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I Witnessed: ‘Ghosn day’
4 years ago
The formation of the Alliance undoubtedly saved Nissan
The story of the creation of the Renault-Nissan Alliance and the remarkable turnaround that followed has been told many times already, so let’s fast-forward a bit, to the autumn of that year and the date in question…
For several months, the company had been run by Carlos Ghosn, the Lebanese-Brazilian-French management hotshot, who had flown into Tokyo with a small band of faithful lieutenants and been busy travelling all around the Nissan world, interviewing people and taking copious notes. Listening hard, but saying little. Finally, it was announced that Ghosn-san would address all employees on October 18th, to announce his restructuring plans. All staff were kindly requested (read: required) to attend, by videoconference for the vast majority of the 137,000 staff worldwide. As the days ticked down, the anticipation was immense. We were excited, curious – and more than a little scared.
I was back in the UK by now, so I crammed into a too-crowded meeting room with my colleagues in Cranfield. These were pre-Zoom or Teams days – a videoconference was a high-tech piece of dedicated kit that needed coaxing into life. But someone had set things up well in advance, and the conference was, like us, ready and waiting when Mr Ghosn stepped out onto the stage and into our screens, bang on time as was his wont. Ghosn day was here, at last.
"I can still see him. Sober grey suit, slicked-back hair, those piercing dark eyes. He was mesmerising. In his perfect English with that unplaceable citizen-of-the-world accent, he began to outline what was to become known as the Nissan Revival Plan"
I can still see him. Sober grey suit, slicked-back hair, those piercing dark eyes behind frameless glasses. He was mesmerising. In his perfect English with that unplaceable citizen-of-the-world accent, he began to outline what was to become known as the Nissan Revival Plan, or NRP.
The plan itself was completely logical, to the point of sounding rather obvious – drastically reducing the numbers of platforms (from a remarkable 25 to just five), combining Nissan and Renault purchasing organisations and hence power, plus management restructuring. But then came the part that made the silence in the room even deeper – plant shutdowns and layoffs. Ghosn calmly listed out five plants for closure in Japan, with the associated loss of some 26,000 jobs.
This was a thunderbolt. Nissan was a company that still prided itself on stable job-for-life employment, and which had only ever closed one car plant in recent history – and that, the closure of the Zama factory in 1993, still remained deeply traumatic in corporate memory: a shameful episode one simply did not mention. We knew that the cuts required to cure the company’s ills would have to be deep, but this was worse than anyone had feared. As Ghosn signed off and the screen went blank, we all just sat there dumbly staring at it, stunned.
"A few years later, Nissan would be back on its feet, and would continue to accelerate hard all through the 2010s. By 2017 the Renault-Nissan Alliance would be jostling Toyota and GM for the top step on the podium for the world’s largest car maker
So why did the Earth stand still that day? Well, we knew even at the time that this was big. It felt significant, not just for Nissan, but for the automotive industry itself. But shocking as the plant closures and redundancies were, there was also an odd sense of excitement. This strangely charismatic chap with the conviction that we could still save our company was compelling – like someone saying that we would set off to climb Mount Everest, and that he could show us the way.
And with hindsight it was truly significant. A few years later, Nissan would be back on its feet, and would continue to accelerate hard all through the 2010s. By 2017 the Renault-Nissan Alliance would be jostling Toyota and GM for the top step on the podium for the world’s largest car maker.
And if you’d told me that day that the guy on the TV screen would end his career 20 years later, curled up in a Yamaha music box smuggled onto a business jet, fleeing Japan? I would have felt your forehead, and asked you if you needed a little lie down…
