Hondawanted to enter the American market. Because the Americans were used to big, heavy,motorcycles, decided to also introduce their big motorcycles into the American Market. Honda dispatched 5 employees to the States to reconnoitre the American market. However they didnot succeed in gaining a foothold with their 250 cc motorcycles because the American publicpreferred their better and stronger .
For their personal use the Japanese brought from Japan small agile 50 cc motorcycles, theSupercubs. To their surprise they discovered that especially young Americans showed a greatinterest in these small motorcycles which were not available in America. The Japanese reconnaissance team came to the conclusion that Honda should not penetrate the American marketwith large engines (actually a 'me too' product) but introduce the smaller 50 cc motorcycles whichwere very popular in Japan.
It took a great act of persuasion before the top-management of Honda in Tokyo consented to the ideaof penetrating the American market with their mini-motorcycles instead of the big engines. Itresulted in a great success in spite of the fact that Honda was selling to a completely different marketsegment.
1. Translated into the military jargon the action of Honda was a reconnaissance into enemyterritory and by accident the weak spot of the competition (mainly Harley Davison) wasdiscovered. Thus they could adopt a Persistent Strategy to conquer the American Market.
2. This was a classic example of a weak spot, i.e. a completely neglected and latent need of the consumer which was not recognized by the local industry.
3. Because Honda (at last) dared to change its original strategy completely it filled the gapsuccessfully. This adaptation of the strategy because of tactical considerations was only possible because of the good organization of the 'operational' home basis of .
In 2006, Renault has a 44% share in Nissan and Nissan has a 10% share in Renault. Nissan is currently even more profitable than Renault. The logical aim of the Alliance is to cover the entire world with a minimum of duplication. The basis of this successful Alliance – and the success of Carlos Ghosn - is that it is driven by mutual respect, a belief in the value of partnership and the refusal to play power games. When Nissan was in difficulties, Renault management was prudent enough to resist the temptation to exploit the imbalance of power. Ghosn states that: “Within the Alliance we discuss performance, not scale advantages. Our Alliance is based above all on a continuing quest for better performance.
Davos Annual Meeting 2008 - Power of Collaborative Innovation;
Innovation, quality and cost are important because that is where the game is played”. At the moment there is a constant movement of people from Nissan to Renault and vice versa. This continual movement will be very valuable, Ghosn states. It is clear that Renault people with Nissanexperience and Nissan employees with Renault experience are precious assets. Answering a reporter Ghosn states: “Where will we be ranked in five or ten years? Frankly, I don’tknow, nor do I think of our goals in those terms. If we turn in a good performance – and I thinkwe’ve got great potential, both at Nissan and at Renault – and we allow each of the two companies to do the best it can do, there is no limit to what we can accomplish”. When analyzing the success of Mr. Ghosn one will find that he applied many factors mentioned in
this book.
Like concentration by strategic retreat (shedding non-strategic holdings etc.) to create a stronger basis, or strengthening the motivation of Nissan by stating clear goals and making himself visible. Then, to ensure he gets proper information and ideas, he used aspects of the Auftragstaktik such as being open to new ideas (encourage the initiative). The quotations of Mr. Ghosn listed below give a glimpse of his thought process. Anyway he showed leadership and determination in a remarkable successful way.
