He also studied Caterpillar trucks, then made 3-D animated films on the sophisticated movie software Maya and obsessed over model trains.
FORBES: The Teen, The Billionaire And The Revolutionary Search Tool
He pilots the Caterpillar (nyse: CAT - news - people ), ancient, ugly and creaky, to clear acres of thorny thicket and scrub brush.
In the late 1970s he arrived at a client, Caterpillar, and learned that the information he had once held exclusively and provided by hand--bond prices--was now arriving electronically from a rival and blinking away on a computer screen.
"There are more than 100 Chinese companies looking to be the next Caterpillar, " he said.
Caterpillar sales, he says, should remain weak through June of next year.
FORBES: Red Flare From Caterpillar: Record Profits For Now, But Grim Times Ahead
"It's like a butterfly going back into the cocoon and becoming a caterpillar again, " he said.
The strip mining machines used in Alberta come from a Caterpillar plant in Decatur, he said.
FORBES: In Obama's Hometown, Canada Stumps For Keystone Pipeline
He had to go out and buy more Caterpillar pavers, profiling machines, rollers, other equipment.
"Catching Caterpillar isn't a goal we have set ourselves, " he insists.
That's why, if he has his way, Team Bad Company will soon be known as Team Caterpillar, Team American Express, or anything else that reflects a successful pitch to lure a corporate sponsor.
He noted that "financing and interest rates are very attractive, " and would allow Caterpillar to maintain its credit rating.
Shumpert, known for his high-top haircut, was forced to remove the logo of the company in which he endorses, leaving an empty triangle, somewhat resembling the logos of Delta, Caterpillar, Avery International and even Nabisco.
FORBES: Iman Shumpert Gets Adidas Logo in Haircut, Scolded by NBA
"Caterpillar is suffering because of being centered in the U.S., " he says.
To play this prediction, he recommends investing in global agricultural companies, including Monsanto (MON), Deere (DE) and Caterpillar (CAT).
"They have given an assurance to both Arlene Foster and myself that they will work with us to see whether or not some of the gaps that have been left can be filled by either moving other activities within the Caterpillar Group to Northern Ireland or activities which are currently outsourced, to Northern Ireland, " he said.
应用推荐