By: Whitney Barnes, Director of Communications and Advocacy, Illinois Chamber of Commerce
In 1905, Benjamin Holt was showing a photographer his invention – a tractor on a set of rolling tracks instead of wheels – when the man exclaimed “If that don’t look like a monster caterpillar.” The machine, and the name, stuck. The equipment would become the first commercially successful track-type tractor – today’s dozer. Twenty years later, the Holt Manufacturing Company and another businessman, CL Best, joined their companies to form what is known today as Caterpillar Inc. Since its formation 95 years ago, Caterpillar has been helping its customers build a better world – making sustainable progress possible and driving positive change on every continent.
The company is the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives. It has a product line that has grown to include more than 300 products for use in construction, mining, agriculture, forestry, and power generation. Currently, more than four million Cat products are at work around the world.
A Focus on Corporate Social Responsibility
This spring the Caterpillar Foundation committed $10 million to directly support global COVID-19 response activities and help impacted organizations. Here in Illinois, the Foundation was a founding donor of the Illinois COVID-19 Response Fund and has contributed more than $1 million to organizations providing support across the state.
Always looking to partner with employees, the Foundation’s $10 million commitment included a limited time two-to-one match cap of $2.5 million, resulting in a total contribution of $3.9 million including employee and retiree donations. Of that total, $2.5 million will stay here in Illinois.
“We are here to help build a better world, which starts with taking care of our own communities first,” Victoria Morrissey, Global Marketing & Brand Director at Caterpillar said. “I can’t think of anything that has a greater purpose than making the world a better place.”
Customers Always Come First
In addition to helping communities during these unprecedented times, Morrissey said the company remains focused on listening very carefully to their customers to help them with their needs as businesses navigate the global health and financial crises.
Like their customers, Caterpillar employees have also continued to work during the pandemic, but have found new, innovative ways to serve customers. For instance, the company is offering industry group training demonstrations virtually for the first time.
“Being virtual allows us greater efficiency,” Morrissey said. “We can build faster, learn faster and evolve faster.”
The challenges have given Caterpillar the opportunity to get creative in how it provides service to its customers by listening to their wants and needs.
“We don’t just say we put our customers first, we actually do,” Morrissey said. “I tell my team every day – you aren’t just doing a job, you’re serving the people who change the world, and the world needs help now more than ever.”
This pandemic has allowed people to embrace new technologies, channels and ways of thinking.
“We all found ourselves in the same boat regardless of what we do,” Morrissey. “We have had to pivot and adjust to help each other so we can come out of this better, stronger and more effective for our customers.”
Morrissey hopes this time has spurred product innovation and created new habits that will improve Caterpillar as a whole to build a better future for the company, its partners and the world.
“Over the last 95 years, Caterpillar has faced many challenges head on and figured out a way to come out stronger on the other side,” said Morrissey. “Caterpillar has always innovated new products and services our customers need to be successful.”
95 Stories for Good
The challenges of a global pandemic encouraged Caterpillar to turn its traditional 95-year celebration into a testament about its customers, employees and partners with a new initiative called ‘95 Stories for Good’.
“If you think about all the challenges we faced in the world over the last 95 years, Caterpillar has always risen by putting its customers first and recognizing their work and impact,” said Morrissey. “Ninety-five years quickly became a platform to tell those stories.”
When the initiative was first announced, Caterpillar received an overwhelming response from people and groups wanting to get involved and celebrate the accomplishments of customers, dealers and employees.Some of the highlights include how the company’s customers are assisting during the COVID-19 pandemic, including powering COVID-19 testing sites and hospitals.
“We are celebrating the doers – the people who go to work every day to help their communities,” Morrissey said. “This celebration is really a testament to those who are building a better world.”
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