Ghosn Says Nissan Not Yet Up to Standard of Honda or Toyota

RenaultRenaultFrance, 1898 > present189 models
6052 photos
17 videos
-NissanNissanJapan, 1932 > present159 models
6957 photos
12 videos
CEO Carlos Ghosn is coming to an end of his automotive career. He has not made it a secret that when the company’s current five-year Power 88 plan ends on March 31, 2017, he will begin looking into retiring. That plan’s goal is for Nissan to have an 8% global market share and 8% operating profit margin.

While Nissan experienced growth during the early part of the Power 88 plan, Ghosn has lowered Nissan’s profit predictions for this fiscal year and put a new executive in charge of Nissan North America where it has a goal of 10% market share by the end of Power 88.

"When I compare to ToyotaToyotaJapan, 1937 > present155 models
4570 photos
10 videos
and HondaHondaJapan, 1948 > present102 models
2419 photos
10 videos
, it's not to our favor,” said Ghosn. “We are leading the pack in some significant markets. But in the United States, the shortfall to the other two gives you an indication about how much potential there is.”

Ghosn believes that the company’s major problem in North America is quality. In the recent past, he believes that Nissan has not been able to compete against its Japanese competitors in the American market in terms of reliability and quality.

“We have cars that seem to us very good, but when it goes to the market we don't have a good rating,” he said.

Improving quality is relatively easy, according to Ghosn. It is just a matter of setting tighter controls on suppliers, but Nissan needs to learn why its expectations are so different from consumers. His engineers see their projects as good, but when Consumer Reports magazine looks at it, it does not recommend the car.

Ghosn also says that Nissan is just emerging from a point where it was not innovating because it did not have the money to, and by bringing new technologies to market, it will become more attractive to buyers.

“Today we are leading in many technologies. Look at electric cars. With the launch of the Infiniti Q50Infiniti Q50Japan, 2013 > present12 versions
26 photos
, we launched steer-by-wire. A new technology,” he said.

The final big change is that Nissan is changing its management structure to focus on six regions instead of six. The Americas are being split into two regions, and Europe and Africa are being split into two regions. China will also be its own management region split from the rest of Asia.

In terms of his successor, Ghosn is not giving any hints but says that it is important for Nissan to still be seen as Japanese. Of the 100 top executives at the company, 50 are not Japanese, and those 50 come from 17 different countries.

You shouldn't forget your roots. I would like, when the time for a successor would come, for a Japanese to head Nissan. It's symbolic, and we have plenty of Japanese talent,” he said.

Source: Automotive News