A LOT OF THINGS about Deere are as outsize as its big green tractors (the largest comes in at 560 horsepower). The company's growth, for instance: After 10 successive quarters of record revenue gains, Deere reported $32.6 billion in sales for 2012, another record. Its ambition is outsize too: It aims to hit $50 billion in revenue by 2018 and has seven new factories in the works. As for its tractors, bigger isn't always better. Some of the company's top-selling models are too large for growers overseas--the soil often isn't as firm, nor are the farms as sprawling as in the U.S. (though that, too, is changing as farmers expand grain production). To sell overseas, the 176-year-old agricultural giant has developed a suite of new equipment to appeal to first-time buyers. In the past two years the company has introduced hundreds of new products--more than ever before in its long history.
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The company he built moves deliberately: It specialized in horse-drawn plows for nearly a century before making the switch to internal combustion; it has seen just nine CEOs in its 176-year history (that's one every 20 years, on average); and its reserved financing division requires big down payments and has few defaults. One result of such stability: devoted customers who covet those iconic ball
The company he built moves deliberately: It specialized in horse-drawn plows for nearly a century before making the switch to internal combustion; it has seen just nine CEOs in its 176-year history (that's one every 20 years, on average); and its reserved financing division requires big down payments and has few defaults. One result of such stability: devoted customers who covet those iconic ball