Departures a blow to Nissan
CHIEF PLANNING OFFICER PALMER’S MOVE COMES SOON AFTER INFINITI CHIEF’S RESIGNATION
Palmer’s move comes soon after infiniti chief’s resignation
Nissan’s loss of its second executive since July is fuelling concern that the pool of talent surrounding Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn is drying up. The disclosure that Chief Planning Officer Andy Palmer will quit to lead Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd. came almost eight weeks after the president of Nissan’s premium Infiniti brand jumped to Cadillac. Ghosn, who’s also CEO at Renault SA, lost his chief operating officer at the French carmaker in 2013 and his communications head earlier this year.
The defections add to the challenges facing Ghosn, 60, a man so lauded for saving Nissan from near bankruptcy in 1999 that he drew offers to run larger automakers and starred in a comic book. Today, Japan’s second- largest automaker is lagging behind key financial targets and the Leaf electric vehicle he’s championed since 2009 is contending with Tesla Motors Inc.’ s popular Model S.
Nissan said the departures reflect the normal dynamics of a competitive market.
“In this industry, there’s a lot of movement and will always be a lot of movement,” said Jeff Kuhlman, who before becoming head spokesman at Nissan worked for Volkswagen AG’s Audi and General Motors Co.
The stock has gained 14 per cent this year, outperforming Toyota and Honda on signs that profitability is improving in the company’s US and Chinese operations.
After joining Nissan’s European technical centre in 1991, Palmer moved to the light commercial vehicle business before taking on broader duties including project management, marketing and emerging markets.
In a management overhaul in November, he was promoted to chief planning officer — one among a handful of executives reporting directly to Ghosn.
After the changes, Palmer said one of his biggest focuses would be to rein in marketing costs in the US as profits were falling short of the company’s projections. This year, Nissan’s incentives rose 0.6 per cent to $ 2,570 a vehicle, while the industry rose an average 5.5 per cent, according to market researcher Autodata.
“There’s a core management team at Nissan and Andy Palmer was a very crucial part of it,” said Ashvin Chotai, managing director of researcher Intelligence Automotive Asia. “He had a lot of responsibilities and a lot of functions under his umbrella. To lose somebody like him is a big blow to Nissan.”
Palmer’s replacement will face the challenge of helping Ghosn lift Nissan’s operatingprofit margin to 8 per cent of sales and increase global market share likewise to 8 per cent by March 2017.
Nissan also targets its Infiniti unit to capture 10 per cent of the world’s premium- car market by the end of the decade.
Yokohoma- based Nissan’s market share stood at 6.2 per cent as of the end of March, and the operating margin was 5.3 per cent.
Infiniti’s sales last year were about a tenth of BMW’s.