Question

Summarize your evaluation of the alignment between what Caterpillar Inc. is currently doing and their mission, vision, or values statement. Would you propose any changes to Caterpillar Inc.'s mission, vision or values statements? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Caterpillar Inc. is one of the biggest manufacturer of heavy equipment and engines. Some of the products are bulldozers, excavators, wheel loaders, diesel engines and trucks. Caterpillar also provides services, such as financing and insurance, as well as maintenance and training services. The company is established in California in the Year of 1925, and has grown significantly to become one of the world’s leading provider of construction machinery. However, the company competes with few big firms like Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Toyota Industries Corporation.

Caterpillar Inc.’s Mission Statement:

Caterpillar Inc.’s mission statement is a combination of four missions that provide strategies and decisions. In short, the company’s mission is “to provide the best value to customers, grow a profitable business, develop and reward people, and encourage social responsibility.” The details of Caterpillar’s mission statements are as follows:

1. To give the best value to the customers: The company will be the leader in giving the best value in machines, engines and support services to the customers across the world.
2. To grow a profitable business. Company will rise the value of the business by aggressively following growth and profit opportunities that control engineering, manufacturing, distribution, information management, and financial services expertise.
3. To develop and reward people. Caterpillar will furnish its overall workforce with a situation that gives diversity, innovation, teamwork, continuous learning and improvement and rewards to individual performance.
4. To encourage social responsibility. Caterpillar is committed to improve the quality of life while maintaining the nature of our earth.

Caterpillar Inc.’s Vision Statement:

Caterpillar’s corporate vision is to “be the global leader in customer value.” The company aims at being a global leader in the industry through high quality products that satisfy customers. The company also effectively creates its business value through marketing and its distribution network around the world. Hence, the corporation follows this vision statement and continues to improve customer value.

Caterpillar’s vision statement is really good, based on conventional guidelines on creating vision statements. The company’s corporate vision is short and simple, which makes it easy to understand. The term “global leader” is ambitious enough to push the company to improve. However, this vision statement has various issues in terms of specificity to Caterpillar’s business. The statement does not contain enough information to relate it to the company’s nature of business or industry.

Recommendations for Caterpillar Inc.

Based on the results of the business analysis, as a recommendation, Caterpillar can really improve their performance through differentiation. The company can increase its investment in research and development to create unique products. At present, the heavy equipment, engines, and financial services of Caterpillar are very similar to the products available from other competitors. To increase competitiveness, the company must invest more in developing unique products.

Caterpillar can also improve its financial performance by growing its distribution network in various countries. The company can focus on developing markets because these markets have high economic growth rates. For an example, the company can increase the number of Caterpillar distributors in countries like China and India.