Caterpillar is a leading global manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, machinery and engines with more than five hundred dealer and facility locations worldwide.
Low revenue growth prompted Caterpillar to compete on a global scale In order to keep increasing revenue the company had to look for new customers and since ninety-five percent of the world’s potential customers live outside the United States, competing on a global scale was essential. Caterpillar created regional councils in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia Pacific.
The business driver for Caterpillar is a Lean Six Sigma. The company developed a strategic vision and a road map for change guided by fact-based analysis. The initiative led to product innovations, like Caterpillar's phenomenally successful low-emissions diesel engine, and to redesigned processes, including a streamlined supply chain. By 2005, the company's revenues had grown by 80 percent.

Caterpillar’s global competitors are in: * Construction Machinery: Komatsu Ltd, Deere & Co., Doosan Infracore Co., Ltd, Volvo Construction Equipment, Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd, Hyundai, CNH Global N.V. and J.C. Bamford Ltd * Resource Industries: Komatsu Ltd, Volvo Construction Equipment, Deere & Co., Joy Global Inc., Atlas Copco, Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd and Wirtgen * Power Systems: Cummins Inc., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., MAN Diesel & Turbo SE, Tognum AG, Deutz AG, Siemens Energy, GE Oil & Gas, Wartsila Corp., Rolls Royce Group plc, Ge Power & Water, Kirloskar Oil Engines Limited, Weichai Power Co, Ltd and Volvo Penta
Today, Caterpillar commands 19% of the construction market and is nearly twice the size of its nearest competitor, Komatsu.

Caterpillar turned its network of sales in different countries into a cost advantage by designing product lines that use identical components and by investing heavily in a few large-scale, state-of-the-art component manufacturing facilities to fill worldwide demand
Caterpillar’s use of marketing technology makes them more aggressive by using more of the technologies before they become mainstream. The company is now willing to participate and leverage tools that may still be evolving. Social media technology in particular provides the opportunity to publicly demonstrate their customer/business relationships. The Caterpillar brand is built on the backs of great relationships, so listening and responding are key in the social media space.
The company then augmented the centralized production with assembly plants in each of its major markets—Europe, Japan, Brazil, Australia, and so on. At these plants Cat added local product features, avoiding the high transportation cost of end products. Most important, Cat became a direct participant in local economies. The company achieved lower costs without sacrificing local product flexibility

Innovation is the key to Caterpillar’s success, the company produced energy-related products and services for a quarter of the business and is able to provide solutions throughout the energy value chain. Caterpillar also found innovative approaches like conversion of waste gases such as landfill methane into useful energy. Most recently they introduced a hybrid excavator which could achieve about a 25-50 percent fuel efficiency and emissions-reduction gain.

The greatest business challenge to Caterpillar has come from Komatsu Japan’s leading construction equipment producer forged its own global strategy based on exporting high-quality products from centralized facilities with labor and steel cost advantages. Over the last decade Komatsu has gained some 15% of the world construction-equipment market, with a significant share of sales in nearly every product line in competition with Cat.
Another business challenge Caterpillar faced, was China being one of the company’s prime countries to operate, in the first nine months of 2014 the construction machinery industry decreased by ten percent.
North America being the company’s fastest-growing region plunged in oil and gas prices eventually reduced the demand for Caterpillar’s machinery used in well servicing, gas compression and drilling applications.
The mining industry including iron ore and coal have also been struggling, this would also reduce the demand for the company’s equipment.
The company developed of four characteristics essential to defending a leading world position against a determined competitor. 1. A global strategy of its own: Caterpillar’s integrated global strategy yields a competitive advantage in cost and effectiveness 2. Willingness to invest in manufacturing: Caterpillar’s top management appears committed to the kind of flexible automated manufacturing systems that allow full exploitation of the economies of scale from its worldwide sales volume. 3. Willingness to commit financial resources: Caterpillar does not divert resources into other businesses or dissipate the financial advantage. 4. Blocking position in the Japanese market: Caterpillar formed a joint venture in Japan with Komatsu’s long-standing but weaker competitor, Mitsubishi.
Caterpillar created new technologies for customer solutions such as: * CAT Connect, this uses the data from technology-equipped machines for customers to get more information and insight into their equipment and operations than before. * CAT Minestar which provides the most comprehensive suite of mining technology products in the industry. Minestar allows customers to scale the system to their mine site needs. * Accugrade Laser Grade Control System provides customers increased productivity while drastically reducing costs. It is factory integrated, sensor-independent and features a suite of products that includes cross slope, sonic, laser, GPS and ATS technology. * CAT B15Q Smart Phone: the phone is able to meet the demands of a busy day at work and play * Autonomous Trucks: gives benefits to every area of operations, including operator safety. More predictable operations mean fewer collisions and removing the possibility of human error and fatigue makes automated trucks safer on the road. * Solar Insight System enables transitioning from time-based to a condition-based maintenance program. The life-cycle value will increase and life-cycle costs will decrease.
Caterpillar successfully competed on a global scale, since it achieved global revenues of more than $42.5 billion with $13.4 billion coming from exported products. References: http://fisher.osu.edu/supplements/10/9161/Stock%20Report%20Caterpillar%20-%20Wade%20Guzdanski.pdf http://www.peoriamagazines.com/ibi/2009/feb/competing-global-economy

https://danielsethics.mgt.unm.edu/pdf/Caterpillar%20Case.pdf

http://www.thestreet.com/story/12995658/1/caterpillar-faces-challenges-at-home-and-abroad-next-year.html http://www.caterpillar.com/en/company/innovation/customer-solutions/technology/creating-customer-solutions.html