Leveraging Cultural Connections to Enhance Business at Caterpillar

September 21, 2021

The Caterpillar Latino Connection (CLC) employee resource group was formed more than 15 years ago with a focus on building a community for Latin employees. Today, the group has more than 1,200 members of all ethnicities, as well as allies, in 22 chapters around the world and serves as a platform to add value to the enterprise through understanding Latin/Hispanic culture. To do this, CLC provides cultural trainings as well as language classes and interpretation services for employees and dealers to enhance connection and communication with our global customer base.

“The CLC is a perfect example of the strength and diversity of the Latin/Hispanic communities. We are passionate professionals who impact Caterpillar’s success by leveraging our unique skills. We work to continuously attract, develop and retain Latin/Hispanic talent.  We know the languages, our business and Latin and Hispanic cultures, all of which are of extreme value for Caterpillar’s global excellence,” says CLC Spanish Chair Carolina Morales Lopez.

While their origins focus on the Latin/Hispanic community, CLC realizes the importance of representation of all cultures and backgrounds at all levels of the enterprise. To drive increased representation, CLC members helped develop the program Building Diversity Corporate Achievers, designed to support the career growth of ethnic minorities. “A study found that senior leader roles typically see lower ethnic diversity. This program pairs employees from ethnic minorities with a senior leader who connects them to high visibility projects where they can shine. The senior leader then continues to support them to keep their career growing to increase cultural diversity in leadership roles,” said Program Chair Ximena Bontero Cravens.

In celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month, we recognize the contributions of our Latin/Hispanic employees, as well as the diversity within their community. “Latino is a potpourri of wonderful cultures from multiple countries united by beautiful languages and geography,” says Carolina. “We are Peruvian, Spaniard, Mexican, Dominican, Colombian, and American to name a few. We are doctors, lawyers, gardeners, engineers, and servers. We come in the darkest black and the fairest white and all the shades in between. We are diverse and proud.”