John Deere as corporate punching bag

[Clonehomer]

How much of the downturn is a result of the South Korean and Indian manufacturers impacting JD tractor sales?

Very little. More to do with commodity prices. Their market share is still strong. But the entire sector is hurting. John Deere is the focus being an Iowa/Illinois company. But the other manufacturers are feeling similar pains.

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

This is what should continue to make people absolutely enraged. Companies constantly switching back and forth between on-shore and off-shore to find every single dollar they can save. No loyalty to those that have been there and gained vast knowledge. Often get rid of the system or process experts so they never have the right hands on deck when things go wrong. All while the Executive Teams make millions of dollars a year - mostly just sitting in useless meetings all day.

This isn't about politics - this is about pure and utter greed without any sense of worth for those doing the actual work. And let's not forget that teachers make as little as 35K a year while high school coaches can make over a million in Texas. Example 276,987 on why the world is so ****** up and upside down.

Sure and they expect the workers to be loyal. It's a joke.

 

[BCClone]

Especially when Ag & Turf is <40% of their business, and the "huge downturn" in Ag is only compared to the previous few years and primarily due to greedflation by companies the size of Deere.

Wait, the downturn in Ag prices is due to Deere? Huh??……?? You are saying that Deere, CIH and others control commodity prices and the board of trade? I’m interested in this explanation.

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

Unfortunately it seems to be happening on both sides. Companies have not shown loyalty to employees in many ways but have employees become less loyal at the same time? How many people do you know that have switched jobs in less than a years time or have agreed to take a job only to turn it down days before their onboarding because another company got back to them and instead of saying they had taken a job, they listened to the offer and then accepted that one? It seems there is the same amount of loyalty to companies as there is loyalty from companies. Neither one is right and I dislike it.

What reason do employees have to be loyal? Most business don't offer pensions or even insurance anymore. Then they tell you you're replaceable if you don't take their ****.

 

[mramseyISU]

They ripped the bandaid off of Ag engineering pretty quick. Had our meeting on a Monday and I had an email in my inbox by 9AM the next day saying I still had a job. My wife on the other hand has been in limbo since that original email 6 weeks ago or whatever it was. We're sitting here together waiting until the noon deadline passes to see if she's still employed or if I'm going to be her sugar daddy for a while. Deere lost a lot of good people in the last 2 months.

 

[Messi]

Maybe not tweet right now, jd president

 

[mramseyISU]

Maybe not tweet right now, jd president

I'm pretty sure that guy is actually a lizard person.

 

[CysRage]

Only if the pay was so much better that it makes the difference I guess but that's still really volatile.

None of them said pay was the reason they were going back and my employer is a fortune 50 company. They just wanted to work for JD again. It’s not just those 3, I know others who work for JD and they’re all in on JD. It’s like they are brainwashed and ok with being treated like an object who’s only used when needed then discarded.

 

[stuclone]

Maybe not tweet right now, jd president

Not sure I know one employee within Deere that is a fan of him

 

[stuclone]

Deere is moving quickly toward being a tech company. Their guidance and overall tech package is better than anyone else's at this point and you can move their stuff into a lot of other brands.

Everything we've ever owned is green but there's at least a solid chance that won't be the case if we're ever in the market for something simply due to moving things to Mexico and how they operate in general. I will say though, one thing that a lot of people don't get or don't think about is that on the farming side a lot of equipment decisions are driven by service and proximity to service/parts and those things are completely isolated from JD corporate. We happen to have really good shop guys in our area so it's hard to walk away from that.

I don't agree a lot with what Deere is doing right now, but the products moving to Mexico are pretty simple to make and not big profit boosters to Deere. It's similar to automotive moving low cost/low margin cars to be manufactured in Mexico while manufacturing the larger SUVs/higher margin products in the US. The Mexico thing is a bit blown out of proportion in my opinion.

 

[2forISU]

Not sure I know one employee within Deere that is a fan of him

He is not liked, but he has performed and most employees can't argue that. When those bonus checks everything is forgotten till headcount reduction.

 

[JEFF420]

I don't agree a lot with what Deere is doing right now, but the products moving to Mexico are pretty simple to make and not big profit boosters to Deere. It's similar to automotive moving low cost/low margin cars to be manufactured in Mexico while manufacturing the larger SUVs/higher margin products in the US. The Mexico thing is a bit blown out of proportion in my opinion.

i'm sure its a little cheaper to get equipment to south america from Mexico than midwest us

 

[cyclone1209]

The crappy side of capitalism.

It's two sides of a coin.

You have more offshoring (Deere jobs in Mexico) it helps to keep inflation lower and prices lower.

You have more onshoring - that will lead to stickier inflation and higher prices for all.. (but more robust jobs economy)

I don't pretend to know the answers either but there are cons to both angles.

 

[BCClone]

This isn’t just an Ag thing either economy wise. Have a friend whose company does quite a bit of work for JD and Polaris. They have been informed that both companies have slashed orders. They went from 50+ hours a week to 3 weeks of planned shut down this year.

 

[BCClone]

What reason do employees have to be loyal? Most business don't offer pensions or even insurance anymore. Then they tell you you're replaceable if you don't take their ****.

Companies don’t offer insurance to their employees now? Most people I know have their insurance through their employer, is this for the new employees?

 

[mramseyISU]

This isn’t just an Ag thing either economy wise. Have a friend whose company does quite a bit of work for JD and Polaris. They have been informed that both companies have slashed orders. They went from 50+ hours a week to 3 weeks of planned shut down this year.

My wifes uncle works at Polaris. I talked with him a couple days ago and they were told on Monday orders for the motorcycle paint line were down by like 40%.

 

[Turn2]

Wait, the downturn in Ag prices is due to Deere? Huh??……?? You are saying that Deere, CIH and others control commodity prices and the board of trade? I’m interested in this explanation.

Go to the cost side, not the return side. You know better. This year the squeeze is from both ends.

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

Companies don’t offer insurance to their employees now? Most people I know have their insurance through their employer, is this for the new employees?

Try construction out. Large corporations do but there's often lay offs.

 

[Daserop]

Maybe not tweet right now, jd president

How does one define 'economic impact'. Seems like a bull crap stat.

Also, 'investing in U.S. factories' includes anything from updating lavatories to his personal office. Also, 2.5 billion since 2019. Including 2019 to now that's 5.5 years. 2.5 over 5.5 years is ~454 million a year. That isn't a whole lot for a company Deere's size.

 

[FancyRex]

Absolutely. My wife and I actually talked about this a lot the other day. She's the Accounting Director of a local company of probably 300 real estate agents across Iowa and Florida. She has to deal with the new regulations around minimum pay for 40 hr/wk salaried employees, insurance coverage mandates, etc and it certainly makes her job more difficult with those costs going up in a big way.

I reminded her though that it's about the only jump there has been in the past 30 years and if it would have kept up with inflation and the value of the dollar, it's where it should have gotten to naturally. Instead, companies had 30 years of bonkers revenue and now want to raise prices to maintain that massive revenue rather than just making a bit less for a quality of life improvement for their employees.

Again, not trying to be political at all.

We are seeing this in several industries sadly.

It played a huge role in my decision to leave the company I have been at for 6 years.

We started laying people off about a year ago and the trend has continued about every 6 months since then. Good, experienced people laid off. Cheapening our product and undermining our support for customers. And I work in Pharma. Like we don't make enough money /s.