Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/56529
You've expressed that you don't feel the U.S. government has been quick enough in distributing its $787 billion stimulus package. Do you think the stimulus bill will help your U.S. sales? Of that bill, about $70 billion was for hard infrastructure— repairing and building roads, bridges, rail corridors, and fast- rail service. That's only 6.5 percent of last year's spending on construction in the United States. Only in the last few weeks has that stimulus money actually begun to hit the bricks, if you will. Workers are just now beginning to dig the holes. Even so, construction has been falling faster than that 6.5 percent will offset in the United States. What do you think is the best solution? We need to invest in our future through a focus on rebuilding our nation's crumbling infrastructure and creating tangible and sustainable jobs. To that end, we recently asked our dealers to identify the five major infra- structure projects in their states or areas that could be started within the next year—and that would improve the economic efficiency of our country. Because the U.S. housing market is so depressed, we have 18 or 19 per- cent unemployment in the construction sector. We could invest in infrastructure, without creating inflation, and in the process create a lot of jobs. The beauty of infrastructure investment is that it's capi- tal investment. You end up with a capital asset that lasts for ten or 15 years. Plus, this investment creates jobs, but it's not a permanent expense. I'm afraid a lot of govern- ment programs that the stimulus is now supporting will be with us for a long time, creating a deficit problem. Earlier you mentioned the issues of climate change and energy. Caterpillar is working to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent and increase its use of alternative or renewable resources by 20 percent. Business scholars are debating the business case for sustainability. How do you believe the costs of Caterpillar's sustainable goals weigh against the benefits? We realize that sustainability begins within our own operations, so we've established high performance goals for our facilities. We've had to evaluate our own opera- tions, as well as those of our customers, so we could set sustainability targets for our products and services. Establishing these goals is important not just for our growth, but for our desire to contribute to a society in which people's basic needs are met in ways that also sustain the environment. You also mentioned Caterpillar's global operations, which must require many of your employees to navigate different cultures, business styles, and governmental requirements. How do you help them face those challenges? When we go to a new country, we take steps to develop a cultural sensitivity to that business climate and on-the- ground presence. We work with the U.S. embassy and the American Chambers of Commerce. We also work with independent dealers, owned by local nationals, who do the direct marketing and selling. We also hire local nationals to work on governmental affairs in every major country where we have an investment presence—these people become an integral part of our global team. About half of our employees are outside the U.S. We probably have 3,000 to 4,000 employees who transfer from their home countries to other countries. We have 700 or 800 Americans in Europe, and we have 700 or 800 Euro- peans in the United States. In Asia, we're more in a startup mode, so we have about 1,500 Americans working there and 500 Asians working in America. If you're going to run a great global company, you must have this cross-pollination of people whom you embed in your culture. It helps them 26 BizEd SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2009 FRITZ HOFFMANN/CORBIS