With its strong network of dealers, Caterpillar designs better products and provides superior customer service.

Make Your Dealers Your Partners by Donald V. Fites

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decade ago, many observers predicted that
Caterpillar would join the long list of U.S. corporations that had fallen to the Japanese. Doomsayers on Wall Street, at business schools, and in the press focused particularly on the rivalry between Caterpillar and Komatsu.
With Komatsu boasting tremendous eost advantages (as much as 40% in some product lines) and excellent produets, they accepted as a foregone conclusion that Komatsu would fulfill its vow to
"encircle Cat" and become the dominant producer in our industry.
Uke many predictions, this one fell short. Despite determined efforts by Komatsu, Hitachi, Kobelco, and others, our overall share of the world market for construction and mining equipment is the highest in our history. We have maintained our strong position in fapan through Shin Caterpillar
Mitsubishi, our 33-year-old joint venture with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. And after suffering some
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fearsome losses in 5 of the 11 years from 1982 through 1992, we have rehounded financially with record profits and a return on equity in the mid to high thirties.
I'm often asked how Caterpillar rose to the challenge. Several factors played a part. They include the tremendous value of our hrand name; the excellent quality of our produetS; the high resale value of our machines; a reorganization of the corporation to push decision making down into the organization to make the company flatter, leaner, and more responsive to eustomers' needs; big investments to revamp and streamline manufacturing operations, resulting in the most competitive factories in our industry; more frequent and timely new-product introductions; a heightened focus on costs; and the weakening of