1. Identify Caterpillar Inc.s short-term and long-term goals.
From a short-term perspective, Caterpillars goals are associated with increasing its influence within the recently passes infrastructure bill within the United States. Here, the bill calls massive investments throughout America to help improve the countries crippling infrastructure. The bill is particularly profitable for Caterpillar as its competitive advantage is centered around construction and mining, both of which are feature prominently in the upcoming bill. This is also an opportunity for Caterpillar to capture market share from its competitors in the industrial field.
From a long-term perspective, the company is continuing to make inroads within developing countries throughout the world. In particular the company has invested heavily in China to take advantage of the needs of the growing middle class within the region. Just in 2020, the company has opened offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Suzhou and Wuxi. Each of these regions serves a strategic long-term objective for the firm. For example, the company has its parts distribution and remanufacturing facilities in Shanghai. It has its components operations in Tianjin, with its technical centers in Wuxi. According to the companys latest annual report to shareholders, $2.1B was spent on capital expenditures. Of this amount nearly $1B was spent in China alone. Here, the longer-term objective is to be the provider of choice with the Asian-pacific region. This task will be very difficult as Japan and China, both have very dominate operators in the market. In the case of China, these competitors are often subsidized by the
In other countries, there is somewhat of a nationalistic approach to industrial businesses. However, Caterpillar is competing hard in hopes of generating long lasting and sustainable business operations over the long-term.
2. Evaluate how mergers...
…the United States. The company attributes this to the COVID-19 pandemic, uncertainty related to
Brexit, and inflationary fears in
Europe. Likewise its Asian market is experiencing moderate growth due the
expansion in both China and somewhat in Japan. As a result, the
success international is mixed and will be determined longer into the future. From the annual report, its appears the company will continue investing in China, and therefore looks to gain outsized returns due to the rising middle class in the region. Likewise, the company is also looking to open its first office in India by 2023. Through these initiatives, it is like that the
revenue the company derives from international sources will increase in the future. As a result, the success of these operations will be better judged in the future when its investments have ample opportunity to manifest themselves over an economic cycle…
