Strategy of John Deere?

PSU04 · Mar 19, 2005

Hello everyone,

I'm a college student working on a Management research project on John Deere, and I'm having a difficult time finding out about the company's strategy. I've checked their webpage (and Google) inside out and could only find one little blurb. If anyone could share some insight with me, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

JimMorrissey · Mar 19, 2005

PSU,

Companies like JD and Kubota are extremely tight with the info. My dealer went to the Kubota show this spring to see new models and order for the season and the security was tight as a drum. He said his credentials were checked on a regular basis and there was security all over the place (inside and outside the GA campus). He likened it to some kind of military stronghold. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif I would imagine JD is the same way about their R&D and future product development information.

If I were you, I would call JD directly. Try to get somebody's name in marketing and see what you can pull out of them......make some calls. Asking here is good too, but you'll likely find that the JD fanatics and occasional dealer on TBN doesn't know much about the real "strategy" and future growth plans. You're talking about serious stuff that helps to drive stock prices. At least that's the kind of information I think you are talking about /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Shadow_River · Mar 19, 2005

Read this, might give you some idea's.

http://www.deere.com/en_US/compinfo/speeches/2004/040303_devries.html

azzxx

JD 5520 Cab MFWD, JD 2040 & MF 265

Shadow_River · Mar 19, 2005

Here is some additional reading. Perhaps there is some interesting info here. Best of luck.

http://www.theadvisoryteam.com/book_sample_chapter.htm

azzxx

JD 5520 Cab MFWD, JD 2042 & MF 265

beenthere · Mar 19, 2005

Your instructor should be filling you in on what, and how, to go about obtaining 'strategy', IMO. Obviously their strategy would be surviving, making a profit, and staying strong in the market place. If you are interpreting your assignment to be looking here for Deere's strategy, I think you are being misled. It won't happen. But there are some good suggestions given, to learn a bit about Deere. Contacting Deere would be the best suggestion, in my opinion. I use to write papers about Deere often, and found that there were many willing top managers interested in feeding me information. It may be contained in some of the press releases on their website too.

I would think the 'strategy' of most companies would be much the same. How to achieve the goals might be a bit different, but looking at Deere from the outside won't get you much information.

Could you tell us what the 'purpose' of the project is that you are working on? That might help, although anyone outside of Deere will have a only an opinion (including me).

Good luck.

PSU04 · Mar 19, 2005

Thank you all for your help. I really appreciate it, and the second link azzxx provided in particular will be a great help to my group and I.

( Your instructor should be filling you in on what, and how, to go about obtaining 'strategy', IMO. )

Ha, my professor hasn't taught us anything about this and said he won't take any questions because "in the workplace you won't be able to go crying to your boss every time you have a challenging and overwhelming assignment." /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

( Could you tell us what the 'purpose' of the project is that you are working on? That might help, although anyone outside of Deere will have a only an opinion (including me). )

Basically, our report is really on Blount International which competes with John Deere in some sectors. We have to analyze Blount inside out, including all of its competitors.

Jim_Fisher · Mar 20, 2005

PSU04,

Here is a link, that _Rat_ posted on another thread, which may be helpful.

Deere Book.

Hopefully, you can find it at the library.

tomrscott · Mar 21, 2005

Have you ordered a copy of their annual report?

There should be an "investor relations" link someplace on their web site, or you can just call the main corp phone number and request a copy. That will have the stuff that is publicly available. In addition to the numbers which you may or may not understand, there will be a fair amount of stuff like "Letter from the Chairman", etc.

Good Luck...

Panache · Mar 22, 2005

Not bad for a couple of yahoos from Alabama. They were a strong company when they were here. I applied to work there in the IT department. Was told we have no turnover, the new guy has been here 15 years. That says alot.

Mark4510 · Mar 23, 2005

I think Tom is on track here.
Get a copy of all of thier annual reports and read through them. If you can get to the point where you have a limited number of detailed question there is a chance you might get someone in the PR department to answer them for you.

If you can talk them into sharing thier mission statement you will be well on your way. If you are comparing various companies then you may want to compare those specific points where they compete rather than asking a general questions.

If you can narrow it down to those specific areas you might have better luck talking with Product managers. Some of those folks have been on RFDTV. If you read between the lines of thier comments you can also learn a lot there.

Best of luck and keep digging.
Mark