Case Study : Nissan Motors And The Japanese Automotive Industry At The Time Ghosn

Renault on one hand, being a French company had a individualistic culture. Once own iondipende3nce and individuality matters the most in the society where as Nissan being a Japanese company believes in the concept of collectivism. They strongly believe in the power of group work. Therefore, it was important to consider both sides of the coin while deciding the policies in the newly formed alliance.

This is a case study analysis on Nissan Canada Inc. (NCI) and its plan to move from a “make to stock” to a “make to order” process and the implementation of NCI’s Integrated Customer Ordering Network (ICON). Involved in the implementation of ICON, NCI is faced with several challenges in the conversion of its outdated ordering process to Manugistics, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. (Hunter, 2007)

Nissan is guided by the corporate vision of enriching people's lives and contributes to the sustainable development of society through global activities. The company’s mission is to provide innovative and unique automotive products and services that deliver superior values to all stakeholders in alliance with Renault. As the world's leading automotive manufacturer, Nissan is also committed to providing solutions for human being. The company is committed to providing better, more valuable and sustainable mobility for all stakeholders - including customers, shareholders, employees and communities engaged in business activities. According to its business activities, Nissan not only create economic value, but also for the sustainable development of society to make a positive contribution.

This paper is reference to provide a draft of a complete research project. So, I provide details for car industry, specifically Al-Futtaim organization. I will analysis the SWOT for Al-Futtaim Company and I will show in issues and challenges. For that, I can found Suggestion for the research. Moreover, I will identify at least three relevant CLOs from semester 7 and 8. My organization for my research is Al-Futtaim Company. The company founder is Majid Al-Futtaim; he has many companies and projects like City Centers, hotels, Emirates Mall, Carrefour and others. I will talk about Al-Futtaim Company which is for cars. It is a big company in the UAE and they have many branches in GCC and Greater Middle East, Australasia, Africa, South East and North Asia and Europe. They established in 1930 until now and they are famous organization.

As part of developing market strategies, a company should know where it is strong or slack, as well as consider past experiences and future possibilities. One such means is a SWOT analysis. The worth of this tool lies in its simplicity and clarity by scrutinizing the internal

General Motors (GM) is a largest automotive manufacturer in the world in terms of market capital and production capability. During its 100 years of business, the firm has produced more than 400 million automobiles, and continue to grow its business in the different regions. The firm has been growing in sales, acquiring other brands, and implement new products and technology to serve for consumers around the world. After the firm has filed the bankruptcy protection in 2009, GM continues re-structure its management, re-focused its core business, which are GMC, Cadillac, Buick, and Chevrolet support GM competing in the automotive market. This automotive portfolio provides Gm a significant ongoing revenue, and support the firm to grow and expand its market shares in a foreseeable future.

Being a global automotive manufacturing company it requires high-end manufacturing capabilities and innovation to make its mark in the market felt Temsa and its management. Further analysis of the report available with the company shows that it was part of Temsa futuristic outlook towards its operational expertise. The company since 2009 has been in the right course of strategic formulation to make its presence on a global arena. (Temsa Global , 2009 )

One of the world’s largest automakers, GMC has it’s roots traced back to 1908. Also known as GM, this company is a United States-based automaker with its headquarters in Detroit, Michigan. After the General Motors Company was founded, it soon became known as one of the largest car manufacturers in the world. In 1909, the Grabowsky Rapid Motor Vehicle Company (GMC) joined with GM. The trade name GMC Trucks was first exhibited in 1912 at the New York Auto Show and registered with the U.S. Patent Office eight months later. The

Thus, SWOT analysis was being used to identify the strength, weaknesses, opportunity, and threats of the company’s operation. By using this analysis, we get to identify how the company’s operation runs and what strategies would be the best to be suggested in the alternatives. The strength for Taurus is well established background, reputation for quality, strong division and strategic internal development. The weakness is inefficiencies productivity, weak competitive position and not incorporated division. The threat and opportunity is from the external environment. The opportunity is highly attractive market, awareness of joint venture and merging, high demand of rubbers and tires, opportunity to privatise and the competitiveness of Hungary 's exports. Lastly, the threat is high threat of new entrants, maturity of tires, occurrence of new private law and crisis in Hungarian industry.

With all of the strengths that come with being a top auto manufacturer every company must also face weaknesses that can arise from the current business landscape. As the automotive industry continues to move in the direction of globalization it is important for manufacturers to be strongly represented in all large and emerging world markets. Although DaimlerChrysler is well represented in the American and European markets they are not strongly represented in the Asian markets. Therefore, DC try to entre in these markets through partnership and alliance with the Japanese Mitsubishi first and the korean Hyunday. They struggle to produce mass-market cars to offer in these markets.

Ford, Toyota, Honda, Volkswagen, and Daimler Chrylser, all of that work in a competitive global

Nissan had been undergoing losses for last 7 years when Ghosn took over Nissan as COO in 1999(Millikin and Fu, 2005). He was the first non-Japanese Chief Operating Officer for Nissan. The anticipation was a big cultural clash for this project as Ghosn came from French Leadership style to Japanese culture. Business analysts anticipated that this can be a big difference to the Japanese employees. It was a worst possible time for any leader because of Nissan’s financial and business position. The situation was very critical as the continuing financial losses were resulting in debts that were approximately around 22 billion Dollars. This had resulted in shaking of confidence for Nissan suppliers as well as financers. Company was producing 43 models of vehicles and only 4 of them were producing profits. The portfolio of Nissan brand was weakening in the minds of consumers due to its current state. There was little liquid capital for new product development and nobody was anticipating that Nissan could increase their margins and overcome the losses. Nissan’s Models were old and it was creating loss of interest in Nissan brand in the minds of consumers.

Along with other Japanese manufacturers, Nissan was successfully competing on quality, reliability and fuel efficiency. By 1991, Nissan was operating very profitably, producing four of the top ten cars in the world.Nissan management throughout the 1990s, however, had displayed a tendency to emphasize short term market share growth, rather than profitability or long-term strategic success. Nissan was very well known for its advanced engineering and technology, plant productivity, and quality management. During the previous decade, Nissan’s designs had not reflected customer opinion because they assumed that most customers preferred to buy good quality cars rather than stylish, innovative cars. Instead of reinvesting in new product designs as other competitors did, Nissan managers seemed content to continue to harvest the success of proven designs. They tended to put retained earnings into equity of other companies, often suppliers, and into real-estate investments, as part of the Japanese business custom of keiretsu investing. Through these equity stakes in other companies, Ghosn’s predecessors (and Japanese business leaders in general) believed that loyalty and cooperation were fostered between members of the value chain within their keiretsu.

For instance in the passenger car market, the major growth opportunity for the next several years will still be in the small car sector(800-1000 c.c.) where Maruti has the best prospects. G.M. or Ford cannot claim this as their opportunity because they do not have products to offer in this critical market segment. SWOT analysis should also cover the existing business and functional strategies of the firm. If all this is done the SWOT can provide a complete and exhaustive framework for environmental analysis.

Toyota Motor Corporation is a Japan-based company and expands quickly around the world. It has overtaken General Motors Corporation and ranked the first in the automobile industry since 2008 (Towill 2010). Toyota entered into Australia in 1958 and was perceived as one of the most significant parts of the Australian export market. However, it is in a dilemma and facing unprecedented pressure due to a series of internal and external reasons. Toyota utilises a balanced business model and pursue an export-oriented strategy to overcome the insufficient domestic demand. While this strategy might address the high-cost problem, it is highly reliant on the import, which is likely to restrict Toyota’s development and lose competitive advantages in the long term. Additionally, Toyota Australia suffers from the external environment, resulting in adverse situations and manufacturing losses. First and foremost, it is limited by political issues. For instance, the liberal trade policies and unbalanced trading environment could discourage the importation of the Australian cars. Secondly, the change of market structure, such as increasing demand for small fuel-efficient cars, might be counter to the types of cars manufactured by Toyota.