Alliance partners Renault and Nissan both made the news this week. The two news items were rather different, but there was a curious common denominator of sorts: step forward Carlos Ghosn, boss of both.
One item was an odd one, involving a high profile departure from Renault.
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A few weeks ago, Renault COO Carlos Tavares made some highly unusual public comments about his own position and where he might go next. To sum up the reported comments, he – allegedly – opined that while his boss Carlos Ghosn, is only 59, and will therefore continue in the top job for many years, he would consider being in the number one job at, say, Ford or General Motors, where the current incumbents won’t be in post for much longer. Wow. That’s the kind of thing you might think or say in private. I can’t imagine it would have impressed his current boss all that much.
And then, this week, Tavares is out of the door. No great surprise after his apparent recent outspoken shooting from the hip. We’ve been working on theories, some of them Machiavellian, some of them based on human error, but whatever has happened, it is now done. Mr Tavares, you may recall, took the job as Renault COO after predecessor Patrick Pelata fell on his sword after that stranger than strange spying case that was magnificently bungled by Renault’s top management. A certain person stayed well clear of that particular mess.
It will be interesting to see what happens to Carlos Tavares now. He has value and knows a lot, of course. There’s always the question of what deal – and strings – may have been done in the exit, but another OEM might be interested to have him on board. Or a big supplier. Or a firm in another sector (Pelata left auto and there have been other high profile execs who leave the industry – remember BMW’s Wolfgang Reitzle who went to Linde?). Or he could start a consulting firm (Martin Leach, Ignacio Lopez), or quietly disappear off the radar (Ford’s Jacques Nasser). I hope he has a plan.
FRANCE: COO Carlos Tavares departing Renault ‘immediately’
Now, back to Carlos Ghosn and the second big news item of the week. He’s achieved a lot with the Renault Nissan Alliance since the late 1990s. There was plenty of low hanging fruit with turning Nissan around, looking for engineering shares across the two groups, parts procurement savings and he’s done all that. The French government must be very pleased with his work, especially when comparing Renault with PSA.
But the gamble on electric vehicles? That has the appearance of a long shot that is on a longer than expected timescale for a healthy return on investment. Electric cars are taking time to grow volume. Mr Ghosn, though, knows that there can be no let-up if you want to be around long-term in the automotive business, post the next wave of consolidation. You have to have scale, you have to have the products, the right market geography, global manufacturing footprint (AvtoVAZ another long punt) and you have to have the technologies that can give you a competitive advantage. There’s no harm in letting the markets know that you have that next ball in the air before the others. And so Carlos Ghosn is onto autonomous vehicles and an aggressive sounding timetable. Clever PR. Others are now scrambling to say that they will be there with autonomous cars by 2020.
There’s a reason why some people are in jobs for a long time and seem to walk on water: yes, they really are that good at their jobs and at all aspects, including political manoeuvring. Might be something for Carlos Tavares to reflect on.
US: Nissan targets autonomous drive to market by 2020
Have a good weekend.
Dave Leggett, Editor, just-auto.com
