I’m not real sure how this announcement is a departure from what the company has already been doing. I remember when CaseIH came under the New Holland umbrella and CNH was announced. We joked about seeing purple tractors (red + blue) but instead the brands have remained separate and marketed separately. They’ve even retained separate staffs to do this. So I’m not clear from today’s announcement how this is actually different but I guess we’ll see. I guess that when you see words like “underperforming” and new leadership it at least means that the HR department has been busy.
CNH Global today announced it will reorganize its operations into 4 distinct global brand structures: CaseIH and New Holland agriculture and Case and New Holland construction equipment.
“This represents an aggressive transformation agenda to invigorate our brands, whose heritages and loyal dealer networks are our most powerful asset. We’re convinced that organizing the company around the brands is a strong first step to increase shareholder return,” said CNH President and CEO Harold Boyanovsky. “CNH has been underperforming the industry and the challenge for CNH, as with all Fiat Group companies, is to achieve competitive excellence over the next two years. Realizing our growth plans requires a resolute focus for each of our brands to satisfy even more the differentiated needs of brand dealers and customers.
Four presidents with full profit and loss accountability for their global brands are appointed. Heading the agricultural business are Mario Ferla, CaseIH and Marco Mazzu, New Holland. Heading the construction equipment business are Jim McCullough, Case and Franco Fenoglio, New Holland.
The previous functions of global presidents responsible for the agricultural and construction equipment business are eliminated. Roland Sunden, Ag president since January 2004, has left the company.