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Wagoner and Ghosn to meet later this month

Wagoner and Ghosn to meet later this month

Posted Jul 6th 2006 8:58AM

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Speculation is further being fueled that a possible alliance between General Motors and Nissan/Renault could become a reality with news coming yesterday that Rick Wagoner, the embattled yet persistent CEO of GM, and Carlos Ghosn, the superstar CEO of Nissan and Renault, will meet in Detroit later this month to, you know, catch up on things.

To refresh your memory on what's transpired so far, we'll give you a brief timeline of events that has led us to this point.

We're not experts in mergers and acquisitions, and word on the street is comprised of equal parts support and opposition. Only one thing is clear at this point: a lot will be riding on this meeting of the minds in Motown.

[Source: Inside Line]

Category: GM, Nissan

Tags: alliance, Carlos Ghosn, CarlosGhosn, Detroit, meeting, partners, partnership, Renault, Rick Wagoner, RickWagoner

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Nissan has at least 2 problems, Toyota and Honda.
I am the owner of a 1997 Infiniti Q45t. It has been a good car ever since I bought it. But when it's time to look for a new car in the fall, I am looking for a BMW, a Benz, a Lexus or even an Acura. Despite all the talk about the supposed turnaround of Nissan, it has fallen further behind. For those of you armchair analysts and pundits, have you ever been a real customer or done any on-site research?

There has been some marginal improvement in dealer service and added car features. But Toyota(ahem Lexus), BMW all have done much better. Ghosn and Nissan(er.. Infiniti) has to show me much more improvement before I will even consider the Q again.

I don't know much nor care about Renault. But Nissan is falling behind Toyota, Honda and BMW. Stop this nonsense about fixing GM when Nissan has a LOT of fixing to do.

July 30 2006 at 4:09 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

#9 - It's "Reh-noh." The French language seems to enjoy sticking a bunch of silent consonants onto the ends of words. Not that English is any more "thoroughly" logical.

July 07 2006 at 3:09 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

ZipZapZop

#8 enlighten me please. :P I've always thought it was pronounced reh-nawlt. Maybe it's ree-nawlt?

July 07 2006 at 12:00 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Steve

Can we just trade GM for Renault?

Perhaps we can enlighten these ignorant Americans who think Renault is pronounced "Reh-nawlt."

Seriously, the French have a long history of cooperation with our country, until Bush and Chirac began butting heads... This looks like a fantastic way to improve general relations.

July 06 2006 at 4:41 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Richard Warren

Actually #4 whats moronic is when you buy into the story.

Lets see, Renault, where are they? Not in the US the most lucrative market in the world. Then lets take a look at their performance that is "raved" about:

1999 2,370,684 units worldwide
2005 2,533,428 units worldwide
That's a growth of 162,000 units

Revenues while up

1999 37,592 in euros (millions)
2005 41,338 in euros (millions)

That's not much of an increas

But what is more telling is the % of profit

1999 2,205 in euros (millions) 5.9% of revenue
2005 1,323 in euros (millions) 3.2% of revenue

Debt about the same

Cash Flow somewhat better than in 1999 but down from 2004

Income from Nissan only 2,275 in euros (millions) (drop in the bucket)

Who has made out? The shareholders and all signs are that Nissan is starting to stall again. And by the way
he earned his name for cutting in fact:

"The Brazilian-born Frenchman rapidly earned the nickname "Le Cost Killer" as he set about restoring profitability through a series of cutbacks and plant closures. Get that? Labor cutbacks and plant closings.

Some models of Renault are down in sales 25% and keep in mind the French government owns 15.3% of Renault.

Keep in mind that they guy hired is being credited with product that had been planned out nearly 3 years prior and happend to hit the market at the right time.

Not taking anything away from Mr Goshn, but in some respects he got lucky time wise.

July 06 2006 at 1:46 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

If GM had the freedom to make the cuts Ghosn did, you know they'd do it in a second.

Making huge cuts may seem like a cheap way out of financial ruin to some, but does anyone have a better suggestion? How else could Nissan have survived given its stale product lineup and near-total lack of brand image in the late 1990s? If Nissan had continued on that path, the company would be where Mitsubishi is now.

There was *a lot* more to Nissan's turnaround plan than cuts, too. Look at the company's 1998 lineup. Then look at the 2003 lineup. That strategy was all about product, making vehicles that people wanted to buy. Recent years' sales figures back it up (yes, I know Nissan sales are down this year, but they're still turning a handsome profit).

Running a sinking boat into the ground, just to avoid rocking it, serves no one.

July 06 2006 at 1:02 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Arnie

Ohh boy

July 06 2006 at 12:22 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Whatever

Both posts - 1 & 2 - are absolutely moronic. Guess its worse to have Ghosn come in a turn the company around from bankrupcy (say what you will, but his team did it), rather than have it go the way of the BIG 3 losers and layoff 100's of thousands?

Benefactor - partially. They had good ideas in the pipeline, bad manufacturing models, no real brand image, and a weak dealer body. All changed AFTER Ghosn's 180 plan and the rebuilding...not before...otherwise there would have been no reason to bring him in.

Go back to sitting on the couch watching the SPEED channel and save your uninformed armchair CEO comments for the pizza delivery guy.

July 06 2006 at 12:05 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Arnie

I agree. Hatchet men are usually called in to do the dirty work and then they leave. This is for a good reason. Radically reorganizing a company the hard way is not the same as running a company. It requires different skills and a different personality.

July 06 2006 at 11:00 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Richard Warren

And once you've cut workforce for temporary gain, there is no place left to go other than product cuts (and just look at Nissans shaky quality) It's usually at this time folks like Ghosn begin to move on.

Make a mint for yourself and shareholders, move on to the next place, repeat, next place repeat, until there is nowhere left to go.

The real answer is product, quality, price point and good customer relations. It's called building a business, not gutting a business. And I agree with #1 the guy is way over rated

July 06 2006 at 10:33 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply