So Nissan is moving corporate headquarters from California to Tennessee.
Hmm.
While “more timely information sharing” with production facilities may be important, I wouldn’t be so quick to leave your design group behind: The new Maxima is one of the ugliest flagship sedans I’ve ever seen this side of a Chris Bangle afterbirth.
The main reason this story has any interest to me is because my dad’s office is located in Gardena, and most people know that the Gardena folks basically did all the work that raised Ghosn to rock star status in the first place.
Hey, Mr. CEO man! Get a clue!
THE ROAD TO NASHVILLE IS LINED WITH BROKEN DREAMS!
Raising a family in Thailand // Documenting Issan food, culture, music, and people
Holy crap that’s a fugly grille on that new Maxima!
Outside of all the personal crises this will cause the Gardena Nissan employees, this move to TN is interesting for a few reasons.
It really is cheaper to work in TN and if Ghosn is serious about making Nissan more competitive, then it’s the right kind of move for the long term. That said, SoCal is far and away the center of car culture in the US. And while I’m sure Nissan won’t move their design center to TN, I do think that being in TN vs. CA makes a difference in the employees’ understanding of the market.
When you look at the 1990s, you saw GM move many of it’s luxury brands from Detroit to SoCal. It may have been a good move from a design/product perspective, but in terms of cost, they went from a cheap location to one of the most expensive. That’s one of many reasons why GM continues to struggle.
Toyota is doing the same thing too, here in Japan. They’re closing up that huge Iidabashi office here in Tokyo and moving almost all of those divisions to Nagoya, with the exception of PR and advertising and a few other key groups that absolutely need to be in Tokyo. This may be a cost savings move for Toyota, but I can’t see the logic.