{"id":839,"date":"2020-04-10T10:03:40","date_gmt":"2020-04-10T10:03:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/demo6.aiwalls.com\/ipapps\/?p=839"},"modified":"2020-04-10T10:03:40","modified_gmt":"2020-04-10T10:03:40","slug":"new-nissan-ceo-brings-global-outlook-but-faces-uphill-task","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.txd9.com\/?p=839","title":{"rendered":"New Nissan CEO brings global outlook but faces uphill task"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Nissan

\n Nissan is struggling to right itself in the wake of the Carlos Ghosn scandal
\n <\/figcaption>

Nissan’s new chief executive Makoto Uchida is an insider with a global outlook, but he faces an uphill struggle to right the Japanese automaker still reeling from the Carlos Ghosn scandal.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Uchida, 53, was named on Tuesday to replace Hiroto Saikawa, who resigned in September after being implicated in an excess pay scheme.<\/p>\n

He will be joined in the top ranks by newly named chief operating officer India-born Ashwani Gupta, who currently serves in the same role at Nissan partner Mitsubishi Motors.<\/p>\n

And Nissan’s Jun Seki, current head of the firm’s China unit, will serve as vice-COO, in a new structure intended to avoid anyone consolidating power in the way Ghosn is said to have before his arrest on financial misconduct charges last year.<\/p>\n

Uchida is described as a skilled administrator with international experience and a commitment to Nissan’s tense alliance with France’s Renault and Mitsubishi Motors.<\/p>\n

He “made a strong impression on me”, Renault chairman and Nissan board member Jean-Dominique Senard told AFP.<\/p>\n

“He is very Japanese, but he has an openness from his international background,” added Senard, who sat on the nomination committee that carried out the CEO search.<\/p>\n

He described Uchida as “direct” and with a “very modern” management style.<\/p>\n

Importantly for Renault, which has pushed for a strengthening of its three-way partnership with Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors, Uchida views the alliance “as essential for the future of Nissan”, Senard said.<\/p>\n

\n \"Makoto
\n Makoto Uchida is a long-time Nissan insider with a global outlook who has lived and worked outside Japan
\n <\/figcaption>

‘Citizen of the world’<\/b><\/p>\n

Uchida began his career at trading house Nissho Iwai and in 2003 joined Nissan, where he is currently serving as a vice president.<\/p>\n

He has an unusually international background for a senior Japanese executive, having spent much of his childhood overseas including in Malaysia, and reportedly speaks near-native English.<\/p>\n

He is even reported to have conducted negotiations in Tagalog with traders in the Philippines while working at Nissho Iwai.<\/p>\n

“Uchida is what Japanese call a kokusai-jin” (citizen of the world): he’s very international and has spoken English since he was child,” said Janet Lewis, an auto analyst at Macquarie Capital Securities.<\/p>\n

He holds an undergraduate degree in theology and has worked heading Nissan’s joint venture in China as well as at Renault Samsung in South Korea.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Nissan executives stressed that unique profile in naming Uchida on Tuesday, saying he had a “diverse and wide range of experience”.<\/p>\n

“We are in a difficult time (and) he will be qualified as the leader of the company,” said Masakazu Toyoda, who headed the nomination committee.<\/p>\n

Gupta too is seen as a relatively forward-thinking choice for the COO role, as a non-Japanese executive who at 49 is significantly younger than many in the upper echelons of Japan Inc.<\/p>\n

He is said to be a keen supporter of the alliance with Renault, and obtained a diploma from French business school Insead.<\/p>\n

Seki, meanwhile, is viewed as a Japanese insider. He has spent his entire career at Nissan, and graduated from Japan’s National Defense Academy, usually a track into the military.<\/p>\n

\n \"Nissan's
\n Nissan’s new CEO faces an uphill struggle to reverse a profit slide and implement job cuts
\n <\/figcaption>

Avoiding ‘dictatorship’<\/b><\/p>\n

Nissan has been undergoing a governance overhaul in the wake of the Ghosn scandal, which saw the tycoon accused of under-reporting compensation and using company funds for personal expenses.<\/p>\n

The decision to name a new COO and vice-COO is intended to create a more open executive structure, experts said.<\/p>\n

“The troika system was introduced to avoid the emergence of dictatorship,” said Koji Endo, a senior analyst at SBI Securities.<\/p>\n

But he warned that the decision could come with downsides.<\/p>\n

“The troika management system may have some weakness when it comes to quick decision-making compared with a system led by a strong leader.”<\/p>\n

And the team faces enormous challenges. In July the firm posted its worst first-quarter results since the global financial crisis and, while it has cited a global slowdown in the auto sector, Nissan is also suffering from a lack of innovation and reputational damage from the Ghosn scandal.<\/p>\n

“The very first thing the new CEO has to do is to revise down Nisan’s full-year earnings forecast… and then cut dividends,” Endo said.<\/p>\n

The alliance must also be strengthened, 12,500 job cuts implemented, and the US business turned around, he added.<\/p>\n

“It is a task that normally takes more than a year or two but it has to be fixed quickly.”<\/p>\n

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