Industry:  Manufacturing  >  John Deere

• John Deere, tractor manufacturing and maintenance
• 120 employees attended the program

• John Deere enjoyed a monopoly position and aggressive competition, mainly price discounting, was about to enter the market.
• They made the strategic decision that they did not want to become entangled in the inevitable price war resulting from the entrance of competitors. They decided to compete on the basis of high service.
• Their challenge was to shift the culture of the organization from a monopoly culture to a high service organization, and they needed to do this without impacting their margins.
• In addition, John Deere implemented a personal earnings scheme linked to business performance. However their staff did not understand what was happening or why they should change. Team Business was chosen as the vehicle for this change.

• John Deere had set it's strategy to deal with incoming competitors and they had put into place an incentive program that they believed would change the behaviors of their staff - they had the operational intent - but in reality, the staff had not comprehended what was happening.
• Team Business was implemented over 12 months and to 120 people with the goal of helping the employees to understand what was happening to their industry, the risks of not doing anything and the unrealized opportunity available if they could achieve their strategy of being a high service organization.

John Deere personnel were trained as facilitators to implement Team Business

• Competition did in fact enter the market very aggressively and John Deere, despite increased competition, was able to increase their market share without impacting their margins.