We continue with the history of John Deere in our Equipment Highlight. Eight indiviudals have been the leader of John Deere, with only the last few not members of the lineage. These are the men who have shaped the company.
John Deere
Charles Deere
William Butterworth
Charles Deere Wiman
William Hewitt
Robert Hanson
Hans Becherer
Robert W. Lane
Charles Deere, the second son of John Deere, wasn’t expected to lead the company his father founded. After all, it was his older brother Francis Albert who was considered to be the heir apparent and sent away for schooling to learn bookkeeping. However, when Francis Albert died suddenly in 1848 at the age of 18, it fell to Charles to learn the ropes of the family business.
Charles Deere
President
1886-1907
In 1854, newly graduated from Bell’s Commercial College in Chicago and only 16 years old, Charles joined his father’s company as a bookkeeper. He proved to be a quick learner in the world of business – quite a transformation for a young man who, as a youngster, had been an indifferent student at best.
Charles quickly advanced to the marketing side of the business. As head salesman, in charge of dealers and salesmen, he often took to the road to introduce plows to potential customers in new territories. He reveled in demonstrating the equipment himself, hitching horses to plows and carving furrows in the soil
The first several years with his father’s company were good ones for Charles. Then, in 1857, the financial climate in the United States changed. The “Panic of 1857” proved to be the undoing of many businessmen. John Deere was almost one of them because of cash flow problems and substantial bills for raw material.
As a result, management of the company was transferred to 21-year-old Charles, in large part because of his shrewd business sense. While his father remained as president of the company until his death in 1886, it was Charles who would guide it for the next 46 years.
In 1869, eager to see the company grow, Charles established its first branch house – a forerunner of today’s sales branch – in Kansas City. Four more branch houses, in St. Louis, Minneapolis, Council Bluffs/Omaha and San Francisco, were established by 1889.
The branch houses provided valuable information from the field that influenced new product development. As a result, by the time of Charles Deere’s death in 1907, the company was making more than 300 models of plows (including the famous Gilpin sulky plow), some 164 cultivators, a variety of corn and cotton planters, and other implements.
Charles Deere’s legacy was the transformation of the company founded by his father from a regional plow manufacturer into one of the country’s major implement makers.
While there have been a handful of leaders the strentgth of leadership continues with today with
Samuel R. Allen
Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer
Deere & Company
Sam Allen is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Deere & Company, a position he’s held since February 2010.
Allen was named President and Chief Executive Officer in August 2009. He was appointed President and Chief Operating Officer of the company and a member of the Deere & Company Board of Directors in June 2009. Previously, he served as President, Worldwide Construction & Forestry Division and was responsible for the global operations of John Deere Power Systems. He was also responsible for Deere’s intelligent mobile equipment technologies and for Deere’s advanced technology and engineering. He has served as a senior officer of the company since 2001, with additional responsibilities in human resources, industrial relations, and John Deere Credit’s global operations.
Since joining John Deere in 1975, Allen had worked in positions of increasing responsibility in the Consumer Products Division, Worldwide Construction & Forestry Division, John Deere Power Systems, and the Worldwide Agricultural Division including managing operations in Latin America, China & East Asia, and Australia.
In addition, Allen also serves as Chairman of the Council on Competitiveness as of January 2010. He was appointed to Whirlpool Corporation’s board of directors in June 2010. He is a 1975 graduate of Purdue University with a bachelor’s degree in industrial management. He is a native of Sumter, South Carolina.
For more information on all the legacy leadership follow this link.
http://www.deere.com/wps/dcom/en_US/corporate/our_company/about_us/history/past_leaders/past_leaders.page?%0A%09%09%20%09
For the leadership today and tomorrow look here.
http://www.deere.com/wps/dcom/en_US/corporate/our_company/about_us/leadership/leadership.page?%0A%09%09%20%09
These are the men that built “green” to what it is today.
