The occurrence of one or more of these events may negatively impact our business, results of operations and financial condition. 

## OPERATIONAL RISKS 

## The success of our business depends on our ability to develop, produce and market quality products that meet our customers’ needs. 

Our business relies on continued global demand for our brands and products. To achieve business goals, we must develop and sell products that appeal to our dealers, OEMs and end-user customers. This is dependent on a number of factors, including our ability to maintain key dealer relationships, our ability to produce products that meet the quality, performance and price expectations of our customers and our ability to develop effective sales, advertising and marketing programs. In addition, our continued success in selling products that appeal to our customers is dependent on leading-edge innovation, with respect to both products and operations, and on the availability and effectiveness of legal protection for our innovations. Failure to continue to deliver high quality, innovative, competitive products to the marketplace, to adequately protect our intellectual property rights, to supply products that meet applicable regulatory requirements, including engine exhaust emission requirements or to predict market demands for, or gain market acceptance of, our products, could have a negative impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition. 

## We operate in a highly competitive environment, which could adversely affect our sales and pricing. 

We operate in a highly competitive environment. We compete on the basis of a variety of factors, including product performance, customer service, quality and price. There can be no assurance that our products will be able to compete successfully with other companies’ products. Thus, our share of industry sales could be reduced due to aggressive pricing or product strategies pursued by competitors, unanticipated product or manufacturing difficulties, our failure to price our products competitively, our failure to produce our products at a competitive cost or an unexpected buildup in competitors’ new machine or dealer-owned rental fleets, which could lead to downward pressure on machine rental rates and/or used equipment prices. 

Lack of customer acceptance of price increases we announce from time to time, changes in customer requirements for price discounts, changes in our customers’ behavior or a weak pricing environment could have an adverse impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition. 

In addition, our results and ability to compete may be impacted negatively by changes in our geographic and product mix of sales. 

## Increased information technology security threats and more sophisticated computer crime pose a risk to our systems, networks, products and services. 

We rely upon information technology systems and networks, some of which are managed by third parties, in connection with a variety of business activities. Additionally, we collect and store sensitive information relating to our business, customers, dealers, suppliers and employees. Operating these information technology systems and networks and processing and maintaining this data in a secure manner, is critical to our business operations and strategy. Information technology security threats -- from user error to cybersecurity attacks designed to gain unauthorized access to our systems, networks and data -- are increasing in frequency and sophistication. Cybersecurity attacks may range from random attempts to coordinated and targeted attacks, including sophisticated computer crime and advanced persistent threats. These threats pose a risk to the security of our systems and networks and the confidentiality, availability and integrity of our data. Cybersecurity attacks could also include attacks targeting customer data or the security, integrity and/or reliability of the hardware and software installed in our products. It is possible that our information technology systems and networks, or those managed by third parties, could have vulnerabilities, which could go unnoticed for a period of time. While various procedures and controls have been and are being utilized to mitigate such risks, there can be no guarantee that the actions and controls we have implemented and are implementing, or which we cause or have caused third party service providers to implement, will be sufficient to protect our systems, information or other property. 

