Dilema: Mission Impossible?
TASK 1
Cultural factors might affect the success of appointing a foreign CEO at Nissan
· The Japanese have a strong sense to belonging to the group; foreigner may have
difficulty being accepted by them.
· Japanese language has a vague way to express ideas
· Negotiating and decisions making often take place outside any formal meeting
context
· Action is only taken after thorough consultation with people concerned
· Japanese employees are motivated with more responsibilities, not with more money
or gifts.
· Japan has an indirect culture, being direct seem rude and impolite.
· They place a lot of importance on events starting and finishing on time.
· They prefer to build long-term business relationships and invest a lot of personal
time socialising out of office hours to create trust and understanding.
· In a Japanese organization the most important resource is its staff.
Arguments to persuade Carlos Ghosn to accept the position:
· If he is successful, he could become the next director of the group
· He would have more reputation in his business career.
· An excellent paid for bringing Nissan back to profit.
· He would improve his knowledge in this area
Carlos Ghosn´s requests in order to accept the position
· Training course about Japanese culture at work
· Contract someone from Japan who helps Carlos Ghosn to understand Japanese
language.
· The old CEO has to explain to the authorities the possibility to eliminate jobs and
factories.
· Renault and Nissan must support Carlos Ghosn´s decisions
TASK 2
LOUIS SCHWEITZER´S NOTES
As you can realize Nissan has lost money for the sixth consecutive year, the company
´s debts have soured $19 billion and nowadays, they´re losing $1000 dollars on every
car we produce, therefore we need a plan that improves this terrible situation, we´ve
thought that it could be possible to implement new strategies in our Sales and
Marketing departments as checking new markets or make an innovation in the cars,
also we want to do research for having right reasons and attack in which we´re failing.
Besides it´s necessary to see what our competitor are doing, our market position, to
make a FODA analysis and motivate our employees, but especially the sales area
because they bring load brilliant help for improving the expectative .
Finally we know that our situation is bad, so we know that changes can not be so
quickly but we would like an increase as fast as possible.
CARLOS GHOSN´S NOTES
To accept the assignment is a very hard decision, Nissan is losing a lot of money very
quickly and set a solution is a slow activity. It is possible that one of the solution
might be eliminate jobs and factories, the company must be agree with this possibility
because it might mean reduce cost and get profit. In order to take the job is necessary
to talk about:
· How Japanese people are going to take the decision of a foreign CEO: If Japanese
employees do not accept me like their new boss I won´t take the assignment.
· What will happen if I am successful in the company: I want to be offered with a
better position in the Renault Group.
· What will happen if I am not successful in the company: I need completely certain
that Renault understands that maybe the problem depends on the market or the
competition; if it is the case, it will very hard to change the situation quickly.
TASK 3
Topics that are going to be discussed:
· Differences between the new CEO and Japanese culture
· Solutions for the company´s debts
· Eliminating jobs and factories
· Take position of the Renault group if Carlos Ghosn is successful at Nissan.
· Period of time in order to get results.
WRITE IT UP
FROM: Louis Schweitzer
TO: Thor Alfred Tuch
SUBJECT: Discussion with Carlos Ghosn
Dear: Mr Tuch
I have had a meeting with Carlos Ghosn last Friday, we talk about his new assignment
as Nissan CEO and problems related with the Japanese culture. As you know Carlos
Ghosn thinks that one solution is eliminating jobs and factories, we agree about
implementing new strategies in Nissan´s Sales and Marketing departments before
eliminate employees. Also we agree about contracting someone who helps him to
understand Japanese culture at work, Could look for someone this week?, he is going
to travel to Japan next Monday in order to take the job.
I´m sending a copy of the contract in the attached file.
Yours sincerely
Louis Schweitzer
