The Successful Merge of Renault Corporation and Nissan Motors
In 1999, RENAULT, a French midsize automaker company decided to create an alliance with Japan's NISSAN Motors. This operation has transformed the company into a global player, inside the very competitive market of worldwide vehicular distribution. By taking over 36.8% of Nissan's capital, Renault decided to send Carlos Ghosn, as new manager from Nissan, in order for him to install a "Nissan Revival Plan" (NRP). Actually, this plan has been made in order for both corporations to restore profitability, and acquire and increase market shares in Japan. My paper presents and describes the different aspects of this successful merging operation between two cultural opposites way of managing and running business. In other words, it shows the differences and changes that have been brought by Renault Corporation. First, it presents the major leadership role played by Carlos Ghosn in successfully restoring Nissan's health. Secondly, it introduces the Nissan's Japanese way of running an organization, and the main changes made by Renault organization, a western European firm: showing the huge different gap between the two ways of managing businesses.
Carlos Ghosn has been charged to revive Nissan Motor Corporation. After working in turn-around situations at Renault in France and at Michelin's U.S. operations, 46-year-old Brazilian-born Ghosn moved to Nissan Japan in 1999, and has vowed to quit if the auto maker isn't profitable by March, showing his characters determination. His leadership has been one of the main factors of the working of Nissan Revival. The question is what really makes him a leader? Actually, understanding the different characteristics of his personality really explains why this alliance has been successful, as Carlos Ghosn has been one of the principal actors of the merge between Renault and Nissan. Kenji Watanuki, director of Foreign Investment in Japan Development Corporation (FIND) describes him as the complete opposite of traditional Japanese managers: "he has energy, charisma, and simplicity. He is saying what he is doing, and doing what he is saying". Moreover, the public opinion has been praising the personality of the new Nissan leader: " A 'gaijin' (foreigner) that comes to save Nissan, speaks frankly and has the reputation to work from 7 to 23 seems to appeal Japanese people curiosity...". Nicknamed Icebreaker, his skill at ignoring local business practices that stand in the way of making money has really shown Nissan organization his leadership. His behavior defies Japanese business habits and etiquette.
In this argument I will be focusing on Fox Car Rental, Inc. as the basis for a systematic analyses of the organization, as I identify the strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to the existence of the organization and its operations. Also, I will be providing three pitfalls to strategic management. In order to facilitate my argument, the use of a strategic matrix analyses will be utilized.
The case study, `Will GM 's Strategic Plan Lead to Success,` is about how the company General Motors Co. Plans to overcome financial deficits, ensure growth within the company, and remain competitive in the automotive industry. To help with overcoming financial deficits, GM was apart of the bailout, which assisted GM in relieving themselves of almost $40 billion dollars of debt. This restructuring gave GM an advantage over other automakers. Most other automotive businesses, that did not participate in the bailout, still have billions of dollars of debt they must repay in addition to competing with its adversaries.(Kinicki & Williams, 2013). GM made many cutbacks to ensure growth within the company. The reduced the amount models that are in production. They have recognized that some changes need to be implemented with global production in order to remain ahead.
GM had experienced a level of success that developed a reputation as the world’s preeminent producer of automotive products. Because of its success, which produced substantial fiscal resources, the company was awash in cash flow, cash reserve, and lines of credit. GM’s management was the victim of 50 years of industry success. Management was characterized by a bloated, bureaucratic structure that impeded any attempt to improve the corporation. Top management established a fixed objective in the closed decision-making process towards GM’s strategic objectives. There was little to create a realistic Gap analysis, which made is easy to overlook the need to reinvent its management before undertaking the reinvention of the entire corporation.
Achieving world class business performance is a major challenge in today’s society. Manufacturing companies continue to face increased competition and globalization from its competitors. (1, p. 148). The automotive industry is one of the most volatile manufacturing industries that we have, which was evident in the 2008 – 2010 automotive industry crisis. (2) This global financial downturn served notice to the American automotive manufactures to raise the bar, in order to achieve word class business performance. General Motors, one of the country’s largest automotive manufactures, had to receive a government bailout to survive. During this time many with the corporation asked themselves, if we were a world class business, would we be facing this pending crisis. The answer was a resounding “NO”. General Motors has come out of bankruptcy and is focused on being a world-class business organization.
Two major competitors in the global consumer electronics industry, Philips of the Netherlands and Matsushita of Japan, both have extensive histories that can be traced back more than a century. They have each followed different strategies and have had significant capabilities and downfalls along the way. In general, Philips built its tenured success on a portfolio of responsive national organizations. On the other hand, Matsushita based its global strategy on a centralized and efficient operation through Japan. As they developed and reorganized their international strategies, each company was forced to undertake its strategic posture and restructuring as its competition position fell.
Through Dupont analysis, we have been able to see the specific strengths and weaknesses of BMW and Audi’s management. BMW’s lower profit margin and asset turnover indicate less efficient cost management and asset management. Their debt multiplier indicates that they’re taking advantage of debt, but the benefit of this isn’t realized because of their problems with cost and asset management. Due to Audi’s more efficient use of their assets, and better cost efficiency, it can be said that their management has performed better than BMW’s over the past year.
Harley Davidson’s remarkable success and turnaround from a company nearing extinction to a business model of success (James & Graham, 2004; Johan Van & Brian, 2000; Teerlink & Ozley, 2000) is secured by the environment developed at Harley-Davidson through the organizational changes led by former CEO Rich Teerlink. Mr. Teerlink fundamentally changed the structure of Harley-Davidson from a command and control, top down leadership company to one of collaborative organizational design (Teerlink & Ozley, 2000). This paper will describe the organizational structure at Harley-Davidson, how the organizational structure evolved, evaluate how the structure responds to environmental factors, and conclude with this authors opinion on efficacy. The organizational structural change at Harley-Davidson resurrected an American icon to a global leader in motorcycle manufacturing.
We feel that the joint venture is still too premature to have a change in leadership and management. Controls Asia-Pacific at this stage should avoid experimenting with the management, especially when the current operations at the factory are beginning to show signs of progress and improvement. As a long term strategy, we recommend James to be made Head of Operations of Controls Asia Pacific in Singapore because he is the best suited person who not only understands the culture and vision of the parent company in the US, but also can transcend that ideology to the Controls Asia-Pacific HQ and the joint venture.
Over the last 30 years the world has seen drastic changes in the Chinese way of making business. Nowadays, China has opened its businesses to the rest of the world, especially America and Europe (Teagarden & Cai, 2009). As a result, their economy has increased and the evolution of the companies have changed to be from closed doors to be international and multinational (Teagarden & Cai, 2009). This essay will analyze, first of all, how some Chinese companies have had success abroad, looking at the strategy that they applied to expand and to improve their products. Furthermore, this essay will show examples of successful Chinese firms, such as Lenovo and TCL Group, and how they achieve it.
This case depicts about the success stories of the collaboration in the automobile industry by the Japanese and US firm though they were obviously competitors. One significant success story emerging from the alliance involves Ford probe and Mazda MX-6. There were swapping of resources and capabilities between the two firms. Mazda designers design the basic platform, engine and drive train for the cars. Mazda then design the outside of the MX-6 and Ford does same for the probe. Finally both cars are assembled at a factory owned by the two firms. Ford escort was another successful offspring of the alliance where again the Mazda engineers designed the car and Ford made it. But the alliance was not without spots. Mazda Navaho one of the offspring of the alliance which was basically build upon the on of the Ford popular product Ford explorer and build by the Ford makers. Ford made an opposite step by denying to provide the Japanese partners Navaho production to continue production of its own product line. The partner Mazda in addition fell into financial distress and Ford got the effective management control of Mazda and took some bold steps which eventually went against the collaboration.
During the 1990s, Japan has been exposed to one of the most difficult structural transition periods in its post-war history, in terms of social and economic conditions. There have been two major changes: one is a substantial decline in economic growth in real terms, and the other is a changing social structure characterized by the declining birth rate and the ageing population. Under the pressure of changes in the economic environment caused by globalization and innovations in information technology, Japanese business corporations are forced to adapt to the new situation. While companies faced with fierce international competition, it became more critical to understand the basic knowledge of complicated legal, cultural, economic, and social issues. Engaging in international trade also requires attention to international regulations, international business planning, international market research, funding, distribution and other areas that must be considered separately from domestic business issues. The paper suggests some of the basic tools that can apply to solve the problem or to bring the business opportunity to fruition in today's Japanese business environment
Every successful company needs a competitive advantage. As part of our companies future they current successor team has researched various goals and strategies that will move Ford forward and allow them to be competitive in the changing market. “Ford must solve its nagging overseas problems and then "p...
However, during the 1990s, Philips and Matsushita both faced major challenges to sustain their position in the market. Changing profile of the industry and globalization forces made Philips and Matsushita’s organizational models and competitive advantages obsolete, and brought up the need for drastic actions. At the brink of a new century, the battle of two giants unraveled with CEOs from both sides implementing another round of strategic initiatives and restructurings. The pressure put on new CEOs was enormous – wrong st...
The purpose of this brief is to present our senior management team with an in-depth guide to the culture and customs of the Japanese people. In today’s business world, the importance of understanding national cultural differences in multinational relationships is key. As we focus on expanding globally, it essential for our company to understand the similarities and differences of other cultures. This cultural brief should provide our senior management team the knowledge to adapt their communication and behavior styles effectively when working with Japanese colleagues.
Toyota Motor Corporation is one of the largest automakers in the world. At its annual conference in Tokyo on May 8, 2008, the company announced that activities through March 2008 generated a sales figure of $252.7 billion, a new record for the company. However, the company is lowering expectations for the coming year due to a stronger yen, a slowing American economy, and the rising cost of raw materials (Rowley, 2008). If Toyota is to continue increasing its revenue, it must examine its business practice and determine on a course of action to maximize its profit.