Reverse Innovation

CHAPTER EIGHT

Deere & Company Plows Under the Past

Behaving like an underdog helped Deere redeem its emerging-market future.

DURING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, the inexorable trend in agriculture in the United States was toward greater consolidation. Families with small farms sold out to ever-larger players. They did so because farming was risky. Bad weather, crop diseases, and pest infestations could compromise yields. Big, up-front investments couldn’t always be covered by last year’s income. Market prices often profited middlemen over producers. Depending on the time of the year, farming was also backbreaking, round-the-clock work.

Understandably, ...