Monday, February 3, 2020

A HAPPY ALLIANCE? NOT JUST YET by John Crawford

Sorry, I can’t let this Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance thing go. I think I must be obsessed, so you’ll just have to share my obsession with the irony of it all.

Last Thursday (January 30, 2020) all of the heads of the Alliance met in Japan, ostensibly to declare that everything was now quiet in the sandbox, there was going to be no more fighting, and everyone was going to play nicely, and share their toys.
Now let’s pose for a photo to show we are telling the truth, and everyone smile.


Okay, what they really discussed was how the members are going to carve up projects and regions and award them to specific partners. Apparently French and Japanese engineers complained that their opposite numbers were being difficult, uncooperative and not sharing their toys.

This quintet expressed the hope that all the infighting was behind them, and everyone could move on to try and repair the damage done by; (my words) having their only hope for survival (Carlos Ghosn) being arrested and thrown in jail, thanks to the machinations of Hiroto Saikawa and his cadre of clumsy Nissan co-conspiritors.

However, leave it to the ladies to nail the essence of the problem.

Acting head of Renault, Clothilde Delbos made the only quotable quote to come out of the meeting. She said:

“Efforts at co-operation had stumbled in the past, and the problem was the lack of a clear leader.”

Huh!

John Crawford

1 comment:

  1. John,

    You have mentioned that your book,' Best Drives Around the World' was up for a redo/reprint - any update?

    ReplyDelete