Posted on 12 Dec 2019 at 12:49
What Makoto Uchida wants for his teams within Nissan, he also wants it for the Alliance with Renault and Mitsubishi. For Nissan’s new CEO, who took office on December 1, 2019, “restoring” trust with both partners is a top priority. For this, a key word, “transparency”.
“To respect oneself, to understand oneself, to be transparent, to put any problem or question on the table without hiding anything, to show everything: once we have started that, trust will come back inevitably,” he said in an interview granted to AFP.
When he took office about ten days ago, the 53-year-old leader made the same speech to his teams, promising to restore communication and transparency between management and employees in the field.
«Back to basics»
Before being promoted to Nissan’s general manager, Makoto Uchida led the group’s activities in China. Renowned for the Alliance, he was also responsible for the group purchases from 2016 to 2018. His appointment was greeted with relief by Renault, whose relationship with Nissan was destabilized by the Carlos Ghosn scandal and his ousting of the Japanese group.
“The difficulties of the past have sometimes made people uncomfortable with their work” within the Alliance, acknowledged the leader. “My job is to go back to basics […], to restore that original spirit that we had at Nissan and in the Alliance to be able to advance more professionally. “
Profit and sales at half mast
Makoto Uchida also said “look forward” to working with Hadi Zablit, the French-Lebanese engineer, just named general secretary of the tripartite partnership. “I know him very well […]. He may have a neutral position, which is good for the Alliance. “
For the Nissan CEO, the team with Renault and Mitsubishi is the best suited to “act fast”. But we must “make sure it is beneficial to all in the short term,” he explained when taking office.
The The profits and sales of the Japanese manufacturer are currently at half-mast, penalized by the slowdown in the global automotive market. Nissan also suffers from the lack of renewal of its models and the end of its incentives to support its volumes, especially in the United States.
Post deletions
The group has thus undertaken this year a vast restructuring of its production capacities. Objective, a reduction of 10% by the end of March 2023, which implies the suppression of 12,500 jobs worldwide. Fears are particularly strong for the two large factories of the group in Europe, in Sunderland (north-east of England) and Barcelona in Spain, where a total of 9,500 people work.
Nissan must prepare to face the many uncertainties weighing on its activity
Makoto Uchida did not reveal on Thursday that the cuts were going to take place, or whether he was still intensifying this weight loss program launched this year by his predecessor, Hiroto Saikawa. However, he reminded that Nissan “had to prepare” to face the many “uncertainties” weighing on its activity.
Brexit in particular, crucial issue of the British legislative elections that take place on Thursday, “is something we must anticipate, but we do not know what will be the outcome […]. We are in discussion, we are planning, “he said. Europe will, however, “clearly” remain an important Nissan market in the future, he assured.