The Caterpillar Podcast gives you the dirt on Caterpillar, the people and of course the yellow iron. Caterpillar’s Vice President of Large Power Systems Division Tana Utley joins the program to discuss the power of 'and,' energy trends, and inventing on a timetable.
Program guide:
1:08 – Tana’s path to Caterpillar after graduating with her mechanical engineering degree she said, “Frankly, Caterpillar wasn’t on my radar – most of the news was negative and I was looking somewhere else.” Caterpillar made an offer in the recent college graduate trainee program beat out offers for her in aerospace on the West Coast.
2:20 – About Tana’s family and how Tana approached her career at Caterpillar, her father having worked in the company and whose patents are still in use at Caterpillar. “He was a true inventor…he instilled in me the idea to be creative, ingenious and develop new kinds of solutions.” Her dad created the architecture for pipe layers (still in use) and worked on powertrain.
3:50 – Tana – a veteran of over 30 years of engineering experience – almost majored in music in college. Through her engineering internship at an aerospace company early on, Tana found she enjoyed that kind of work. “By my junior year I was very confident in my choice of engineering.”
5:32 – “A lot of jaws dropped when I walked into the training class and I was eight months pregnant.” After Tana’s first child was born, running became one of her primary interests. On running, “it’s like brushing my teeth.” She shares her favorite books and what’s on her reading list currently (SPOILER: includes murder mysteries, big data and more).
7:40 – How fitness and discipline apply to business and leadership. “As we make changes in the business, it’s a big ship to steer…it requires an awful lot of discipline.” Tana shares how she keeps on top of industry trends – including podcasts, the Wall Street Journal and daily news reports about Caterpillar.
10:00 – One of the major works of Tana’s career has been around emissions and regulations; membership on the HUGE team (Hurry Up, Get Emissions) “As we were going through that, we really didn’t know how we were going to solve the problem…we were inventing on a timetable.”
12:10 – Tana talks about the power of ‘and,’ “we strove for customer value and emissions, not just one or the other.” On seeing others (internally and externally) excited about emissions reductions, “Then I think, oh my gosh, I’ve been part of something that really is terrific.”
15:40 – Influencers that have impacted Tana’s leadership perspective and strategy. How the Congruence Model helps her and her team make decisions, including throughout the difficult times in the last several years.
18:30 – Tana offer’s her insight into some specific leadership pitfalls: “I think one of the perils of teaming is the leader sometimes doesn’t take accountability. It’s incumbent upon them to get the very best input they can in making that decision.”
21:03 – Current trends of fracking and natural gas, and their impacts on the energy industry. “The U.S. is now the Saudi Arabia so to speak of natural gas – we have huge reserves of natural gas, and this has changed the playing field of energy.” On the customer demand for dual-fuel engines, “That’s probably where we see the biggest technology changes in our products right now.”
25:15 – How Cat engines make progress possible, including the story behind the decision to donate a 3500 engine to the St. Luke Foundation for Haiti.
