Deere & Company, also known as John Deere or Deere, is not only an icon of industrial excellence. It is also a member of the Outthinker List, a group of organizations we recognize as redefining what strategic leadership looks like. The Outthinker List highlights companies that challenge conventional industry logic, innovate their business models, and consistently stay steps ahead through uncommon, forward-looking strategy while also understanding capital allocation and asset management.
These are the firms shaping the future rather than reacting to it.
Deere belongs in this group. For generations, it has been known for engineering mastery, durability, and trust. Its machines shaped modern agriculture, and its strategy reflected this identity with a clear emphasis on operational discipline, capital efficiency, and product performance.
But in recent years, Deere has demonstrated a deeper kind of innovation, one that places it firmly among organizations rewriting how value is created. Deere is undergoing a strategic evolution toward long-term Customer Lifetime Value, building relationships that extend far beyond the point of sale. This shift is transforming the entire model of how the company thinks, builds, measures, and grows.
This change mirrors patterns I have seen across other Outthinker List companies such as Netflix, Sprouts Farmers Market, and Urban Outfitters. The most successful organizations eventually discover that growth accelerates not through better products alone but through deeper, more enduring customer relationships. Deere is now making that same leap.
Looking Back
Deere’s 2016 strategy was rooted in an industrial logic that made perfect sense at the time. The company measured performance through Shareholder Value Added, Return on Operating Assets, cost efficiency, and tight SG&A control. The customer relationship was important, but primarily as a series of purchases. Aftermarket services were treated as stabilizers during slow cycles, not as engines of long-term monetization. Precision agriculture — a farming management method that uses technology like GPS, sensors, and drones to monitor and manage variability within fields — was described mainly as a technology feature to improve performance, not as a system to deepen ongoing engagement.
This model worked well for decades. It generated strong margins and attracted loyal customers who trusted Deere’s engineering. But it also limited how tightly John Deere could connect to the customer over time. Each sale essentially reset the relationship.
Looking Ahead
Deere in recent annual reports looks fundamentally different. The company is now guided by the Smart Industrial Operating Model, its blueprint for integrating equipment, technology, and services around the full customer lifecycle. This framework reorganizes the business around customer production systems and elevates digital tools, automation, and data to the same importance as hardware.
It pairs this with Leap Ambitions, its long-term targets through 2030 that operationalize this shift with measurable goals for connectivity, engagement, autonomy, and recurring revenue.
Together, these two initiatives move Deere toward long-term value creation, by emphasizing lifecycle solutions, digital tools, connected machines, uptime, data-driven insights, and expanding streams of recurring revenue.
More importantly, Deere now tracks metrics that measure behavior rather than transactions. The company aims for 1.5 million connected machines by 2026. It monitors 500 million engaged acres through its Operations Center platform. It has committed to 10% recurring revenue by 2030.
These indicators reflect a company building lifetime relationships. They measure not how much a customer buys but how a customer engages. They reveal how deeply Deere becomes part of a customer’s daily operations and outcomes.
This is the logic of Customer Lifetime Value.
Why It Matters
In my piece The Digital Compass, I wrote that when a company begins managing for lifetime value, new metrics reshape behavior inside the firm. They influence decisions, shift priorities, and realign how teams invest time and resources. Deere’s shift mirrors this same pattern.
I have observed similar transitions across industries. Netflix designed its entire model around daily use. Sprouts built loyalty through habitual weekly behaviors and consistent value delivery. Urban Outfitters restructured merchandising, digital strategy, and supply chain speed to support deeper customer relationships.
Although the industries differ, the underlying pattern is the same. Companies that win redefine the relationship, not just the product.
The Netflix Parallel
Netflix is built around a deceptively simple idea. The most valuable customer is the one who returns every day. Daily use predicts retention, and retention drives growth. Every decision the company makes reinforces this rhythm.
The shift from a per-rental model to a monthly subscription was not just a pricing change. It marked a philosophical turn from managing transactions to engineering ongoing relationships. Netflix stopped optimizing for the next rental and started optimizing for the next interaction.
Deere is moving in that same direction. Remote support sessions are increasing. Automated updates remove friction. Precision agriculture features deliver real-time insight and optimization. The entire system is designed to encourage frequent engagement and continuous value delivery.
When a machine becomes a daily partner in operational decisions, Deere becomes part of the customer’s rhythm. That is the essence of lifetime value.
The Sprouts Parallel
My research on Sprouts Farmers Market showed that recurring revenue is fundamentally rooted in recurring behavior. Sprouts built systems that encourage customers to return regularly for everyday needs. The economics of recurrence follow naturally from the psychology of recurrence.
Deere’s recurring revenue strategy reflects the same principle. Subscription-based precision features, annual automation packages, and software enhancements are not financial instruments. They are habits. A farmer logs into the Operations Center to see what’s happening at his operation right now. A machine receives a performance update. A dealer conducts a digital check-in. Each action reinforces the pattern.
The more habitual the behavior, the higher the lifetime value.
The Urban Outfitters Parallel
Urban Outfitters strengthened its long-term value by shifting focus from seasonal trends to the full customer journey. The launch of Nuuly, its clothing rental and resale platform, marked a major turning point. Nuuly transformed Urban from a retailer into a relationship business by creating ongoing engagement, habitual interaction, and multiple touchpoints beyond the store.
As the company centered its model on relationship depth, everything changed. Merchandising evolved. Supply chain priorities shifted. Digital and store experiences aligned around long-term loyalty instead of one-time looks.
Deere is entering this same phase. Product development prioritizes features that deepen engagement. Dealers act as ongoing partners rather than transaction points. Technology investments support AI, software, interoperability, and more personalized service. Financial communication elevates lifetime value metrics above transactional measures.
And these engagement metrics do not benefit Deere alone. They strengthen dealer performance, improve grower outcomes, reduce inputs and waste, and contribute to more sustainable and productive agricultural systems. As customers succeed across seasons, entire ecosystems, from local communities to global supply chains, see benefit.
Once a company sees through the lens of CLV, every part of the enterprise begins to align with it.
The Pattern Becomes Clear
As seen with Netflix, Sprouts, and Urban Outfitters, four themes always appear during successful CLV transformations. Deere now exhibits all four:
- Behavior metrics replace transaction metrics.
- Recurring value becomes recurring revenue.
- The platform becomes the product.
- The relationship becomes the primary asset.
This pattern signals a company entering a new era of growth.
Dominating the Future
Deere’s evolution represents a significant shift in industrial strategy. The firm that once focused on asset efficiency now measures engagement. The company that emphasized cost control now builds digital ecosystems. The company that saw aftermarket services as cyclical buffers now treats them as engines of lifelong value.
The Deere of today manages not for the next quarter but for the customer’s next decade. It manages not for the sale but for the sequence of interactions that follow. It manages not merely for product excellence but for outcome excellence delivered over time.
This is what Customer Lifetime Value looks like inside a global industrial leader. And it positions Deere as more than a manufacturer. It positions Deere as a model for the next era of industrial growth powered by data, service, engagement, and lifelong partnership with customers.
To learn more about how to create and maximize CLV, visit Outthinker.com today.