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(gentle music)
(tractor engine rumbling)
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(gentle music continues)
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Hi, I'm Jonathan Van Wyck,
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a managing director and partner with BCG.
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I'm here with Matt Percy,
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vice president of business transformation at John Deere.
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Matt, thanks for being here today.
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I'm excited to talk to you
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about the smart industrial strategy
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that John Deere is embarking on,
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and specifically Solutions as a Service.
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For nearly 200 years,
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customers have been at the core of everything that we do,
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and we see Solutions as a Service
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as a way to generate more value for customers
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and more value for the world.
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Our ambition is to see Solutions as a Service
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and recurring revenue become
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around 10% of our revenues by 2030.
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Farming, construction, forestry are all going
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through a huge shift.
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We're starting to see machines become more precise,
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more powered by software,
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and in the process of that, being better able
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to significantly increase value for our customers.
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We have a product called See & Spray,
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which we can tell the difference
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between a crop and a weed in real time,
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apply herbicide to the weed, but not to the crop,
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which is great for a couple of reasons.
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One, it means you're using less herbicide as a farmer,
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which means you're saving money.
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Your job becomes easier and more profitable.
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Second thing, you're greatly reducing
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the amount of chemicals that are ending up
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in the soil and in the water and on our food,
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which is always beneficial.
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You joined Deere from a tech background,
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and I'm sure there's pretty significant differences
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in the history there
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and the journey that they've been on from Deere,
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but also maybe some similarities.
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Can you talk to me about just some observations
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from your background in tech as you've joined John Deere?
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One thing that you learn
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a lot in tech and particularly
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as you're building subscriptions and services,
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is the importance of being relentlessly focused
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on customer value,
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sort of like extreme customer centricity.
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And what's kind of wild about Deere is for nearly 200 years,
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customer centricity has been
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at the core of almost everything that we do.
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I think some of the differences
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are just like the sheer amount of infrastructure
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that you have to build
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to go undertake technological solutions like this.
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And that's sort of new for the company
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in terms of the scale of it.
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So when we think about the e-commerce infrastructure,
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the licensing infrastructure
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that you need to deliver subscriptions,
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the investment that you need to make in customer success
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to make sure customers are able to realize
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the value of the products that we're selling,
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that's all new,
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and it's a fun thing to get to build along the way.
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Let's talk about one part of your business,
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the farmer as a customer.
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What are some of the unique challenges and opportunities
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about bringing solutions
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to this type of customer?
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Yeah, I think that the key
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with any type of customer, and farmers in particular,
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is you always want to be focused on impact and value.
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Unlike in other industries,
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you've got these such short windows, right?
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So at harvest, you get a couple of weeks
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to make sure that all of your crops are harvested.
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You know, for us, just making sure
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that our products are reliable,
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the software works that's governing them,
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and, basically, when something goes wrong,
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we're able to quickly fix it so that you don't miss a beat.
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And they should be able to choose
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whether they want to be able to use it
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or whether they want to turn it off.
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We also want them to be able
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to get more value out of their equipment, right?
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So we're very focused
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on building out an upgrades business
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that allows our new technology
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to be mounted to existing sprayers or equipment
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that farmers have so that they can enjoy
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the benefits of autonomy and automation
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and our Sense & Act technologies.
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And the last piece is just really
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the relentless focus
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on getting better over time,
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which means you've got to be looking
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at how your products are working,
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you've got to be actively seeking out feedback,
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and really pushing yourself to make things better.
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What makes you excited for the future with John Deere?
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It's amazing to work on products that create a lot of value,
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but it's even more wild to be able to do that
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and make the world a better place.
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The fact that we have
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incredible machines
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that are powered by amazing software
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that can tell the difference
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between a crop and a weed,
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or nurture each plant individually
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to create more savings for customers
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and higher yields and more value for the world, ultimately,
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that's just like a crazily awesome product opportunity.
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And it's pretty inspiring
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to have the chance to work on every day.
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What you get to work on is making
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the world a more sustainable place for future generations.
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And in addition to creating
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a lot of shareholder value,
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we're a U.S. company that's nearly 200 years old doing this,
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you know, in one of these spaces
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that's so critical to the world.
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When you think about our food supply
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and our growing population over the next 30 years,
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it's awesome to be able to be a part of that.
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(gentle music)