Case Study Caterpillar

In order to understand the successes and shortfalls of Caterpillar, we will need to examine their leadership. Pepe Brousset’s vision that helped change the structural inertia of the firm segueing towards a more service oriented business model. Which was essential from the perspective of having a top-down buy in from the organization’s leadership. From the corporation level to the customer level, Caterpillar took a customer service approach at all levels within their hierarchy. In order to leverage a competitive advantage the firm used valuable, rare, non-substitutable and inimitable resources that can be considered intangible such as product knowledge, responsiveness, relationship assurance, reliability, and increased emotional intelligence. We will look at Shortfalls with Gap 1, Customer Expectations, Establishing Standards in order to narrow Gap 2 through the creation of CSA’s How this business models implementation of CSA enabled Caterpillar to explain the intangibles, such as knowledge and technical expertise for capturing more of the South American market. …show more content…
Caterpillar technicians were not fully knowledgeable on company communications with the customer when they performed a service for the customer the technician would not express any additional maintenance actions that they thought to be necessary as preventative measures (Zeithaml, Bitner, & Gremler, 2013 p