Nonsense. Indians will soon flood japan's top management. Starting with nissan.
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Nissan Motor COO Ashwani Gupta Photo: REUTERS file
BusinessWho's in charge at Nissan? COO's allies push to give him shared CEO role
Today 06:25 am JST
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By Norihiko Shirouzu
TOKYO
Nissan's chief operating officer Ashwani Gupta helped engineer the troubled automaker's latest turnaround plan. Now his allies are pressing the board to promote him to co-CEO to drive the new strategy, said four people with direct knowledge.
Thus far, Nissan Motor Co's 12-member board has no plan to change the roles of Chief Executive Makoto Uchida or his No. 2 Gupta, the sources told Reuters. But the behind-the-scenes campaign, involving at least half a dozen current and former executives, points to continued tensions at the top of the Japanese automaker, which has had four CEOs in four years.
The sources, all of whom have ties to Nissan's leadership team, declined to be identified because they aren't authorised to speak to reporters and because of the sensitivity of the topic.
Nissan responded in a statement to Reuters there are "no plans or consideration for any change in the management structure at Nissan, and no change to the close collaborative working relationship between Mr Uchida and Mr Gupta in their current roles." Speculation to the contrary is baseless and misleading, the statement went on.
Lobbying to promote Gupta, 49, has intensified, the sources said, since Nissan unveiled a four-year recovery plan on May 28 to slash costs and strengthen its global alliance with Renault and Mitsubishi. Indian-born Gupta, an industry veteran, was instrumental in drawing up the plan. His allies now want him to implement it.
According to the people with knowledge of the matter, Gupta's supporters are proposing that he either share the CEO role with Uchida, or replace his boss, with Uchida becoming chairman. One of the sources, a Nissan executive, told Reuters:"We're clear enough in telling the board what our expectations are. But we don't want to push the issue too hard. We want this to happen in a natural way."