The author covers some interesting topics. Of course, the book discusses John Deere's original steel plow and how it revolutionized farming the Great Plains' prairie soils. There are also some less well known stories about the history of the company, including why Deere decided to move into manufacturing lawn and garden tractors--to satisfy a growing suburban population that still wanted John Deere products. More recently, this same story line evolved when Deere decided to begin selling lawn tractors at Home Depot, marking the first time Deere sold equipment outside of its dealerships since 1837. The book also covers many non-agricultural ventures, such as Deere's brief entry into and exit from the snowmobile business in the 1970s as well as the more sustained production of the Gator series of vehicles.
The book focuses on four aspects that define Deere & Company's corporate culture: quality, innovation, integrity and commitment. Since 1837, Deere has only had slightly more than a handful of leaders, each of them stuck by these values when making decisions that impacted farmers, dealers, and Deere employees. There were times in Deere's history when the company strayed from its agricultural roots, and the results were not always good. One of the interesting examples described was John Deere Credit's foray into providing financing for the RV industry. The division learned the hard way that financing RVs is different than combines, since the industry lacked the same dealer network that knew their customers and, importantly, could track down a vehicle when repossession became necessary.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to John Deere fans. If you aren't lucky enough to find it a local used bookstore like me, you can purchase on Amazon.com: The John Deere Way.
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.
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