John Deere Case Study

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The Story Behind the Name John Deere
Deere & Company is the legal name but better known as John Deere the brand name. John Deere is an American company based out of Moline, Illinois and is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of agriculture equipment. The world of heavy equipment would not be the same if John Deere did not invent the steel plow and other pieces of equipment that made farming easier.
John Deere was born in Rutland, Vermont on February 7th, 1804. His father left for England in 1808 to get the family inheritance but never came back. John had three brothers and one sister. John wanted to be a blacksmith, so every day after school he stopped to watch the blacksmith work. At age seventeen, he took a 3 year apprenticeship with a very well know blacksmith in town. In 1829 he opened his own shop but not even ten years after he opened his first shop he picked it up and moved to Grand Detour, Illinois in 1837.
He sold his first 3 steel plows in 1838, before the steel plow there were cast iron and wood plows but they were meant for sand and the soil in Illinois stuck to the cast and wood plows but did not stick to the steel plow. The farmers of Illinois we pleased and John Deere’s business began. In 1839 he produced 10 plows, each year he produced more and more plows. In 1843 John partnered with Leonard Andrus to keep up with the demand for the steel plow, but they were both very stubborn people and could not agree on must so by 1848 John moved to Moline, Illinois by himself. The city is on the Mississippi river so his plow could be shipped outside of Illinois and used water power. He began importing steel from Britain and contracted with Pittsburgh manufacture to produce compatible steel plates. By 1855 John...

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...dvertises snowmobiles. In 1980 A 4-row cotton picker, an industry first, is introduced. Field tests indicate it will increase an operator's productivity by 85 to 95 percent. In 1999 Deere acquires Timberjack, a world-leading producer of forestry equipment. A new tractor plant is opened near Pune, India. In 2011 Deere is listed among the 50 most-admired companies by Fortune magazine and ranked as one of the 100 best global brands by a leading brand-consulting firm.
Therefore you can see that the heavy equipment industry would not be the same if John Deere did not invent the steel plow because that would not of pushed his son to want to take over the family business. Then be passed through the family which created competition for other big companies including Case IH. This caused better equipment because they always wanted to be better than their competitor.

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