Page 146 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

CORE VALUE: TEAMWORK
FINDING NEW WAYS TO DO BUSINESS
Every business venture has a profit-to-risk balance point. Good leaders are adept at finding that sweet spot. “Opportunity can come at any time, from any direction,” says Duane Doyle Jr., Peterson’s executive VP and general manager of Earthmoving from 2016-19. “You have to keep your eyes open and be willing to listen.”
A trip to North Carolina and anoth-
er to China planted the seeds that
ultimately yielded one of Peterson’s
most unusual business ventures in
the forestry industry. In May 2011,
both Duane Sr. and Duane Jr. were
at a Caterpillar leadership conference
in North Carolina. While there, they
spent a lot of time sharing ideas and
concerns with the Finning execu-
tive group, based in Vancouver, Brit-
ish Colombia. “Finning had several
challenges going on all at the same
time,” recalls Duane Jr. “Mining was
going crazy, but they were on strike
so they couldn’t get all their pre-de-
liveries done. And their new deal-
er-wide computer system wasn’t working at all. It literally brought their company to a standstill, so they had to rely on other dealers to help them take care of their customers.”
At the same time, Duane Jr., then product support sales manager in Oregon, had been working hard to find business for his empty shop in Portland. During Peterson’s entire first year in the former Halton-Cat territory (2010), one of their largest shops remained completely empty. COO Jeff Goggin kept asking Duane Jr. what he was going to do about it. “I told him we were going to have to look somewhere else because I didn’t think we had the business here locally,” says Duane Jr. But after getting to know the Finning crew and their imme- diate challenges, the lightbulb blinked on. Finning, the largest Caterpillar dealer in the world, and Peterson had the exact opposite problem. The last night of the conference, Duane Jr. put his idea on the table over a beer. “You have a lack of capacity; we have extra. I think we could really help each other out.”
144 | PETERSON: 85 YEARS AND GOING STRONG
Finning 568 log loader with first rear entry cab in Nov 2011