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Sure felt like family

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By TImes staff | Saturday, March 01, 2008 |

Deere & Co. is a high-performance team. Look at the ledger. The company is on its way to a fifth consecutive year of earnings records. Quarterly dividends are up 127 percent over the past four years.

Company CEO Bob Lane won resounding support from shareholders at Wednesday’s annual meeting in Moline. They re-elected all board members, affirming the company’s direction under his leadership.

Lane left no doubt for the reason. In comments Wednesday, and speeches in 2007, he described his company as a high performance team and specifically not a family.

“We do not consider ourselves a family,” he said Wednesday. “It is not a compliment to call the John Deere high performance team a family.’’

“If you are not pulling your weight on a high-performance team, you are out of the team.”

The words stung some retirees in attendance and seemed uncharacteristic, especially in a community where Deere’s generosity is apparent everywhere. Three Deere family homes are revered as historic treasures. The legend and legacy of Deere is celebrated in the heart of downtown Moline at the Pavilion and Collector’s Center that pay homage to the family name. The Commons named for the Deere family draws thousands of visitors, including many who have made Deere products a part of their own families for generations. Those wearing Deere green, collecting Deere miniatures and full-sized Deere antiques seem less inspired by the company’s stellar bottom line than the family legacy. The love of all things Deere transcends generations of employees and customers.

So we’re not so sure “family” and “team” are incompatible.

Families nurture, just like Deere has generously nurtured the Quad-Cities’ museums, downtowns, schools and social service agencies. Deere employees demonstrate that nurturing commitment to our community every day. And it’s no happy coincidence. That always has been a part of Deere, spelled out this way in Deere Foundation’s 2008 credo on global philanthropy:

“The company encourages its employees around the world to contribute their time and talents in helping to improve the conditions of their communities. Such volunteerism is considered an integral part of employment with John Deere, and the company’s support of such efforts is seen by employees as a benefit.”

We thank Deere for making this nurturing form of service an “integral part of employment” for members of their high-performance teams.