7th October, 2010
The long-time industry veteran (including some boring years in Alliance Autos) has been hired to be the M.D of Stallion’s auto operations. Good luck with that, Singh. But if they asked us, these would be the words of wisdom flying across the conference room table at the very first meeting.
“Well, first-off, you can start by stop screwing things up. And secondly, you’re in the car business (last time we checked) and you better get back in it. And finally, don’t ever let what happened to Nissan’s marketing strategy come before you again. Pick the right PR guys and remember everyone is your target market.
Mr Singh, there are salient questions you must answer for us to know where you are heading, considering the fact that you are now going to head seven different brands of vehicles, unlike when you headed only two brands – The Renault and The Nissan, and the Nissan company is complaining bitterly about sales immediately you vacated their office.
According to an official release from the Nissan office to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) and some newspapers, they accused your managerial abilities to lead Nissan to its glorious height. Take a bite: “The Nissan Motor Company Ltd. has put its annual vehicle sale to Nigeria at 4,000 units, saying this is attributable to its difficulty in understanding the market. Michiharu Kayamoto, the Manager, sub Saharan Africa and Near East Department, made this known in Yokohama, Japan, when the UNIDO Delegate Programme team visited the company.
“This figure is too small compared to what Toyota exports to Nigeria and we really will want to improve on this,’’ Kayamoto told the News Agency of Nigeria. However, he said generally, Nissan vehicle sales to Africa dropped from 72,000 in 2008 to 42,000 in 2009 and the figure remained the same in the first quarter of 2010.