Caterpillar 2015 Annual Report Download - page 65

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65
2015 YEAR IN REVIEW
BUSINESS REVIEW
FINANCIAL PRODUCTS & CORPORATE SERVICES
BRADLEY M. HALVERSON
Group President, Financial Products & Corporate Services, Chief Financial Officer
Financial Products is built to provide financing to customers and dealers for the purchase
and lease of Cat® equipment, as well as financing for Cat®product sales to dealers. Financing
plans include operating and finance leases, installment sale contracts, working capital
loans and wholesale financing plans. Financial Products provides various forms of
insurance to customers and dealers to help support the purchase and lease of our
equipment. Corporate Services provides business and human resources, information
technology, accounting and finance services to Caterpillar, serving as the enterprise
resource for business-related activities.
A Conversation With
What is different about the current downturn compared to others in our history?
In 2009, we had a 37 percent decline in our sales and revenues. It happened fast, and then we had a recovery.
This is different. As we look at 2016, we’re on the fourth year of a decline in sales, and it’s our job to manage at
the sales level that we have at this moment in time. We have a U.S. economy that is not showing great growth.
We have developing countries, such as Brazil and China, at very low levels in terms of our industry. Clearly, mining
companies, in terms of commodities, have suffered greatly. The good news is Caterpillar is in a strong position to
handle an increase in business. This downturn is the right opportunity to focus on critical initiatives like Digital,
Lean and Across the Table.
What provides you with the most confidence about our position?
We have the best people. We hire, develop and train the absolute best workforce in any industry, any company,
in my view. That’s clearly a differentiator. As a result, we have quality products and are gaining market position
for machines. Because of our good operational performance in this downturn, we have a very strong balance
sheet, which gives us flexibility to look for growth opportunities. Even in these tough times, we’ve continued to
have very high levels of research and development for new products and other initiatives, such as our digital
spend, Across the Table and Lean.