Outgoing Mitsubishi Motors Corporation chief executive officer Takahi Sonobe said this week that the struggling car and truck maker is still on course to break even this financial year.
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“Our 01 fiscal year has a few days left and we still must finalise the accounting process, so I cannot confirm this definitely, but we expect positively that we will achieve break-even for the 01 fiscal year result as we forecasted and committed ourselves last May,” Sonobe told journalists at a press conference in Tokyo.
Announcing the promotion of current COO Rolf Eckrodt to CEO effective June 25, Sonobe said: “I made this management change decision for several reasons: to promote and accelerate our turnaround; to strengthen our profitability and our stability; to strengthen our alliance with DaimlerChrysler [and] to maintain and strengthen our competitiveness in the severe competition of the world automobile market.
“To demonstrate our positive intentions internally and externally, I have decided to ask Mr. Eckrodt to become CEO of Mitsubishi Motors.
“Since Mr. Eckrodt became COO-Car Operations in January, 2001, I have been working closely with him as a team to promote our turnaround for passenger cars operations.
“For many months, we have met regularly in the morning every business day. Through these and other business meetings with him, observing his practical business approach and performance, I came to understand his superior management capabilities, including his grasp of business management and processes, his unique foresight and strategy building, his dynamic personality and his flexibility in handling the different culture, all of which are very important skills in global management.
“He has shown his ability not only in MMC but also his results in Brazil as head of Mercedes Benz operations there in which he managed its turnaround in cars and trucks operations.
“For all these reasons, I have decided that Mr. Eckrodt is a right person to be my successor. I am confident that he is a real Mitsubishi person, who will make every effort to improve Mitsubishi Motors’ future.”
Sonobe added that, as chairman after Ekrodt becomes CEO, “I will make every effort to improve the quality of our corporate governance and will continue support Mr. Eckrodt in every way I can.”
