Nissan Motor Co., Renault SA of France and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. have announced a new board to oversee the alliance of the three automakers, signaling a desire to make a clean break from the system in place under Carlos Ghosn, who has been accused of financial improprieties.
While leaders from the three firms put on a display of harmony at a press conference Tuesday, serious obstacles to future management integration remain.
The new board announced at the press conference is intended to reset the strained relationship between Nissan and Renault, and was the result of elaborate negotiations between Nissan President and Chief Executive Officer Hiroto Saikawa, Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard and others.
Mistrust between Nissan and Renault has deepened since Ghosn was arrested in November.
Many in France believe Saikawa had essentially staged a coup through the investigation into Ghosn, who had been moving to integrate the firms' management.
Nissan had been wary of the arguments for management integration by the French government and Renault. Behind closed doors, intense battles have been waged.
A key characteristic of the new board is that decisions will not be made by majority rule among Renault CEO Thierry Bollore, Senard, Saikawa, and Mitsubishi Motors Chairman and CEO Osamu Masuko: There will be a council structure that will require consensus among all the members.
While Senard will chair the new board, a senior Nissan executive said the role of chairman will be that of a moderator.
"Just because a vote is won doesn't mean something will happen," Saikawa emphasized, speaking about the council system at the press conference.
Senard said the new board would be the highest decision-making body and emphasized its advantages in terms of making organizational management more efficient.
Power had become overly concentrated with Ghosn, who headed both Renault and Nissan, leading to convoluted processes when making assessments and hindering decision making.
Many analysts believe that when Ghosn assumed the role of CEO at both Renault and Nissan in 2005, it changed the nature of the alliance.
At the press conference, Senard said they wanted to "replicate the spirit that existed at the very beginning of this alliance."
Renault compromise
One point of contention was over who would chair Nissan.
The French automaker, which had demanded Senard be given the job, eventually compromised.
Nissan believes that when Ghosn concentrated power as head of both Renault and Nissan, it created a hotbed for corruption, and thus pushed back against making Senard chairman.
Sources said Senard played a key role in this outcome. He was able to carefully coordinate between the French government, which strongly desires management integration, and Nissan, which does not, without deepening antagonism between the two sides.
However, this does not mean the dispute over management integration is settled. Within the French government, which is Renault's largest stockholder, President Emmanuel Macron is strongly in favor of integration.
At Tuesday's press conference, Senard was asked repeatedly about future management integration, and while he avoided giving direct answers, he did not rule it out.
It seems that Nissan hopes that by creating the new board it can shelve the dispute over management integration for the time being. For its part, Renault hopes that as the alliance deepens, management integration will develop naturally.
Despite its compromises, Renault came away with something.
Nissan granted Senard the right of representation, meaning he has the power to be deeply involved in the day-to-day management of Nissan. Yet this leaves open the possibility that Nissan and Renault could be at each other's throats again.
The automobile industry is undergoing a drastic transformation. Having the alliance creak on under poor management at Nissan or Renault could be fatal.
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