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Very cool.  These are the words of the President of Ducati Federico Minoli.  He is using this form of media for press releases, announcements, etc.  In my opinion, its a great tool for what he is trying to do.  By keeing the information’s original source at a Ducati website, it will bring people there all the time to check for updates.  Oh yeah, and I like blogs too!

Even though the two examples below are days right after each other, its hard to imagine a daily posting.  Regardless, a weekly post on the company news will be very useful, especially for a company on the rebound and with all new product lines.  I think its a smart move, but time will tell if Mr. Minoli is able to keep the posts coming.

Here’s an entry from December 21:

It’s difficult right now to write on the blog so often. November and December are so full of appointments that I cannot miss. We approved the forecosted results for year 2006; the budget for 2007 and, among general enthusiasm, we started to send the 1098 S to dealers in Europe (here you have a photo of the small party we had for the first bikes that came out of the production line).

Today, while the factory is working so hard to produce the new Superbike, we started the process that defines every tiny aspect of the Hypermotard production, the second great challenge among our products.

Many of you have asked for further information about this bike. As of today I can tell you the following:

-The final products are the ones you have seen at EICMA, without any modification. Currently we are not planning a smaller engine.

-Bikes will be available in European dealers starting from May; in American and Australian ones starting from June.

-All the technical details and prices will be published by me on the blog by mid February, after the completion of the pre-series bikes.

Federico Minoli also posted a speech of his on the direction of Ducati on December 22:

Many of you asked me to share our vision for Ducati, its strategy and plans.

Rather than asking someone in our Public Relation department to come up with a formulaic answer, I thought it might be more interesting to share with you the speech I gave at our world wide dealer conference in Milan.

I originally intended to for our community of dealers but it might also interest you who are equally part of our community. So here are some passages. With this I would like to wish you happy holidays and see you next year.

My fellow Ducatisti, this event is first and foremost a moment of togetherness…. We are here to celebrate a community of friends that share the same passion and the same dream, even more than they share the same business… We are linked by a strong bond, forged through exciting achievements like the extraordinary growth we accomplished from 1996-2002, and strengthened bys ticking together through the difficult circumstances of the past few years.

In good and bad times, the community of Ducastisti stuck together because we share a single dream: winning again… and again … and again. This was our attitude when King Carl Fogarty suddenly crashed out of World Superbike in 2000 at Philip Island. We suffered and, then… out of the blue, come Troy. Or, this year, after the dramatic accident in Barcelona GP, we suffered quite a setback, but then we had Brno and Motegi and the grand finale in Valencia.

From a business perspective, we have also suffered during the last few years of uncertainty. The large displacement premium segment of the motorcycle market stopped growing; the devaluation of the dollar deeply eroded our profits; a good product like the 999 proved to be divisive, and Multistrada encountered initial quality issues. Add to that TPG’s desire to exit from Ducati and the tightening of credit by the banks, and we were in rough waters. But our winning attitude never faltered.

We knew that in order to win again the only thing that really mattered was continuing to invest in racing and product development. And that is what this family did. Everyone tightened his belt. The Ducatisti fans and customers stayed with us despite the allures of our competitors. (…)

We have refined our strategy and, most importantly, both for our pride and for our business, we have exciting new products, the ones that we developed through our common persistence over the last few years. (…)

We must be proud and happy, not only of the products themselves, but also because these bikes (the Hypermotard, the 1098 and the Desmo 16) are not the result of luck, but of a thoughtful refinement of in our strategy, product development organization, and philosophy, a change that will continue to produce results in the future.

The new strategy refocuses on our niche sport positioning, without any compromise. This translates into cutting-edge technology, racing-derived technical solutions, and designs inspired by the racetrack and the stopwatch… No ifs, ands or buts. A Ducati on the racetrack or at any traffic light must deliver better acceleration , better handling, and better braking than anybody else. (…)

The new strategy focuses on premium products, a premium that must be justified not only by the bike’s technological content, but also by its strong identity and personality, by emotion and by the sense of belonging to our tradition.

(…)

The new strategy makes a strong commitment, supported by an organizational change to foster fit-finish and quality of our bikes. Sport Classics were the first bikes to benefit from these efforts. 1098 went through an unprecedented level of testing to improve our quality level. The jury is still out; quality improvement takes time to be recognized, but we have already been able to reduce maintenance intervals and costs by fifty percent. As for the rest, you will be the judges.

With these products and others like the Classics and the S4RS we are focussing on the high end of the market, favouring margins over volume, concerned about our and your profitability rather than about the absolute number of bikes sold. Nevertheless, rest assured that we understand the importance of having a successful entry bike to allow new bikers into our community and to generate traffic in the dealerships. We will invest in one entry bike that could continue the great work done with the Monster 695(…)

In addition to these awesome new products, we can count on everything that we have built together since 1996: a brand with strong character and worldwide recognition and appreciation, a dedicated distribution network anchored around the concept of Ducati Stores, a continuously growing accessory and apparel business, and a flexible manufacturing plant. Nobody can stop us!

Enough business talk. Let’s face it: in racing and in business, Ducati faces a task that, on paper, looks impossible. We produce and sell thirty to forty thousand bikes per year; Honda, nine million… We are David fighting against Goliath. And we beat Honda on their own track at Motegi. At this very minute, they are drooling over the 1098, the Hypermotard, and the Desmo 16.

(…)

We are the only Italian company that can win this battle and we must never give in. we need not only passion, commitment, and technical excellence, but also ingenuity, stubbornness, a contrarian attitude, and perseverance.

(…)

Since the holiday season is approaching let me end with greetings and hopes for a successful new year. I promise you that with our new products 2007 will be a year of success and fun. It’s up to all of us to make it happen and I know for a fact that, once again, we will deliver a great victory.