'Not Impossible': Nissan COO Talks Cash, Thinking Small Ahead of Comeback Plan

For an automaker that was already bleeding money and watching sales tallies shrink like a man who’s just hopped in the pool, the coronavirus pandemic came along at exactly the wrong time for Nissan.

As its lays off up to 10,000 U.S. workers amid an industry-wide shutdown, Nissan’s chief operating officer is already thinking about a brighter, more certain future.

Ashwani Gupta didn’t exactly lay out the entire recovery plan Nissan is expected to reveal in May, but he did offer up some teasers. For example: asset sales? Those seem to be off the table for now, marking a departure from previous thinking.

Calling the current situation a challenge, but “not impossible,” Gupta told Bloomberg Television, “Before talking about asset sales, we are focused on how we can capitalize existing assets.”

One way that strategy could bear fruit is by turning the automaker’s transmission unit, Jatco, into a purveyor of electrification hardware. Other assets owned by alliance partners Renault and Mitsubishi could find new roles, not owners, Gupta added.

One course the automaker isn’t straying from is its plan cut 12,500 heads from its global workforce. Global sales chasing and lofty targets will also remain the stuff of the Ghosn years, with Nissan embarking on a regional focus. Playing to its strengths in the markets that embrace the brand, then bolstering that effort. Services will also play a significant role in the company’s future, apparently.

At the beginning of what was already a bad year for the automaker, newly minted CEO Makoto Uchida urged shareholders to fire him if he didn’t pull off a successful comeback plan. That plan lands next month, with Gupta saying it will be “purely based on prioritization and focus.”

“It means that economic scale is not the only answer,” Gupta said. “We have to prioritize and focus where we get the maximum value.”

[Image: Nissan]