Caterpillar 2013 Annual Report Download - page 18

CATERPILLAR INC. 2013 YEAR IN REVIEW
16
COMMON GROUND
Helping Customers
Discover What We’re
Built to Deliver
A Conversation with Stu Levenick,
Group President
How does the Cat® dealer network set us apart, and why is it
a competitive advantage?
The most important thing about the Cat dealer network isn’t necessarily
that dealers are independent, although that’s certainly a factor; it’s the
dynamic relationship that we’ve built with dealers over the years. We
could build an independent dealer network, but if we didn’t value their
input – and they didn’t value ours – it wouldn’t be very successful. It’s
the mutual trust, performance and commitment to serving our custom-
ers that gives us a competitive advantage.
The BUILT FOR IT™ rebranding campaign was a major initiative
during 2013. What were the primary components of the campaign?
A lot of effort went into developing and deploying BUILT FOR IT, which
was initially launched in fi ve major markets – China, Indonesia, Russia,
North America and Brazil – but will be rapidly expanded to the rest of
the world.
The initial campaign included print materials, billboards and a robust
online presence. Through that process, Caterpillar connected with
1.6 billion people around the world, and so far we’re very pleased with
the results. We will continue this effort in 2014. BUILT FOR IT was
the main theme for our presence at CONEXPO and our Worldwide
Dealer Meeting, and human resources is using it in their recruitment
efforts, for example. BUILT FOR IT is rapidly becoming how we
communicate our brand message both internally and externally,
to virtually every constituency that we have.
When our customers hear BUILT FOR IT, what do you want their
takeaway to be?
When a customer hears BUILT FOR IT, we don’t want them to think of
just a product or solution, but an entire organization that’s dedicated to
their success. We developed BUILT FOR IT as a campaign to capture
what Caterpillar really is. We’re much more than just products. We’re
much more than just solutions. We’re a global organization, along with
our dealers, with products, services and solutions and people on the
ground who are dedicated to building customer value.
Can you provide an example of how we help customers lower costs
and add value?
From a solution perspective, condition monitoring services have allowed
customers to dramatically improve their productivity and reduce their
operating costs. Productivity is a key decision point for machinery –
not only the control and guidance systems that allow them to perform
and produce at a much higher rate, but also the ability to monitor that
productivity from afar. Condition monitoring technology provides real-
time data feeds from machines, providing critical information about what’s
happening with that equipment. This can range from simple information,
like the location of a piece of equipment, up to identifying service issues
in advance of an equipment failure. Condition monitoring offers a range
of solutions for customers to better manage their equipment and lower
their owning and operating costs, making them more successful.
Reman is another area of responsibility for you. How does that
business add value?
Remanufacturing is an important aspect of our business and a solution
that provides customers a tremendous opportunity to lower their owning
and operating costs. It was fi rst deployed in North America, driven by
our former on-highway truck engine business. Over the years, we’ve
steadily expanded this concept to other product lines and components.
Remanufacturing has tremendous sustainability advantages, and these
are of particular importance in some of our key markets, like China.
On the one hand, we think remanufacturing makes a lot of sense for
customers economically, but it also allows us to reuse components
over and over again rather than put them into a landfi ll. Because it’s
a really good solution for both the customer and the environment, we
are aggressively promoting remanufacturing as an attractive solution
in markets throughout the world.