Assignment

You've just been named Caterpillar's next CEO, and you've got six months before you take over from the current CEO. You've decided to use this time to pick your 16 top managers and work with them to analyze the company. Caterpillar has entered a lot of businesses in the last two decades and every part, good, bad, and ugly, is on the table for review. The critical issue is how to better manage the cyclical nature of your industry, particularly downturns. While you can see them coming, you can't predict their severity. So, what can the company do to better prepare itself and its customers, suppliers, and dealers for the next severe downturn? Also, what are your goals for company performance for the next downswing? Second, severe upswings, though preferable, are disruptive and difficult to manage, particularly when it comes to hiring thousands of workers at one time, restarting mothballed production facilities, procuring the necessary parts from suppliers, and suddenly finding the cash to pay for it all. So, given that there's little warning to when this is coming, what can be done to make sudden increases in production more manageable for you and your suppliers? Finally, sudden upswings and downswings produce opportunities for your competitors to steal customers by undercutting price, delivering products faster, or designing better products. What can Caterpillar and its dealers to decrease customer losses and defections? What can top management do to make sure it keeps a stronger focus on customers?