Douglas Oberhelman on global competition
From Doug Oberhelman, CEO of Caterpillar Inc., & Kent Adams, VP | Terry Leadership Speaker Series · · Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia
“We basically have one competitor in the United States and everybody else is offshore and they all want our jobs just like we wanted their jobs years ago as America developed. All these developing countries around the world today want our jobs. That's the Walmart coming to Caterpillar and coming to America.”
On , Douglas Oberhelman, Former Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at Caterpillar Inc., spoke about global competition during Doug Oberhelman, CEO of Caterpillar Inc., & Kent Adams, VP | Terry Leadership Speaker Series on Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia.
About Douglas Oberhelman
At the 2014 CONEXPO press conference, Oberhelman described the global economic outlook as a "fairly mixed bag," with North America leading a "very slow recovery." He said housing was "certainly better" and that the Washington budget agreement meant the debt ceiling would not be an issue that year. Regarding Europe, he stated that "most of the bad news in Europe is behind us" but that he would not expect a "great boom" in 2014. On China, he said the country was "recovering" from a "rigid downturn" but that he would not expect "the big boom that we have been used to." He characterized his overall view as "very guardedly optimistic," noting that "the world's economy is a fragile thing." In a 2012 leadership talk, Oberhelman discussed Caterpillar's decision to move small bulldozer and excavator production from Japan to Athens, Georgia, calling it "an endorsement of what Caterpillar can do, but again, America can be competitive." He said his "heaviest obligation" was to ensure the company's survival "a hundred years from now," adding that he focuses on "10 and 20 and 30-year decisions" rather than quarterly earnings. He also stated that he had tried to instill a culture where employees "own the results" and treat every customer as if they were "a golden ring."