John Deere and CSR
Comments (1) We will have Samuel R. Allen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of John Deere at the Poole College of Management on Wednesday, February 1 at 4:30 PM as a part of the Wells Fargo Executive Lecture Series. Allen will be speaking on the topic: A Strategy to Help Feed the World
As you may know John Deere is based in Moline, Illinois and is the leading manufacturer of agricultural machinery in the world. In 2010 it was listed as 107th in the Fortune 500 ranking and employees over 50,000. Products solder under the John Deere name include tractors, combine harvesters, cotton harvesters, baler, planters/seeders, sprayers and ATVs. The company is also a leading manufacturer in construction equipment and forestry equipment. Clearly John Deere is committed to selling its products which no doubt contribute in improving world food situation.
Since many of you are interested in social venturing, it might be a good idea to see what an established company like John Deere is doing to co-align business and corporate goals. That got me thinking, how does a company doing business that aligns well with social goals benefit or suffer from public perceptions? Should it reinvent and re-brand itself? Should it globalize and change its strategy aligned for very large privately owned farms and see how it can work with much smaller land holdings and ill developed infrastructure? Interesting times ahead. Check out what their CEO is saying
http://www.deere.com/wps/dcom/en_US/corporate/our_company/news_and_media/speeches/2011may10_allen.page
