SUBMITTED BY: MUHAMMAD BILAL SHAHID 01-211082-081 Bba-8(e)

INDUSTRIAL MARKETING ABB AND CATERPILLAR CASE The case involves two companies; ABB and Caterpillar. ABB is a swiss-swedish engineering group. It is a world leader in power and automation technologies and provides services to both utility and industrial customers. It is a huge firm with a 20 billion Dollar revenue. It has five business di.visions: 1. Power Products. ( includes Turbo chargers; ABB were leaders in 500KW plus diesel engine turbo Chargers) 2. Power System. 3. Automation Products. 4. Robotics. 5. Process Automation. Caterpillar is the world leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines and industrial turbines. It has a revenue of $36.3 billion. It has three segments: 1. Machinery. 2. Engines. 3. Financial products. Case starts with a meeting in December between caterpillar executives and ABBs executives. Dan ahern was ABBs newly appointed group account manager for Caterpillar. Dan Murphy (vp global puraching, CAT) finished the alliance between the two companies in the meeting. REASON FOR CONFLICT BETWEEN THE TWO COMPANIES: 1. Caterpillars feeling that ABB were holding them hostage. (Kiel plant) 2. Pauls wrong perception when he talked to the ABBs representative. 3. Caterpillars inability to understand ABBs group account managers duties.

SUBMITTED BY: MUHAMMAD BILAL SHAHID 01-211082-081 Bba-8(e)

4. Issue was in Kiel plant and Dan went to the Baden plant to prepare for the December meeting. After the meeting scenario: Dan went to the Kiel plant and met Paul who was on the verge of changing the suppliers. Dan met Paul and both developed relevance with each other and both were going along really well. ABBs higher executives were still unable to understand how important Dan was to them and were ready to put him aside from the Turbochargers to some other product lines. Dan knew his importance and he sent a mail to the executives to let them know about it and also that he is the Group account manager and it is his responsibility to be in the centre of the talks between both companies. SUGGESTIONS: ABBs higher executive although brought in the GAM concept but still they themselves dont really know the duties and responsibilities of the group account manager. In addition to that, ABB should also disseminate the duties and responsibilities of a GAM to its clients so that they would be of more help in gaining right data for ABB. The companys representative should have a strong and clear sales pitch or he should have a clear meaning while dealing with his clients. If not properly delivered, the other person can wrongly perceive it and it may lead to problems like in this case.