A Day in the Life of Caterpillar’s Chairman & CEO

One of the things that I’ve been pleased with is the willingness of our customers to spend time virtually as well. I mean, typically part of my job is to fly around the world, and here was one of our largest customers that wanted to do that virtually. But in this environment, it just seemed very natural because we’ve all gotten used to doing business in this way.

I think it’s a mixed bag. I think there’s an advantage in terms of productivity and being able to meet with people with all over the world in a very short period of time without travel.

I think it’s easier for existing relationships, if we have an existing relationship with a customer, a dealer, or an employee. If it’s a new relationship, and maybe I’m just old-fashioned, but I think for new customers and employees, it is important to come to an office to learn about our culture, to learn about our company, to learn about the way we deal with each other and to reinforce those values. I think face-to-face has advantages. Hopefully, we will be able to take the best of both worlds.

There are cost-saving opportunities. We’re a culture where we fly people around the world and get in a big room and have a conversation. Some of that will still exist, but I think we can replace a lot of those with virtual meetings, especially for internal meetings. I just think that face-to-face is still going to be quite important.

The days are pretty intense. I told one of my daughters it has been kind of like finals week in college but lasting for months.”

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