Nissan (Red, White, And Blue) Friday: America Disappoints More Than China
Nissan closed the year in America with U.S. sales up by 10 percent, but that wasn’t enough to please Ghosn. Said the CEO today in Yokohama:
“China was not our biggest disappointment last year. It was mainly the United States. We were expecting a strong year. It did not happen. We postponed it to 2013.”
Then, Ghosn calls up his EVP Colin Dodge to explain what happened last year in America. Dodge does not mince words either:
“We did not quite make it. We did not quite make the delivery targets, we did not quite make the cost targets, and we certainly destroyed our car flow, the reliability of our cars arriving at the dealers.”
Dodge booked it as a learning experience: “We learned what we were not very good at.” Now, he says, things are back under control. Mostly:
“This year, our carflow is in an orderly way, we are now delivering the cars our dealers are expecting, with one exception, the Sentra. We have about 50,000 backorders of the Sentra, and that will come in in Q4.”
Ghosn and his Lieutenants all skipped the class where they teach the art of the spin. I like that.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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You would never see this kind of honesty from a CEO of GM. Probably because they have an Obammy-mandated line to toe if they wanted their bailout money.
Wow, Ghosn looks like Mr. Bean in that pic!