In the 1980s, caterpillar was negatively affected by a strong dollar and lost significant market share to Japanese competitor Komatsu. The situation Prompted caterpillar to revise its global strategy and by the 2000s, the company was in a much better position to deal with currency values. More recently, a strong dollar has actually helped boost caterpillar's bottom line.

In the 1980s, a stronger dollar hurt caterpillar position, but in 2008 a stronger dollar did not seem to have the same effect. What had changed?