JCB, a company created over 50 years ago by Joseph Cyril Bamford, is a manufacturing and marketing firm that specializes in the development and production of hydraulic excavators, materials handlers, wheel loaders, mini-excavators, skid steer and high speed agricultural tractors (About us, 2001). In addition to sales of new and used equipment, JCB also offers its customers service via its franchised and company-owned dealerships, parts replacement, a range of attachments, and financing via leasing, lease purchases with or without options, installment sales contracts, and rentals (The best back-upà, 2001). In brief, JCB is a full service firm with a carefully defined and expanding niche market for state-of-the-art hydraulic equipment.
The purpose of this report is to determine what expertise and resources a JCB dealer requires at the present time, and to forecast emerging dealership management and marketing requirements over the course of the next decade. JCB is a forward-looking firm that has diversified and which is aggressively pursuing new joint ventures and alliances with other firms, including CIT Equipment Financing, as well as entering into new markets overseas (JCB and CITà, 2001). The firm, which initially functioned almost exclusively as a manufacturer, began about 25 years ago to establish a network of dealerships for direct retail sales of its products; dealers in such settings must, consequently, possess in-depth knowledge of the JCB product lines, service systems, finance options, and marketing strategies.
Most significantly, however, JCB dealers and other equipment sales firms are increasingly challenged by a growing shortage of trained and skilled technicians. A recent report in Pit & Quarry (John Deere programà, 2001) highlighted the need for 25,000 new technicians capable of servicing construction and other heavy equipment over the next five years. Recruiting and training good service technicians, accord...