Executive Education Leader Profile

Gary Gray: Vice President , Motorcycle-Racing, Technology, and Service Polaris Industries

Gary Gray selected Carlson Executive Education’s Disruptive Innovation course to provide a burst of focus and inspiration for the innovative aspects of his job. Taking time outside of the office, speaking with peers and experts, and focusing on real-life examples of innovation helped him re-imagine how Polaris provides vehicle service.
Gary returned to Polaris’ innovation team, Launch Pad, filled with ideas from the course. The team then built an app called RideReady to support a new service model that would give customers more control over their vehicle service.

Drawing from Expertise

Disruptive Innovation appealed to Gary because he wanted to lead business change through innovation. “I wanted to change how customers perceive us. Carlson Executive Educator Hari Nair’s business background and experience in innovation, as well as the examples he brought into the classroom really drew me in.”

Re-Thinking the Customer Experience

“When you sit in a classroom, especially when it gets cross-functional and you have people from different industries with different lenses on their businesses, it challenges you to think differently, to be more customer-focused,” says Gary. “Most people in service would say the “job to be done” is repairing the vehicle, but it goes beyond that. We want customers to be able to enjoy their vehicles and to have them ready to ride whenever they are.”
Gary realized that powersports customers want to be ready to ride when the weekend arrives. They’re also accustomed to service-on-demand, whether it’s selecting groceries online for delivery, choosing a TV show, or booking a ride to the airport. The Polaris Launch Pad team wanted to create this same kind of transparent, customizable experience when customers request vehicle service. With the RideReady app, customers can schedule a technician to come to their home. If they don’t own a trailer, they can request a vehicle transport to the dealership. If they prefer, they can transport the vehicle themselves.