Established in 1933, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. is one of the three largest automobile manufacturers in Japan. Nissan also has world-class technology and R&D center, which is called "Technology Nissan" by the automobile industry. However, just like the common problems of many large Japanese enterprises, due to serious bureaucracy and poor cost control, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. suffered losses from 199 1 999 for seven consecutive years, with debts as high as 2 1000 billion yen, and its market share dropped from 6.6% to less than 5%, and the company was on the verge of bankruptcy.
1On May 28th, 1999, Renault acquired 36.8% equity of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. for US$ 4.86 billion and 22.5% equity of Nissan Diesel Co., Ltd. for US$ 76.6 million, at a price of 400 yen per share. In addition, Renault also acquired five financial subsidiaries of Nissan in Europe for $305 million. In this way, Renault spent a total of $5.2 billion to complete the acquisition of Nissan.
After the acquisition of Nissan, a total of 65,438+07 people from Renault joined Nissan's senior management and were stationed in various important departments, among which carlos ghosn joined Nissan's board of directors as the chief operating officer. Under the leadership of Ghosn, known as the "cost killer", Nissan turned losses into profits in just two years. In fiscal year 2000 (from March 2000 to March 2006, 5438+0), Nissan made a profit of $2.7 billion. In fiscal year 20001,the company's comprehensive operating profit reached $3.92 billion, and its comprehensive after-tax net profit was $2.97 billion. The operating rate of the factory increased from 5 1% to 75%. Nissan "has changed from a struggling enterprise to a stable enterprise". This is an extraordinary achievement that shocked the whole world, because he is a westerner, but he has successfully transformed a Japanese giant enterprise with a closed concept and a conservative style. Ghosn, a French pastime, pulled Nissan out of the situation of huge losses and made Nissan a model of automobile enterprise regeneration.
Ghosn once said, "If I fail, I will become a philosopher. But if I succeed, it will be one of the greatest successes of the automobile industry in this century. " Under Ghosn's leadership, Nissan achieved success and became a research case of MBA in famous universities such as Harvard.
Save Nissan motor company
How does this "cost killer" hurt the killer? When Ghosn took office, he plunged into every corner of the company, personally went to the production workshop, staff canteen and dealers to listen to the situation report, and personally tested dozens of Nissan cars, but before that, no senior Nissan car official personally tested his own car.
When Ghosn first came to Nissan, the troubled car company was always criticized as riddled with holes and nothing. No one knows what the core problem is and what should be solved first. Ghosn didn't know at the time that his knowledge was not enough for him to make a judgment. In order to find out the reason, Ghosn claimed to be a "scientist spirit". When he first arrived at Nissan, he inspected Nissan's branches, design centers and manufacturing plants around the world, and talked with various employees and suppliers of Nissan. Ghosn, who is exposed to the facts, believes that neither the appreciation of the yen, domestic overcapacity nor the Asian economic crisis are the core issues of Nissan's decline. The core problem is that every Nissan employee lacks crisis awareness, and the management team has no clear goals and no clear plans.
How to make a practical plan? That is, cross-functional team management is realized, and representatives from different departments raise questions for discussion. 1In July, 1999, Ghosn became the chief operating officer of Nissan for less than two weeks, and set up nine cross-functional teams to be responsible for different projects such as procurement and R&D.. Then, after nearly three months of detailed investigation and full discussion, Ghosn made the famous Nissan Recovery Plan (NRP), and announced that the deficit would be eliminated by comprehensive operation in 20001year. In 2002, the sales profit rate reached 4.5%, and the interest-bearing debt was reduced to below 700 billion yen.
After having a clear understanding of Nissan, Ghosn used the "killer". Ignoring Japan's commercial tradition, he took the bold method of "surgery" for the first time for the Japanese who were used to the "gentle breeze and drizzle" reform, and reduced the number of parts suppliers by half, from 1300 to about 600; Reduce procurement costs by 20% within 3 years; Reduce sales costs and management costs by 20%; In three years, the company laid off 2 1000 people and closed five factories; Selling all non-automobile industries unrelated to automobile production, including real estate stocks and Nissan's proud aerospace department, made Ghosn a public enemy of Japanese traditionalists. Gore's series of actions not only made Nissan Motor Company feel deep pain, but also made suppliers with complicated relations with Nissan Motor Company feel pain. As soon as the news came out, the employees of those manufacturers burst into tears. Gore, who has always been regarded as ruthless, expressed deep gratitude to everyone who made sacrifices for Nissan with deep human feelings in his speech. Many people's interests were damaged by the closure of the factory, but the direct result of the closure of the factory was that the daily production capacity utilization rate increased from 565,438+0% to 74%, which made Nissan out of the predicament.
But what can't be copied is that he zeroed all his preconceptions and accepted everything as a blank sheet of paper-with such diverse life backgrounds as Lebanon, France, Brazil and North America, Ghosn has the ability to really do all this. But that doesn't mean it is easy for everyone. If you don't believe me, you can ask stringer. The American occasionally sighs at Sony headquarters.
Maybe someone can tell more visions than him, maybe someone can save more costs than him, and maybe someone can find a future strategy faster than him. But so far, no one can quickly integrate into a company with a unique corporate culture and carry out his ideas with ease with the help of personality and background like Ghosn. So for those who long for survival and revival, he is the savior.
In less than two years, Ghosn made Nissan, which had suffered losses for seven consecutive years, rely on the Japanese to achieve its first profit.
"Nissan's revival plan has made many people feel pain. This is accompanied by the pain of sacrifice, but for the regeneration of Nissan, we have no choice. " Gore reborn Nissan in a bold and quick way. Because of Ghosn's extraordinary performance, he won the title of "CEO" of the best operator lineup in the automobile industry in 2000 by American Automotive News.
On the basis of successfully realizing Nissan's revival plan one year ahead of schedule, Ghosn put forward "180 plan" in 2002, which is a comprehensive operation plan, aiming at supporting Nissan's sustainable development by increasing sales volume, improving profit margin and realizing zero debt. The three numbers "1-8-0" respectively represent Nissan's three goals to be achieved in the three years from April 2002: 1 "It means that the company's annual global car sales in fiscal year 2004 will increase by about 1 10,000 compared with fiscal year 200 1;" 8 "represents an operating profit margin of 8%, reaching the highest level of global automobile manufacturers. 0" means reducing the net debt of the automobile industry to a level close to zero. In the case of zero debt, Nissan can decide investment projects only according to the return on investment.
In September 2005, Ghosn announced that by the end of September, compared with the fiscal year 200 1 10,000, Nissan had achieved the sales growth target of 1 10,000 vehicles, and the "180 Plan" of Nissan had been fully completed.