Shift Inside Nissan's Historic Revival
Thus, Ghosn established the nine CFTs within one month of his arrival at Nissan. The CFT teams had responsibility for the following areas: Business Development, Purchasing, Manufacturing and Logistics, Research and Development, Sales and Marketing, General and Administrative, Finance and Cost, Phase-out of Products and Parts, Complexity Management, and Organizational Structure.
Ghosn had the teams review the company's operations for three months and come up with recommendations for returning Nissan to profitability and for uncovering opportunities for future growth.
Even though the teams had no decision making power, they reported to Nissan's nine-member executive committee and had access to all company information. The teams consisted of around ten members who were drawn from the company's middle management.
Ten people could not cover broad issues in depth. To overcome this each CFT formed a set of subteams.
These sub-teams also consisted of ten members and focused on particular issues faced by the broad teams. CFTs used a system reporting to two supervisors. These leaders were drawn from the executive committee and ensured that the teams were given access to all the information that they needed.
One of the regular members acted as a pilot who took responsibility for driving the agenda and discussion. The pilot and leaders selected the other members. The pilots usually had frontline experience as managers.
The CFTs would remain an integral part of Nissan's management structure. They continue to brief the CEO; however the team's missions have changed somewhat. They are to carefully watch the on-going revival plan and try to find further areas for improvement.
Since the members of the teams were often mid-level managers who rarely saw beyond their own functional responsibilities, this new coordination had high impact on participants.
In many cases, these mid-level managers enjoyed learning about the business from a bird's eye perspective and felt
Ghosn had the teams review the company's operations for three months and come up with recommendations for returning Nissan to profitability and for uncovering opportunities for future growth.
Even though the teams had no decision making power, they reported to Nissan's nine-member executive committee and had access to all company information. The teams consisted of around ten members who were drawn from the company's middle management.
Ten people could not cover broad issues in depth. To overcome this each CFT formed a set of subteams.
These sub-teams also consisted of ten members and focused on particular issues faced by the broad teams. CFTs used a system reporting to two supervisors. These leaders were drawn from the executive committee and ensured that the teams were given access to all the information that they needed.
One of the regular members acted as a pilot who took responsibility for driving the agenda and discussion. The pilot and leaders selected the other members. The pilots usually had frontline experience as managers.
The CFTs would remain an integral part of Nissan's management structure. They continue to brief the CEO; however the team's missions have changed somewhat. They are to carefully watch the on-going revival plan and try to find further areas for improvement.
Since the members of the teams were often mid-level managers who rarely saw beyond their own functional responsibilities, this new coordination had high impact on participants.
In many cases, these mid-level managers enjoyed learning about the business from a bird's eye perspective and felt