Page 463 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong
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    Three generations playing ‘tractor’: Duane Sr., Duane Jr., and Jr’s son, Kellan.
Cross-training high potentials is a big part of Duane Jr.’s strategy—and something relatively new to Peterson. In past generations, people moved up within their own departments and didn’t stray too far from their area of expertise. An enterprising mechanic, for example, might become a foreman, then dispatcher, service manager, general service manager and finally VP of product support. That same trajectory happened in parts, sales, account- ing and across the company. But it’s not a straight line anymore. That was yesterday. Now Duane Jr. is cross-training people for more diversity of knowl- edge and experience, and more options to cover for attrition and retirements down the line.
Mark Ehni, VP of parts operations, is one of a handful of Peterson employees who moved around the organization over his 39-year career. “I was very fortunate. Jeff Goggin and I were the excep- tions in our era. Cross-functional training helps strengthen an organization because it provides a solid understanding of the business. If you were in product support and now you’re in prime product sales, or vice versa, that’s where you’re really get- ting the diversity of experience and thought that strengthens a leadership team.”
Peterson’s exponential growth over the last decade has driven the need for top management to under- stand the full scope of its many different facets. To that end, in 2019 Duane Jr. took a product sup- port manager in California and moved him into prime product sales management in Oregon. He
Duane Jr with Kirk Miller and Duane Sr. in Hillsboro in June 2020
transferred an Oregon-based, regional product support manager into used equipment manage- ment in California. And that template is being used across Peterson, which ultimately will yield better, well-informed decisions based on what’s good for the entire company.
SUCCESSION PLANNING
Over the next decade, 60 to 70 percent of Cater- pillar’s US dealers will be transitioning into their next generation. Each successful transition is a big win for Cat who takes great pride in its dealer network. It is one of their greatest strengths. The Cat-dealer partnership, in fact, has no equal in the industry anywhere in the world. And there’s good reason. Caterpillar invests a great deal of time and effort into the succession process. District man- agers spend a third of their time on that alone. “Caterpillar looks at the succession process as a 30-year decision,” says Kirk Miller, Cat’s Seattle
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