Building Leaders Through the Pursuit for Challenge

A continued focus on employee development is a critical component to a career journey with Caterpillar. Members of Team Caterpillar are supported and encouraged to take on challenges to grow and develop their skillset

Employees are placed in the driver’s seat of their career through regular development conversations and opportunities for stretch assignments as standard practice. Employees are encouraged to try, fail, learn and repeat, presenting challenges that often lead to new insights. For factory manager, Lakshmi Umapathy, the challenge is where the fun happens. “Always take on the challenge. My uniqueness is a love for challenges. I believe that everything is possible,” Lakshmi says. In her role, she works hard to develop this philosophy within those she works with- especially her fellow female counterparts.

Lakshmi’s engineering experience spans over two decades, with many of those years spent at Caterpillar. She started as a mechanical engineer and worked her way up to a manager level when she decided to pursue an opportunity with another company. Why did she leave? According to Lakshmi, “I wanted the challenge of learning a new company, which required me to learn a new language and culture, while pushing myself to diversify my experiences through exposure to a different side of the industry that I knew would benefit my future.” When an opportunity to rejoin Caterpillar as a factory manager arose, Lakshmi jumped on it. “Caterpillar is in my heart. I love working with the team and there is always an opportunity to learn new things. Leaving as a group manager, building my work experiences and returning as factory manager is a great example of that growth potential.”

Through her pursuit of challenges, Lakshmi has a passion for developing leaders.  Lakshmi enjoys the sense of accomplishment she feels when she mentors her team, especially women, to take risks and become leaders. As she helps build a diverse talent pipeline, she is impacting the future of the enterprise.

The choice to actively build others up to help strengthen the enterprise is what sets Team Caterpillar leaders apart from the rest.  Are you up for the challenge? Search and apply today.