Customer Reviews

The John Deere Way: Performance that Endures

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I'll admit it, I grew up on and around John Deere equipment. As an adult I have become a collector of antique tractors and become a student of this truly historic and great American company. John Deere is also a Client of ours.

So when I received this book as a birthday gift it was a slam dunk - it went near the top of my reading stack. Given all of that, this review doesn't come from my obviously biased point of view - this is a book worth reading.

The book does tell parts of the history of this company, but it isn't a book about products or history. Written by experienced business author David Magee, it is an exploration of the key factors that have led to John Deere to growing and thriving over the last 150+ years.

The chapter titles tip off the business practices and attitudes that have guided the company and serve as the thesis for the book. Selected titles include:

Embrace the Culture
Quality Comes First
Always Maintain Integrity
Build a Business as Great as Your Products
Grow on the Strength of Your Roots

If you are interested in looking for keys that lead companies to be successful over the long haul, you will find some in this book. Written in a very readable style and interspersed with anecdotes and stories from Customers, Senior Managers and 4th generation employees, it deserves to be on your reading list.

Besides, how can any book go wrong when its dedication readsit is dedicated "For the Farmer"?

The John Deere Way is an excellent way to learn about the basics of what make John Deere a legendary organization. From the history to the operational strategies and values, it covers all of the important information needed to understand Deere. It would have been nice, however, if the book was a little less repetitive at times and did not contain glaring vernacular errors such as "you can take the country out of the boy but you can't take the boy out of the country". But overall, an excellent primer on Deere & Co.

This sincerely earnest book is a good example of why corporate biography remains, perhaps, the most problematic business-book genre. While the book is well researched, author David Magee apparently found it hard to avoid the trap of laudatory language about current management. To write a book like this, you need corporate help and access. Most employees won't even talk to an author without a go-ahead from the top. This means that, even without Deere & Company's roots date to 1836, when a blacksmith named John Deere moved from Vermont to the frontier settlement of Grand Detour, Illinois. Deere set up a shop that could provide stout hayforks, horseshoes and wagon parts. He talked with farmers, who complained that it was very difficult to plow the dense Midwestern turf. Plows made in the Northeast didn't work in the rich heavy soil. In 1837, Deere decided to devise a plow that would scrape off the topsoil, turn it over and let it glide off the plow. Even without an explicit quid pro quo, corporate biographies tend to become trapped in a sort of literary Stockholm syndrome, dependent on their sources for their own survival. That cautionary flag raised, this book provides a worthwhile portrait of one of America's stalwart agricultural companies. Deere & Company's values are as plain and honest as the face of a farmer atop his Deere tractor. Although the book would have been more engrossing if it offered pictures and sharper anecdotes, particularly from times when things didn't go well, we recommend it to those interested in agriculture, corporate histories or values-driven management.

In this book David does a great job of showing just how the corporate culture at Deere & Company has developed over time while continuing to rely upon a basic set of core values that began with the company's founder and namesake and have been carried forth since. He traces how the company has continued to stay true to it's roots while struggling to compete in a continuously changing business and agricultural environment.