relationships with their coworkers, all the while
never feeling threatened or intimidated whenever the boss comes around. Currently the CEO has
an acceptance rating of 80%, and many employees have been quoted stating that they recalled
feeling comfortable when interacting with their bosses.
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However, over time all this informality has caused a few problems. Some feedback we
found online explained that due to the relaxed environment at the office the employees have
become accustom to a lack of structure, and some are even using this lack of structure in their
favor. In one review a former employee was quoted saying “Promotion opportunities are based
on politics rather than capabilities or experience. There is a lot of turnover as valuable employees
leave the company in frustration…”. In order to hopefully fix these problems, management needs
to take a step back and look at the individuals who make up this organization, not the
organization as a whole.
The internal environment at Polaris is geared more toward people who are willing to
dedicate their lives to their work. As a current anonymous sales rep stated, “You work long hours
at Polaris and you are always online. Even on vacations, you are typically still online, respond to
emails, and are involved in conference calls. The concept of being ‘plugged in’ is also something
that keeps me engaged in company successes.” This is another attribute of the environment that
can either be a good or bad thing depending on the personality of the employee. Some who want
to put their whole life into their work may thrive on that environment, but other, don’t like how
Polaris’ doesn’t focus on the work/life balance. A former anonymous employee quoted, “ High
stress, no focus on the work/life balance. Company politics similar to a high school social
scene.” Polaris might want to address this problematic situation seeing as it is leaving some
employees with a bad taste in their mouth.
Another problem that we identified for Polaris is the lack of investment in the global
market. Polaris is in the stage of becoming a multinational company. With two manufacturers
outside of the U.S and two more on the way, Polaris seems to be moving in the right direction.
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However, we believe that there are still potential opportunities for Polaris to capitalize on. Since
Polaris has been expanding sales it night be time to invest a little more time, money, and effort
into expanding certain departments within the company. The U.S. is still considered to be the
“home country” for Polaris, and their products are still considered still an American Product that
is manufactured, managed, and retailed by 7,0over 00 employees. Of those 7,000+ employees
more than half of them are located in the U.S. As of 2013, only 16% of their overall sales are
from international sales, and in order to be considered a multinational company, 30% of your
sales must be from an international market. Overall, Polaris may have a global presence, but we
believe that Polaris needs to shift its focus to the international markets and work on selling to
their target market across the world.
The final issue that we identified was the quality of the customer service department
provided by the organization. After reading through many reviews on consumer reports and the
BBB we learned that there have been many concerns with how Polaris handles their customer
service interactions. At first we thought it might just a problem with the warranties they offered,
maybe customers were dissatisfied with the companies policies on returning/repairing goods. But
as we conducted more research we came to the realization that the problem unfortunately stems
from the training provided to new Polaris employees in regards to dealing with customer service.
[ RECOMMENDATIONS ]
As identified in the previous section, we believe Polaris has three main problems. Their
internal environment and culture is very political and involves competition among employees,
this has led to the high turnover rate at Polaris. The other main issues included problems with
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recommend Polaris redirect their emphasis from products and sales to their customers. Everyone
knows Polaris makes top of the line quality products that features the latest in technology,
however, this doesn’t help Polaris if they have unhappy customers. Polaris needs to put their
customers first by providing better warranties, and responding to customer concerns through a
customer service hotline and email. We love that Polaris refers to their mission statement as the
“Polaris Creed” and how it is engraved in a metal plate in every building. It’s clear that their
mission statement is very important and something valued by employees, however, in order to
truly integrate a commitment to customer service we would recommend adding a line about the
customers to the mission statement.
Adapting to these changes will require all leadership to be on board and fully committed
to making a change. Employees will follow suit if they see their superiors excited about making
a positive difference at Polaris. Scott Wine will be a crucial person involved with this change as
well as the head managers of each division. Things to pay attention to while implementing these
changes would include the reactions and feedback of customers, employees, and workers and
managers abroad. With theses added changed we firmly believe Polaris will be an even greater
and more successful organization.
[ CONCLUSION ]
We have decided that Polaris should focus on becoming a more mechanistic organization. Their
current structure which is open, organic, and horizontal has caused problems such as poor
customer service, a structure that does not support globalization, and competition, politics, and
high turnover. By transitioning to a mechanistic organization Polaris can eliminate the confusion
associated with a lack of rule clarity and role identification. Polaris can move in the direction of
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[ WORKS CITED ]
ATV RANGER RZR Snowmobile Official Website. Polaris, n.d. Web. 01 Dec 2014
“Guidelines.” Governance. Polaris, 24 Jul. 2013. Retrieved 28 Nov. 2014
From<http://phx.corporateir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=108235&p=irolgovguidelines>
Huppert, Boyd. “Builder of 1st Polaris snowmobile still riding at 91.” Kare 11 News, 09 Feb.
2014. Retrieved 29 Nov. 2014.
From<http://www.kare11.com/story/news/local/landof10000stories/2014/02/09/polarisda
vidjohnsonroseau/5230895/ >
“Motorcycle Safety, Buying, & Reliability.” ConsumerReports.org, Jul. 2014. Retrieved 01 Dec.
2014.
From<http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/Guide_to_Motorcycle_Buying_Reliability_
Safety/index.htm>
“Polaris ATVs.” Consumer Affairs. Consumer Complaints and Reviews, 01 Dec. 2014.
Retrieved 02 Dec. 2014.
From<http://www.consumeraffairs.com/sporting_goods/polaris_atv.html>
“Polaris Customer Complaints.” BBB Business Review. BBB Minnesota and North Dakota, 12
Nov. 2014. Retrieved 26 Nov. 2014.
From<http://www.bbb.org/minnesota/businessreviews/snowmobiles/polarisindustriesinha
melmn4602/complaints#breakdown>
“Polaris Experience.” YouTube, 06 Dec. 2006. Retrieved 29 Nov. 2014.
From<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIrEKKTghBc>
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“Polaris Industries.” Fortune 500 2014. Fortune, 2014. Retrieved 29 Dec. 2014.
From<http://fortune.com/fortune500/polarisindustriesinc621/>
“Polaris Industries Review.” Glass Door, 29 Nov. 2014. Retrieved 01 Dec. 2014.
From<http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/PolarisIndustriesReviewsE985.htm>
“Polaris Snowmobile Recall.” SledNH.com, 11 Nov. 2007. Retrieved 29 Nov. 2014.
From<http://www.slednh.com/forums/index.php/topic/577polarissnowmobilerecall/>
Rebeck, Gene. "Polaris Is Trailblazing Again, This Time Overseas." Polaris Is Trailblazing
Again, This Time Overseas. MSP Communications, Inc., 18 Apr. 2013. Retrieved 09 Dec.
2014. From<http://tcbmag.com/Industries/Manufacturing/PolarisOnaTear>
Twentyman, Jessica. "Polaris Industries Revs up Social Media Innovation." Diginomica.
Diginomia Ltd., 31 Oct. 2014. Retrieved 09 Dec. 2014.
From<http://diginomica.com/2014/10/31/polarisindustriesgoesfullthrottlesocialmediain
novation/#.VHuqNjHFSq>
![2
[ INTRODUCTION ]
Polaris Industries Inc. is a for profit organization that designs, engineers, manufactures
and markets innovative, high quality offroad vehicles. It was founded in 1954 in Roseau, MN by
brothers Edgar and Allan Hetteen along with best friend David Johnson.
The company started off making farming equipment, but one weekend while Edgar was
away on business, David with the help of some other employees used spare parts to create a
“snow machine.” The team was just “messing around,” and created this machine out of pure
enjoyment, but when Edgar returned he was very upset to find that his cofounder and employees
had been “wasting their time” and “company resources.” Edgar sold the No. 1 Snowmobile to
the neighbor and told everyone to “get back to work.” However, the team discovered how much
they enjoyed building the snow machine and believed they were working towards something
great. They didn’t want to go back to making farm equipment, they wanted to make
snowmobiles. After much conversation the Polaris team was able to get Edgar on board with
making these snow machines.
Edgar, Allan, and David never claimed to have invented the snowmobile, however they
did create a perfected version of the first working and mass produced snowmobile. It replaced
the old way of winter travel (cross country skiing or snowshoeing) used to reach winter hunting
sites, and allowed farmers and utility companies to reach remote locations, otherwise
inaccessible in winter. Now 60 years later, Polaris is a recognized leader in the powersports
industry, landing the #621 spot on the 2014 Forbes Fortune 500 List. They also have dealerships
on six of seven continents and manufacturing plants in the U.S., Mexico, France, and have plans
to open plants in Poland and India. Polaris is more than just a company that produces](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)