Carlos Ghosn (photo) was nothing short of "the savior" of Nissan, we were all told. As the head man at Renault when that French company took a controlling interest in Japan's then-and-still- teetering Nissan (an industry first, we must add), Ghosn's moves in Japan made him something of a national hero (or at least a national curiousity; in that way that it is "cute" for 'gaijin' [foreigners, literally barbarians] to do certain things in Japan, as long as they eventually leave the country). He closed factories, laid-off workers, canceled new models and demanded more and better new ones --- and the Japanese public seemed to love it --- A westerner daring to take on Japanese industry and culture, much like Mark Fields, now VP of Ford, had done when he was running Mazda for FoMoCo several years ago. Now comes word that the Renault Board of Directors has evidently had enough of Ghosn playing the automotive superstar, moving him back to France to run Renault --- only.
Here's how AUTOMOTIVE NEWS reported it:
"Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Nissan Motor Co., is swapping some of his duties as part of a broad annual management shuffle at the Japanese carmaker.
Ghosn, 53, who also is CEO of Renault SA, no longer will have direct oversight of Nissan's operations in North and South America. But he will take over responsibilities for the treasury department from COO Toshiyuki Shiga, 53.
Nissan does not have a CFO, and financial duties likely will soak up any freed-up time Ghosn might gain by dropping direct responsibilities for the Americas.
Hiroto Saikawa, 53, will replace Ghosn as chairman of Nissan's management committee for the Americas. Saikawa currently is Nissan's executive vice president for purchasing.
The changes will take effect April 1.
"The priority for our new management team is to act decisively on the multiple challenges facing Nissan and to boost our overall performance in 2007," Ghosn said in a written statement.
Dropping oversight for the United States and the rest of the Americas should save Ghosn considerable travel time. Officially, as CEO of both companies, he splits his time between Nissan and Renault. But he spends about one week a month in the United States. (Photo - One of the first Nissans, modeled after UK Morris cars which had been imported to Japan in boxes and later assembled in Japan; known as "knock-down kits").
Ghosn won't be in America monthly now, but "don't expect he won't be visiting the U.S. anymore," says Nissan spokesman Simon Sproule.
The task at hand in the United States is enormous. Nissan has fallen far short of its previous bold predictions of double-digit monthly sales growth since October. Saikawa, who has a reputation inside Nissan as a taskmaster, is expected to crack the whip in the United States."
OK, that's the official version. Here's what is really happening:
The corporate folks have had it with Ghosn and his (loud and numerous) proclamations. They are not even leaving him in the US long enough to enjoy the soon-to-come sales boost for Nissan from their all-new Altima hybrid and especially the fantastic new two-door (2008 model year) Sentra coupe and much-anticipated high-performance/low-cost Sentra SE-R sedan models (all designed in the US at Nissan Design International in La Jolla, CA).
First, Ghosn should have kept his mouth in-check when talking about hybrids and other alt-fuel vehicles. For years he has taken every opportunity to attack them, specifically gas-electric hybrids, while competitor Toyota was selling them faster than they could make them, especially for the US market. So what happens? To no one's surprise, Nissan licenses (buys) the Toyota technology for their own hybrid and voila ... At the LA Auto Show this year, the "all-new Nissan Altima Hybrid" is introduced, using Toyota technology. Not good for Carlos. (Photo - Nissan Altima hybrid).
Then, what's become known in the So Cal area simply as "the move". After more than 40 years of being located in southern California, generally recognized as the "hotbed" of automotive development for the world (there's a reason every major auto company in the world has a design studio, at the least, within 75 miles of downtown Los Angeles, but this must have somehow escaped Ghosn ... Oh, wait ... The Nissan Design studio in La Jolla will remain --- for now), was just too expensive for Ghosn to justify, we guess.
So he moved all the execs to ... Nashville, TN, that other hotbed of automotive styling, design and performance ... If you have a more than passing interest in how Bobby Geneene and her boy, Lucas Kyle, think the new GM pickups should look like ... The move will gain Nissan a bunch of cash --- They own literally acres of buildings throughout Los Angeles and Orange Counties --- But already the company has lost well over 50% of the men and women who developed Nissan into the brand and brand-name it has become (not to mention making the American public forget the name DATSUN, no small feat in itself). Most of the employees chose to stay in LA without a job, rather than move to Nashville (huh?) with one, and a promised pay raise for everyone who did make the move.
Just the latest not in Ghosn's great favor: Nissan announced just this past week that they will not put effort or dollars into developing a "Heavy Duty" version of their already-pretty-heavy-duty but poor-selling Titan. Nissan did announce, also this week, that they have completed an off-road test track at their Japanese test facility. Maybe now they have little reason to ever use it, other than to show it off to visiting journalists. And that's not to mention the minivan, the Quest, which has never caught-on with buyers and is being completely reworked for its next iteration, which will be out in 2008 or before (in other words, as fast as Nissan execs can approve it and get it built). (Photo - New Nissan Sentra SE-R).
There's more, including Ghosn's obviously brusque manner which managed to rub everybody the wrong way, Japanese, Euros, Americans ... you name the group, he angered or embarrassed them, or both.
What's next? It's probably impossible to hope that Nissan returns to So Cal, but they haven't sold their buildings yet, as far as we know, so nothing is really impossible at this point. Perhaps the new Sentras and Altima hybrid will produce enough cash for Nissan to bring the company back to Los Angeles. Or perhaps not.
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