Jerome Saigot, Nissan India MD resigns

TusharK · 12th July 2018, 10:00

Jerome Saigot, Managing Director, Nissan Group of India has resigned.

Jerome Saigot, Nissan India MD resigns-jerome-saigot.jpg

Jerome Saigot joined Nissan in 2010. In 2015, Saigot was appointed as the Vice President of Nissan India. He was promoted as the MD of Nissan & Datsun India in October 2017. Before moving to India, Saigot spearheaded the Datsun brand in Russia. Previously, he had worked with the PSA Group for about 12 years.

Saigot is the third senior level executive to leave the company in over a year. Earlier, Satinder Singh Bajwa, Director of Sales & Marketing moved to Mahindra & Mahindra, while Sanjay Gupta, Vice-President, Marketing also moved out of the company.

Source: Economic Times

Link to Team-BHP News

hemanth.anand · 12th July 2018, 12:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by TusharK

Jerome Saigot, Managing Director, Nissan Group of India has resigned.

Attachment 1780912

Jerome Saigot joined Nissan in 2010. In 2015, Saigot was appointed as the Vice President of Nissan India. He was promoted as the MD of Nissan & Datsun India in October 2017. Before moving to India, Saigot spearheaded the Datsun brand in Russia. Previously, he had worked with the PSA Group for about 12 years.

Saigot is the third senior level executive to leave the company in over a year. Earlier, Satinder Singh Bajwa, Director of Sales & Marketing moved to Mahindra & Mahindra, while Sanjay Gupta, Vice-President, Marketing also moved out of the company.

Source: Economic Times

Link to Team-BHP News

I don't know how to read the picture in the quoted post-ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN JEROME SAIGOT?

On a serious note, some of the reasons that I can think of that may have effected this:

He was a key player to launch the Datsun brand which has visibly not worked well
Nissan's local market share was 5%. But it fell from 1.8% in 2015 to 1.6% in 2018
Nissan dropped to 3rd position from 2nd in the list of largest exporters from India

As an outsider, I really can't tell what were the actual reasons. But 3 senior executives resigning in a year definitely doesn't send out a good message.

GTO · 12th July 2018, 17:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by TusharK

Saigot is the third senior level executive to leave the company in over a year. Earlier, Satinder Singh Bajwa, Director of Sales & Marketing moved to Mahindra & Mahindra, while Sanjay Gupta, Vice-President, Marketing also moved out of the company.

Also Arun Malhotra, ex-MD & senior advisor to Nissan. He quit earlier this year. Nissan India is a sinking ship. They are going to require a game-changing product line to turn the tide. Well-priced EVs? Don't know, but the Leaf is coming soon.

arjab · 12th July 2018, 21:12

Its very perplexing to understand Nissan's product strategy for India. They are still under this strange impression that for India you need de-contented, stripped out products like the Datsun GO & its various siblings.
Its not that their product planners are ignorant about the trends in the Indian passenger car market. Heck,their tech center located at Mahindra World City, south of Chennai, has access to all Indian vehicles, and by now they should be knowing what cars makes the market tick.
And it's not that Nissan cannot make good cars or lacks vehicle engineering prowess. They make very good vehicles for the rest of the world.
In Japan, they have the NOTE(large hatch),Roox(Wagon-R) competitor, the DayZ etc. Yes, these are all Japanese Kei-Class vehicles , but aren't all the Maruti's that ? If Nissan was really serious , they would've , by this time localised at least the Note and the Roox to give them precious foothold in the mass hatch segment , instead of launching the emaciated (feature & content-wise) Datsun twins.
They also have a nice , large van. The NV350. That was supposed to have been localised, (and apparently a large part was localised as well) and launched jointly with Ashok Leyland to complement the DOST and target the commercial, hotel and airport transfers segment. Apparently the failure of the Evalia/Stile scared the Japs so much , they scrapped the NV350.
And don't forget, Nissan now has Mitsubishi in their kitty. And Mitsubishi has some excellent small vehicles on their arsenal.
If VW can localise a platform as complex as the MQB and commit itself to India, Nissan jolly well can.
Yes, a focus on cost is always necessary, but an eye on customer requirements,(present & future) & customer perceptions is also required.
I'm sure, their next car will be a Duster platform based but with a new upper body KiCKs, (copying Renault's Kaptur/Capturing thingy). Won't be surprised if they rework the existing Micra platform and put the new Micra look-alike upper body . In between they will launch some middling products borrowed and badge engineered from Renault.
I have severe doubts on the success of LEAF as it'll definitely be a CBU or possibly an SKD, (because the LEAF is an extremely complex piece of machinery and tbe expertise in India to localise it is yet to develop fully). So, one can safely surmise that the LEAF will drop in at upwards of Rs 20 lakhs, hardly making others turn "green" with envy (pun intended)
So, overall, it seems the good Japs are flapping around a fair bit like the proverbial headless chicken.
What Nissan needs is :
1. Localise NOTE and NOTE hybrid.
2. Existing platform Micra to be heavily reworked, (what Tata did with Tiago, which is essentially the old Indica platform with a snazzy upper body).
3. X-Trail lookalike upper body on Duster platform at 4m plus segment. Target Creta.
4. Kicks lookalike upper body on Duster shortened platform for sub 4m

It's still not too late. But in this case I think even the Almighty doesn't know what they will do!!

PrasunBannerjee · 12th July 2018, 21:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO

Leaf is coming soon.

Like the Beat sedan?

The Nissan dealership in my town is about to shut down and is probably giving way to Jeep dealership. Good for people of Udaipur anyway. I don't think anyone will miss Nissan any further

It is a dead horse. I think Chevy was in a better situation when they exited. Though falling sales, but they exited on a rather 'Heads held high' at least than Nissan. The Hover issue, unhappy revolting dealers, Nissan shifting to smaller sized showrooms, and now top hats resigning. I wonder who lost interest first. The company in the market or the top hats in the company.

motorworks · 13th July 2018, 06:52

Nissan has to thank Ola for sort of keeping it alive in India. No one else seems to be buying the sunny and the Micra except Ola drivers!

And the issue is they do not have anything in the pipeline except the Kicks! Hopefully the Kicks will do better than the Captur since it does look a little better and has more of the SUV proportions.

Lastly, what sense does it make for Renault, Nissan, Datsun, Mitsubishi to be in the Indian market in the current form? Should they not concentrate on may be just 2 brands or may be even just one till they get the product portfolio right?

greenhorn · 13th July 2018, 08:11

Nissan's strategy elsewhere appears to be to out cheap the koreans. In the US, the nissan versa and versa note are considered one step below hyundai & Kia offerings with equally bad quality. In india, Nissan seems to be on the same path - with cars offering outstanding value, but little else. Thats a good place to start, but when your dealer network and customer support is worse than the indians ( Tata, Mahindra) - that's a really vulnerable place to be

cityslicker86 · 13th July 2018, 10:34

Nissan just doesn't fit in India. The Japanese managers in India learnt too late that India wants latest vehicles and not old-gen cars. Their products are old and unexciting. The dealer network is in shambles. There is one last hope from Kicks compact SUV. If it fails, they might as well shut down sales in India and just manufacture for exports.

acidkill · 13th July 2018, 12:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO

Also Arun Malhotra, ex-MD & senior advisor to Nissan. He quit earlier this year. Nissan India is a sinking ship. They are going to require a game-changing product line to turn the tide. Well-priced EVs? Don't know, but the Leaf is coming soon.

As an owner of a sunny, i can safely say that they do know how to make good cars. Nothing mechanically wrong with their vehicles however, I feel none of their cars has that "sporty" and "premium" feel that indians like.

The design language is at best fuzzy and built to a price.

Further I think they spent too much energy on cross selling the same car across brands (Nissan, Renault, Ashok Leyland). To my mind, an esoteric exercise that didn't resonate with the market.

That esoteric thought process went on with Datsun also.

Kwid and Duster, are only 2 saving graces in all this.

12th July 2018, 10:00	#1
TusharK Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jul 2017 Location: Pune Posts: 6,310 Thanked: 56,214 Times	Jerome Saigot, Nissan India MD resigns Jerome Saigot, Managing Director, Nissan Group of India has resigned. Jerome Saigot joined Nissan in 2010. In 2015, Saigot was appointed as the Vice President of Nissan India. He was promoted as the MD of Nissan & Datsun India in October 2017. Before moving to India, Saigot spearheaded the Datsun brand in Russia. Previously, he had worked with the PSA Group for about 12 years. Saigot is the third senior level executive to leave the company in over a year. Earlier, Satinder Singh Bajwa, Director of Sales & Marketing moved to Mahindra & Mahindra, while Sanjay Gupta, Vice-President, Marketing also moved out of the company. Source: Economic Times Link to Team-BHP News Last edited by Aditya : 12th July 2018 at 12:16.
	(3) Thanks

12th July 2018, 21:12	#4
arjab Senior - BHPian Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: MAA/CCU Posts: 1,426 Thanked: 5,486 Times View My Garage	Re: Jerome Saigot, Nissan India MD resigns Its very perplexing to understand Nissan's product strategy for India. They are still under this strange impression that for India you need de-contented, stripped out products like the Datsun GO & its various siblings. Its not that their product planners are ignorant about the trends in the Indian passenger car market. Heck,their tech center located at Mahindra World City, south of Chennai, has access to all Indian vehicles, and by now they should be knowing what cars makes the market tick. And it's not that Nissan cannot make good cars or lacks vehicle engineering prowess. They make very good vehicles for the rest of the world. In Japan, they have the NOTE(large hatch),Roox(Wagon-R) competitor, the DayZ etc. Yes, these are all Japanese Kei-Class vehicles , but aren't all the Maruti's that ? If Nissan was really serious , they would've , by this time localised at least the Note and the Roox to give them precious foothold in the mass hatch segment , instead of launching the emaciated (feature & content-wise) Datsun twins. They also have a nice , large van. The NV350. That was supposed to have been localised, (and apparently a large part was localised as well) and launched jointly with Ashok Leyland to complement the DOST and target the commercial, hotel and airport transfers segment. Apparently the failure of the Evalia/Stile scared the Japs so much , they scrapped the NV350. And don't forget, Nissan now has Mitsubishi in their kitty. And Mitsubishi has some excellent small vehicles on their arsenal. If VW can localise a platform as complex as the MQB and commit itself to India, Nissan jolly well can. Yes, a focus on cost is always necessary, but an eye on customer requirements,(present & future) & customer perceptions is also required. I'm sure, their next car will be a Duster platform based but with a new upper body KiCKs, (copying Renault's Kaptur/Capturing thingy). Won't be surprised if they rework the existing Micra platform and put the new Micra look-alike upper body . In between they will launch some middling products borrowed and badge engineered from Renault. I have severe doubts on the success of LEAF as it'll definitely be a CBU or possibly an SKD, (because the LEAF is an extremely complex piece of machinery and tbe expertise in India to localise it is yet to develop fully). So, one can safely surmise that the LEAF will drop in at upwards of Rs 20 lakhs, hardly making others turn "green" with envy (pun intended) So, overall, it seems the good Japs are flapping around a fair bit like the proverbial headless chicken. What Nissan needs is : 1. Localise NOTE and NOTE hybrid. 2. Existing platform Micra to be heavily reworked, (what Tata did with Tiago, which is essentially the old Indica platform with a snazzy upper body). 3. X-Trail lookalike upper body on Duster platform at 4m plus segment. Target Creta. 4. Kicks lookalike upper body on Duster shortened platform for sub 4m It's still not too late. But in this case I think even the Almighty doesn't know what they will do!!
	(3) Thanks

13th July 2018, 06:52	#6
motorworks Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 1,805 Thanked: 4,076 Times View My Garage	Nissan has to thank Ola for sort of keeping it alive in India. No one else seems to be buying the sunny and the Micra except Ola drivers! And the issue is they do not have anything in the pipeline except the Kicks! Hopefully the Kicks will do better than the Captur since it does look a little better and has more of the SUV proportions. Lastly, what sense does it make for Renault, Nissan, Datsun, Mitsubishi to be in the Indian market in the current form? Should they not concentrate on may be just 2 brands or may be even just one till they get the product portfolio right?
	(2) Thanks

13th July 2018, 08:11	#7
greenhorn Senior - BHPian Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: KL-01 Posts: 7,752 Thanked: 4,420 Times View My Garage	Re: Jerome Saigot, Nissan India MD resigns Nissan's strategy elsewhere appears to be to out cheap the koreans. In the US, the nissan versa and versa note are considered one step below hyundai & Kia offerings with equally bad quality. In india, Nissan seems to be on the same path - with cars offering outstanding value, but little else. Thats a good place to start, but when your dealer network and customer support is worse than the indians ( Tata, Mahindra) - that's a really vulnerable place to be Last edited by greenhorn : 13th July 2018 at 08:12.
	(1) Thanks

13th July 2018, 10:34	#8
cityslicker86 BHPian Join Date: Dec 2016 Location: Mumbai Posts: 77 Thanked: 291 Times View My Garage	Re: Jerome Saigot, Nissan India MD resigns Nissan just doesn't fit in India. The Japanese managers in India learnt too late that India wants latest vehicles and not old-gen cars. Their products are old and unexciting. The dealer network is in shambles. There is one last hope from Kicks compact SUV. If it fails, they might as well shut down sales in India and just manufacture for exports.
	() Thanks