Caterpillas

1) What were some of the key steps that led to Caterpillar’s becoming the industry leader in earth-moving machinery?

Caterpillar produced over 300 different kind of machinery for sales around the world. Its products give solution to eight industries such as residential, nonresidential, industrial, infrastructure, mining and quarrying, energy, wasteland also forestry. Besides that, the use of Caterpillar’s trademark farm treads on the Army tank in World War 1 and World War 2. The huge postwar construction and also strong overseas demand made the sales of Caterpillar’s products increased. Due to the recession of the early 1980s, Caterpillar lost about $6.5 billion and the company was forced to laid-off thousands employees, closed several factories and suffered a long United Auto Workers strike. Therefore, Caterpillar recognized that a change in the company would overcome the crisis. The company undergoes the new leadership and it was successful pull off one of the biggest turnarounds in corporate history.

2) Discuss Caterpillar’s future. What should it do next with its product line? Where is the future growth for this company?

Due to the demand of its products in U.S still in sluggish, thus the Caterpillar has switching it focus more on the emerging economies such as China, Brazil, Russia, India and those region which will be a strong point for the company. The developing countries would demand more construction equipment in their economy growth. The company must able to continue provide the high performance equipment with highest reliability and durability. This two quality features is the key purchase consideration in purchasing of heavy industrial equipment. While Caterpillar is well known for its large premium machines sporting with many features, customers in China may be looking for something simpler with fewer bells and whistles. For instance, Japan’s Komatsu Ltd, competes against Caterpillar with smaller, simpler machines. Thus, Caterpillar should take...