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Cat's Organizational Structure

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Caterpillar’s Organizational Structure
Caterpillar is a corporation that designs, manufactures and sells diesel and natural gas engines, construction, and mining equipment. Since the year 1905 Caterpillar has been a corporation that has evolved by making significant improvements to its machinery by taking advantage of the available technology, and it has had the ability to adapt to the dynamic changes and demands of the construction industry. Many significant events have occurred in this business to make this company what it is nowadays, a very prestigious and successful company around the world. In the year 1906 in San Francisco California, when one of the most significant earthquakes took place, the company made a remarkable use of its …show more content…

A completely independent Board of Directors conformed by members outside the company (non-employees). The CEO oversees five group presidents. These groups of presidents supervise twenty-five vice presidents who are in control facilities, geographical regions, marketing regions and four service centers (see fig. 3).

Fig. 3. Caterpillar’s Organizational structure. The Official Board. Orgeanizational Chart Caterpillar, April 3, 2012. <http://www.theofficialboard.com/org-chart/caterpillar>.

As we can see in the table, the corporation does not rely heavily in management levels; instead the chain of command is not very tall; which makes very dynamic the flowing of ideas and orders from Directors to line and production managers. This decentralized structure that took place in the early 1900’s was a key strategy to get closer to customers and satisfy more efficiently to their needs.
The actual structure of the company is a clear insicator of how the company evolves constantly with the industy; the leadership understand the importance of being constantly involved with the employees at all levels. In the year 2004, the back then vice president of the company Christioano V Schena; shared an interesting story that demonstrated the effectiveness and results that good management can do for the Company.

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