Abstract

What are the fundamental causes of a company's deteriorating performance, and what are the conditions for a successful business restructuring plan?

What ruined Nissan Motor? How can it recover?
A specialist journalist with 29 years of experience analyzes the true causes of the management crisis and proposes "three solutions" and "two bold measures." The "final survival plan" is here. Rise again, Nissan Motor!

Nissan Motor is facing a management crisis. Unable to cover fixed costs, it has been forced into a large-scale restructuring, cutting 20,000 jobs and closing 7 factories. The company has repeatedly undergone restructuring since the time of Carlos Ghosn. President Ivan Espinosa vows to restore performance, but it remains unable to overcome the downward pressure on sales figures.

This book attempts to analyze the true causes essential for Nissan Motor's recovery and propose solutions.

The author has been watching the company since 1999, when Ghosn announced the "Nissan Revival Plan," and has covered a wide range of industries, not just the automotive industry, but manufacturing in general. Leveraging his accumulated knowledge and network of experts, the journalist delved into the causes of Nissan Motor's decline by comparing it to successful companies such as Toyota Motor. He then proposed solutions necessary for the company to recover from its current management crisis and move towards sustainable growth.

Specifically, he proposed three fundamental solutions (rebuilding collaboration with parts manufacturers, reducing the number of parts, and reforming to create cars that sell) and two bold measures (manufacturing Toyota vehicles at the Oppama plant, and challenging Toyota through a Honda-Nissan merger). This is the "final survival plan" written without any忖度 (consideration for others' feelings or opinions) by a journalist with 29 years of experience.

Recommended Points:
- Learn the fundamental causes of deteriorating corporate management using Nissan Motor as an example.
- Understand the conditions for successful business restructuring by learning from Nissan Motor's failures.
- Learn how to build good relationships with parts manufacturers, who are "partners in destiny" in manufacturing.
- Understand the outline of "parts count management," which significantly reduces fixed costs and increases profitability.
- Learn how to "create products that sell" from the examples of hit manufacturers such as Toyota Motor and Daikin Industries.
- Broaden your range of solutions by proposing bold measures for survival beyond just independent recovery.

Author’s Information

He graduated from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University in March 1995, and completed his Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Waseda University in March 1997. In April of the same year, he joined Nikkei BP. After serving as editor of Nikkei Mechanical, editor of Nikkei Monozukuri in 2004, deputy editor-in-chief of Nikkei Monozukuri in 2014, and deputy editor-in-chief of Nikkei CrossTech in 2018, he has been an editorial board member of Nikkei CrossTech since 2021. For 29 years since joining the company, he has consistently written articles aimed at strengthening Japanese manufacturing. He has written many highly ranked articles for Nikkei CrossTech and the Nikkei Shimbun Digital Edition. His books include "Verification of the Toyota Group Misconduct Problem: The Tragedy of Engineer-Led Innovation and the Conditions for Regeneration" and "Engineer's Paradise: Nichia Corporation, the Little-Known Development Management" (published by Nikkei BP).