Ken Gray from Caterpillar gave a very interesting presentation about how CAT has positioned itself as a truly global company. Ken is a global product manager for some of the heavy mobile equipment produced by CAT.
He spoke of how Caterpillar has worked very carefully to make their global manufacturing and distribution work with the current global environment. A couple of my key take aways from the presentation are "A good strategy tells a company what to do and a great strategy tells a company what not to do, and Simplify price, simplify supply chain, and simplify ordering process.
This advice is given as an example of how globalization works with a very large manufacturer but the principals can be applied to manufacturers of any size. It is critical to be aware of various market conditions and demands and be prepared to meet those demands. This was a very good and practical example of the globalization and dealing with multiple markets themes presented by the previous speakers.
