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Ghosn steps down as Nissan CEO, hands reins to Saikawa as focus shifts

February 22, 2017 @ 6:34 pm

Hans Greimel

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Saikawa, formerly Nissan's chief competitive officer, was promoted to co-CEO in October. On April 1, he will become CEO and president. Photo credit: BLOOMBERGPHOTO GALLERY: Carlos Ghosn through the years

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UPDATED: 2/23/17 7:03 am ET - adds Ghosn commentTOKYO -- Carlos Ghosn, the long-serving chief executive who rescued Nissan Motor Co. from bankruptcy, is stepping down as CEO, having nearly finished his latest business plan and driven the Renault-Nissan Alliance to new heights with the acquisition of Mitsubishi Motors Corp.

Ghosn, who joined Nissan in 1999 from France’s Renault SA and became Nissan’s CEO two years later, will retain his position as chairman of the Japan’s second-biggest automaker, the company said in a statement Thursday in Tokyo. Hiroto Saikawa, who currently serves as co-CEO and is a year older than the 62-year-old Ghosn, will become sole chief executive.

The changes are effective April 1.


FROM OUR ARCHIVE: Ghosn's speech at the 2002 Automotive News World Congress
Ghosn will also retain his roles as chairman and CEO of Renault and of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, spokesman Jonathan Adashek said.

"There are still lots of things to be done inside the company (Renault) in order to make its growth sustainable and lasting and solid," Ghosn told Reuters in an interview.

And he will also stay on as chairman of Mitsubishi, a company brought into the Alliance last October through Nissan’s purchase of a controlling stake.

At that time, Ghosn promoted Saikawa to the role of Nissan’s co-CEO.


Ghosn said his new responsibilities at Mitsubishi warranted the full handover to Saikawa.

“As Nissan’s Chairman, I will continue to supervise and guide the company, both independently and within the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance,” Ghosn said in a statement.

“This planned change will also allow me to devote more time and energy to managing the strategic and operational evolution and expansion of the Alliance and ensuring that all its members benefit from the competitive advantages that its scale will deliver.”

FROM OUR ARCHIVE: 30 hours with Nissan's superman CEO

The Feb. 23 announcement shifts full control of Nissan to the Japanese veteran, as Ghosn steps back to more of an oversight role over an expansive automotive empire. The acquisition of Mitsubishi catapulted the Alliance to the No. 4 spot in global auto sales behind Volkswagen, Toyota and General Motors, as Ghosn delivered on his promise to achieve scale.

Ghosn hands over the reins as Nissan concludes its Power 88 mid-term business plan.


FROM OUR ARCHIVE: Industry disruptions tone down Ghosn


Mid-term roadmap
Saikawa will now be in charge of drawing up the next mid-term roadmap, which is expected to be announced sometime this year, Adashek said.

Adashek said it was too soon to rate Ghosn’s success in accomplishing the goals of Power 88. The mid-term plan officially runs through March 31.

FROM OUR ARCHIVE: All eyes are on Ghosn

While Ghosn came close to achieve many of his targets, key goals are still fugitive. Nissan hasn’t quite clinched the 10 percent U.S. market share it set out to achieve, nor the 8 percent global market share. It is also on track to miss its 8 percent operating profit margin target.

Ranking No. 4

But through the addition of Mitsubishi, the Alliance’s global volume surged by 934,013 vehicles to total 9.96 million units in 2016, making it the world’s 4th-largest auto group.

The Mitsubishi tie-up, finalized Oct. 20, completed Nissan’s 237 billion-yen ($2.29 billion) purchase of a controlling 34 percent stake in Mitsubishi.

Ghosn, at the CES in Las Vegas in January, plans to focus on Mitsubishi. Photo credit: BLOOMBERG

It also unleashed the continuing cascade of executive changes.

Saikawa is expected to now run Nissan independently as his own boss. That too fits the intent of Ghosn, who has said he prefers a Japanese successor at the helm of Nissan.


But it is unclear how much longer he may remain on the job. At age 63, Saikawa is also approaching retirement age.

Saikawa joined Nissan in 1977 and served as its chief competitive officer from 2013 to 2016. Before that he had roles as the chairman of the Management Committees of the Americas and Europe, as well as the executive vice president of purchasing.

He also served as a board member of Renault between 2006 and 2016.

 

I applaud what Ghosn was able to accomplish at Nissan from an organizational point of view, and from saving it from bankruptcy in the early 2000s. But, unfortunately, in doing so, the quality of their vehicles suffered....first, from excessively cheap Cracker-Jack interiors, and then, once that problem had been rectified, from lower-than-average reliability ratings. They appear to come from the factory well-assembled, but develop problems quicker than average.

 

Its amazing how cheap the Maxima's interior feels, at least the entry model that I sat in. And people complain about the Avalon's interior being cheap.

 

The real Cracker-Jack Nissan interiors I was refering to were back 10-15 years ago, in the early 2000s, when Ghosn's stern cost-cutting measures first took hold. Nissan products, today, seem to come from the factory pretty solidly-assembled, using decent materials (maybe some of the entry-level Versa versions excepted)...but, for some reason, are developing problems quicker than average, according to Consumer Reports. Renault, of course, Nissan's current owner, has never been known for building reliable street-vehicles.

 

The slang adjective "crackerjack" usually refers to something that is of high quality rather than something that is of low quality.

 

Good luck Mr. Saikawa. Please revamp the Z, Frontier, and Quest

 

That might (?) be a result of a difference in our ages. I wasn't born yesterday, and have been driving since the late 1960s. Cracker-Jack was a popular snack back then....small boxes of caramel-coated popcorn, with a small, cheap usually plastic toy stuck somewhere in the box.......you uncovered the toy as you ate up the popcorn. We would refer to anything flimsy, plastic, or easily breakable as "Cracker-Jack"......so did the auto press and reviewers back then, when they reviewed vehicles.

Later on, of course, the term "Crack" came along (not the cocaine LOL)....to refer to something excellent or elite.........such as "crack" troops or units in the military.

 

Big news! I read that it was Ghosn's wife who came up with the Murano convertible so he "greenlighted" it. For that atrocity alone, he should step down.

But in all seriousness, once he got past the cost-cutting he did quite a bit to bring the company back on track.

 

I heard Ghosn is legendary in his management. He saved Nissan corp from Bankruptcy.. but Will Nissan go down the tubes again without him?

 

So is he still the CEO or chairman of the Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi entity??? From what I've read he stepped out of his role of running Nissan on a day to day basis to concentrate on "the alliance" as they call it. Maybe I'm simplifying it a bit here, but it looks like he was promoted.

Also I'm kind of curious as to why Nissan was in such financial trouble back in the late 90's/early 2000's. Their cars from that time period were better built(and IMO the designs were better too) than the crap post Ghosn made in the 2000's. Did Nissan get hit hard when the bubble economy popped in Japan back in the 1990's???

 

I don't recall Nissan being that close to closing it's doors. They had troubles like everyone else at the time. Either way, I haven't been real impressed by Ghosn. Nissans have not had interiors worthy of the competition and reliability has been poor for a while. Then there's the odd styling of headlights, C-pillars, and grilles. I am sure that turns some people away at dealerships.

 

One thing that hurt them back then was that Nissan lost a lot of money on lease-programs when the vehicles' actual depreciation was greater than projected, resulting in in lower residual values.

 

Their worst interiors were from about 2001-2006, when Ghosn started implementing his strictest cost-cutting measures.


I don't think it's any more weird than a number of the styling touches that Toyota is doing. And folks still flock to Toyota stores.

 

Agreed, I have been in a couple of Versa Notes and I feel the interior is very cheap, reminiscent of a late 2000's car. When I looked at a Maxima I thought it was rather decent though - no Lexus but pretty good for a mainstream-badged car.

The weird thing about it is that my girlfriend used to have a 2012 Versa hatch (before the redesign), and it seemed to be more comfortable and nicer in some ways than the new Note. :/

 

True, the Versa is quite cheaply built, but it is not a complete waste of money. It has a fair amount of room in the back seat for a car in that size and price-range.