Cummins: An engine maker bets on clean air—and wins - Fortune
, the country’s leading diesel-engine manufacturer. With 17% of the local workforce employed directly by Cummins, Columbus is a one-business town—and business is good. And yet in an American economy driven by tech startups and high finance, Cummins has not only survived but thrived in heavy industry. revenues jumped from $10. 8 billion in 2009 to $19. 2 billion in 2014. It operates in 90 countries, with almost 50% of its 2014 sales coming from overseas. and many other markets, it’s the company to beat in diesel. In 1958, Architectural Forum magazine hired Ezra Stoller to photograph the home of Cummins CEO J. Irwin Miller in Columbus, the company’s hometown. it’s one of only 57 companies that have appeared on the Fortune 500 every year since 1955. But more impressive is how the company has sustained that success in a tumultuous time for U. S. industry. When many manufacturers fled to cheaper overseas labor, Cummins took a more sophisticated tack, investing in its domestic workforce and facilities while establishing fifty-fifty joint ventures abroad. And when many automotive companies fought Washington on clean-air regulations, Cummins embraced them—and then used its mastery of clean-tech diesel to build. Source: fortune.com
