Caterpillar: A Strategic Analysis Essay. Management Assignment.

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Caterpillar: A Strategic Analysis
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Caterpillar: A Strategic Analysis
1. Strategic Effectiveness
Caterpillar is a Fortune 500 company. This designation is not simply assigned as a matter of course nor for mere promotional activities and image enhancement presence. Instead, Caterpillar has earned a reputation for quality, operational excellence and extensive market presence. Given company's current corporate strategy, Caterpillar aims to maximize profitable growth by “investing in areas with the most potential to create value” (“Caterpillar strategy,” n.d). This corporate strategy of profitable growth and investment in areas of most potential to create value is, moreover, informed by a set of overarching values including: (i) Integrity, (ii) Excellence, (iii) Teamwork, (iv) Commitment, and (v) Sustainability (“Caterpillar strategy”). Expanding services and offerings to people/community, partners and customers, Caterpillar ensures company's products and services are diversified and of optimum, custom value for each and every different set of engaged stakeholders. Understandably, Caterpillar is most recognized as a “heavy duty” and machinery company worldwide. In an increasingly rapidly changing world of data analytics and micro solutions, Caterpillar seems to be on a right path of ensure company's strategic effectiveness. Specifically, Caterpillar, increasingly aware of growing competition and changing market dynamics and requirements, is investing more in innovations and leading-edge solutions, engaging more and more stakeholders to maximize insights and deliverables and, critically, making minority interest investments in early-round ventures (“Innovation,” n.d.).
2. Organizational Structure
Typically, Fortune 500 companies follow a fairly common organizational structure at senior and lower levels. At leadership level, global companies usually have a number of key
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executive officers running company's day-to-day operational and business activities as well as making strategic choices, if and when required. The middle and lower levels of organization are, however, more diverse and are effectively what define any given company's corporate culture. The organization structure at Caterpillar follows a similar model. To ensure proper and competent corporate governance, Caterpillar's organizational structure includes key executive officers and a board of directors whose work is supported by an established code of conduct, committees and charters as well as corporate governance documents (“Governance,” n.d.). The executive officers are made up of seven officers in key strategic management areas including, for instance, finance, human resources, in addition to a group presidents. There are, moreover, 25 vice presidents in areas parallel to strategic management areas of executive officers in addition to industry-/initiative-specific areas such as Innovation & Technology, Large Power Systems, Oil & Gas and Marine and Electric Power (“Officers,” n.d.).Just as common, a Board of Directors is part of Caterpil...