I was reading this in another forum and it really hit home to me so please drop in your thoughts!

I was reading this article in the Economist the other day, and it was focusing on the whole concept of innovation. And I thought about how the relates to MotoGP.

Ducati may actually be the perfect sized company. Most of these big companies, Wal-Mart, for example, earned their name as innovators. But after they reached a certain size, they were no longer as flexible to meet changing circumstances. Their job changed from innovating to maintaining. And this leads the company to insulate itself from creative ideas.

Ducati seems to be a great balance of size and creative adaptability. Maybe we should stop looking simply at size as the deciding indicator for who has the advantage. Its obvious in MotoGP that its no longer the case. Thats partially why Rossi is calling out Yamaha to be brave and take risks.

So I think this pretty much hits the nail on the head!

Yamaha make so many different things from instruments to boat engines to microwaves pro audio gear and domestic audio products and the list goes on and on. I have a $300000.00 Sound console at work and I asked for some Yamaha gear like a Rossi or a R6 jacket to the rep and he said they don't talk between departments and that company is way to big to care about things like that! Yamaha don't care about Rossi's reputation. If they don't sell some bikes because of his bad session it won't hurt the company at all.

Yep, that's the way it goes Aussie R6.

Honda & Yamaha need to do some industrial espionage and find out what make their production superiour to theirs and make some changes or put up with the ducati on the podium.

If they don't, they deserve to lose money in sales.

I agree with all this - the bigger an organisation gets, the harder it is to take full interest in each little sector. The more sectors there are, the less important each individual one becomes to the whole. The employees in that sector realise this and are therefore less motivated than they would be if they were being more closely monitored and rewarded for their efforts - they know they are unimportant and that reflects in their own attitude.
(See, that module on business studies was not a waste!)

The problem is that Ducati have to make sure they do not become the victims of their own success - success normally leads to expansion as the owners of the company want to capitolise on that success and make more profit...and then it all goes pear-shaped.

But I think this is why Ducati is so well able to fight with the bigger boys - so far they have managed to stay at their optimum size and there is still a strong sense of pride within the company which keeps driving it towards success.

Having said that, the Japanese are, in their nature and culture loyal and extremely hard-working....clearly that is just not enough.

This is exactly like it is, Aussie... Unfortunately! I have a friend who works for Bridgestone but for the F1 section and I asked him if he could get me some paddock passes for the MotoGP and he said that he has absolutely no contact with the bike people... Still annoying him though every time I see him to go and make friends with them Haven't given up hope just yet

I asked a friend of mine who works fro Yamaha (in the bike section too) and he says you're spot on Aussie R6.

Employee's of Yamaha don't get any special favours either.

Well, I can't find a more suitable thread to ask this questions.. I just wanna know that, the 800cc bike which they use this year, is smaller sized than the 990cc?

Yes it is smaller.

Not sure where the best place to put this is. I had thought someone would have done it already, and maybe they have, I just haven't found it.

http://digg.com:80/motorsport/Stoner...P_race_of_2007

Stoner and Rossi swapping bikes. Ha ha. Stoner would totally smash the M1 to pieces, he wouldn't know how to handle it in the corners at all. Good bye front end. And unless he's got bridgestone cement under him... Good bye front end.
I love the way the silly prat says how he's spent most of his career on different bikes, instead of actually commenting on the M1 itself, like Rossi did re the ducati. And one can feel Rossi salivating at the chance of having a crack at the desmosedici, whereas KC comes across as reluctantly willing. He's probably worried Valentino would show what it could really do.

it was already discussed in another thread, can't remember which one though...
but I agree, KC had trouble with the honda last season so I can't imagine him on the M1...