Nissan Ghosn's arrest for 1 year
19 years have passed since Nissan Motor's former president Carlos Ghosn was arrested. In the past year, Nissan has been moving away from the system where the authority was concentrated on former Chairman Ghosn, but there are still many imminent issues such as recovery of sluggish performance.
Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. has been working on reforms to increase management transparency, because former Ghosn was arrested in November last year for a huge amount of compensation, etc., because the case that the authority was concentrated on the former chairman invited the case .
In June, the company moved to a “company with a nominating committee, etc.” and a system for determining personnel and remuneration, led by outside directors.
On the other hand, after the incident, Renault, who is in a partnership, asked for business integration, and the relationship was awkward. Former president Hayato Nishikawa resigned in September due to an uncertain reward issue. I came.
In addition, the business performance has been sluggish, and the operating profit for the six months until September has decreased significantly by 85% compared to the same period last year.
On the 1st of next month, Nissan will launch a different “Group Guidance System”, with Makoto Uchida taking office as the next president and welcoming the chief operating officer from the affiliated Mitsubishi Motors.
The new system will promptly ask how to improve the relationship with Renault, and how to deal with the heavy challenges of how to regain sluggish performance.
A year when the conflict between the two companies surfaced
The confrontation between the two companies became apparent as former Ghosn, who was the head of both Nissan Motor and Renault, left the union.
While Nissan, which exceeds its scale and technical capabilities, demands management independence, the major shareholder Renault tried to strengthen its involvement in Nissan, and the difference in opinions was prominent.
The alliance of the three companies, including Mitsubishi Motors, will review the system in which authority was concentrated on former Chairman Ghosn in March, and set up a new meeting created by the tops of the three companies to carry out the cooperation. Agreed.
However, in April shortly after that, Renault Chairman Snart asked Nissan for business integration, which led to a strong backlash from Nissan.
In May, Renault announced that it would consider a business integration with FCA = Fiat Chrysler, but Nissan did not agree with it and did not realize it.
For June's general shareholders meeting in June, Renault, who wants to be more influential in terms of human resources, was shaken by mentioning the possibility of abstaining from voting on the proposal for management reform. Was prepared on the Renault side and the bill was approved.
The automobile industry is said to be “a change period once every 100 years,” and Nissan and Renault are alliances over the past year as competitions involving other industries such as electrical manufacturers and major IT companies become more active worldwide. It has not been able to produce outstanding results, and the focus is on building new relationships and focusing on developing next-generation car technologies.
Many challenges for new management
Nissan's new management system, which will be launched on the 1st of next month, will need to tackle many challenges.
The urgent issue is the recovery of business performance, which continues to be sluggish.
However, in the interim financial results up to September, operating income decreased significantly by 85%, and the one-year forecast up to March next year was revised downward, and operating income was 150 billion yen, the previous year. It is expected to be almost halved.
The expansion line that has been promoted under Ghosn's former chairman is at a turning point and has been forced to undergo structural reforms, such as reducing the scale of 12,500 people, which is 10% of the total number of employees in the world, including term employees. The
In the US market, which continues to be sluggish, we are making reforms to sell without relying on discounts, but it is unclear whether it will lead to a prompt recovery in business performance.
Also, in relation to Renault, which forms a coalition, the challenge is how to build a new relationship just after the confrontation, such as Nissan's strong rebellion against Renault's management integration following the case of former President Ghosn.
In addition, governance reforms to improve management transparency in response to a series of incidents are also halfway.
In June, more than half of the Board of Directors became outside directors, and the company shifted to a “company with a nominating committee” that decides personnel and remuneration mainly from outside directors. Because it depends on future efforts.
Nissan is also considering claims for damages to former Chairman Ghosn.
This year's Nissan has been trying to get a new management structure on track quickly, after spending a lot of time in internal turmoil.