Nissan investing for a more inclusive workplace

YOKOHAMA – Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. today announced the opening of “March Land Minatomirai”, an in-house daycare center located on the 6th floor of its Global Headquarters in Yokohama, Japan. This is the company’s third in-house daycare center, following the “March Land Atsugi” located in Nissan’s Technical Center and “March Land Atsugi Axt” in its Nissan Global Information System Center.

Nissan helps its employees maximize their potential by providing support programs and the necessary infrastructure which is aligned with their life stage to assist them in striking a balance between work and family responsibilities, such as childcare. The Nissan Global Headquarters has many employees who are entering the life stage where childcare is a significant part of their lives. Additionally, Nissan strongly supports motivated employees who are making an effort to manage both work and childcare by providing a positive environment that helps facilitate a smooth transition when they return to work.

Nissan is committed to diversity to ensure that we meet with the diverse needs of our customers and achieve sustainable growth for all stakeholders.

Facing huge adversity in China, Japanese automobile industry review their global human resources

China anger about the disputed islands was not for a few days, it is still hurting Japanese cars a lot.

Sales of Japanese passenger cars in China fell nearly 60 percent in October from a year earlier. The plunge is apparently due to tense diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers released data on Friday that shows sales of new vehicles in October increased 5.3 percent to 1.6 million units. It’s a sign that the Chinese auto market remains solid.

But sales of Japanese cars saw a decline of 59.4 percent amid increasing boycotts of Japanese products in China. This comes amid the ongoing territorial dispute over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.

By contrast, German and South Korean carmakers enjoyed sales increases of 30 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

As a result, Japanese passenger car makers’ share of the Chinese market fell 12.3 points from a year earlier to just 7.6 percent.

To face this adversity which clearly goes against last year ambitious goals in China, Japanese companies have adopted new Global HR strategy.

First they will review the weight of other Asian countries and invest more in Thailand, Indonesia and India.

Secondly they will also develop joint-venture and express more solidarity between themselves. Mazda just announced that they would produce Toyota cars in their plant in Mexico.

Thirdly Chinese plants will produce less, this will be at a high cost as an plant costs if they produce only 80% of their capacity. Today the rate is closer to 60%.

Japanese companies have been hit by China and need urgently to review the way they produce and where.

Nissan to bet on Thailand after China events

Japanese care manufacturers have been dramatically hit by the turmoil following contested islands between China and Japan. Not surprisingly Nissan is opening a new plant in Thailand while other manufacturers are considering India or Vietnam.

Nissan Motor Co. is considering an investment of some tens of billions of yen to build a new plant in Thailand, as part of its efforts to beef up production capacity in the Southeast Asian country, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

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Japanese companies on an M&A spree, last in date Toyota to buy Cascade

To take advantage from a strong yen, Japanese companies are on a M&A spree. Many analysts tend to say that the strong yen is not going to stay so strong forever. Issues with China, Debt problem not going to be solved by a 5% hike in VAT,…all the signs are here that the Yen will fall soon.

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SONY expects 2,000 workers to leave

Sony Corporation announced today that it expects to reduce about 2,000 workers at its domestic electronics business operations at its parent company and its units by March 2013 through an early retirement program.

The move is a part of the planned cutback in about 3,000-4,000 of its group workforce that the Japanese electronics maker unveiled in April. It has already scaled down 1,800 staff via the sale of its chemical products business to the Development Bank of Japan.

Once a symbol of Japan’s technological prowess, Sony has been floundering in recent years, suffering a massive net loss of 456.66 billion yen for the just ended business year–its fourth straight year of losses.

At the same time, Sony said it will terminate operations at its plant in central Japan by March 2013, as part of steps to consolidate its digital imaging business activities.

Sony said a series of reform steps will help reduce its annual fixed expenses by Y30 billion from fiscal 2013 that begins next April.

Japanese ready to trade jobs for safety

As Prime Minister Noda is pushing for more Nuclear Reactors to restart, Japanese tend to strongly oppose this decision.

Noda is claiming that the country cannot survive without cheap electricity and that only the restart of Nuclear reactors will allow factories to remain on the archipelago. However the recent massive demonstrations, unseen since the 1960′s are clearly demonstrating that Japanese do not agree. Read More

Chrysler and Fiat announce the openings of new facilities in Shanghai and Dubai

In a move to support growth in international markets, Chrysler Group LLC and Fiat S.p.A today announced the opening of Mopar® parts distribution centers in Shanghai and Dubai.

“With the opening of these two facilities, we are expanding our parts distribution network in order to fully support the growth taking place in these markets,” said Pietro Gorlier, President and CEO of Mopar, Chrysler Group LLC’s service, parts and customer-care brand. “As our vehicle brands continue to grow internationally, Mopar will continue to look for opportunities to effectively service our dealers and distributors, and ultimately our customers.”

The parts distribution center in China will integrate China domestic and regional operations, resulting in a more efficient and cost-effective supply chain and improved service levels for the company’s growing presence in China and Asia Pacific. The facility will be located in Yangshan Port Shanghai, a Free Trade Zone that offers Mopar the platform to support international trade from China. The 16,000 sq. meter facility will distribute more than 35,000 part numbers to more than 130 dealer locations in China and more than 20 third-party distributors and joint-venture partners throughout Asia Pacific. The warehouse will also be a referral point for other Mopar warehouses in South Korea, Japan, and Australia which service more than 200 additional dealer locations.

The 18,000 sq. meter parts distribution center in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) will be located in the Jebel Ali Free Trade Zone, providing Mopar the benefits to support the redistribution of parts throughout the Middle East and Africa. The warehouse will move more than 30,000 part numbers to support Middle East and African general distributors and local sales companies.

12 Mopar Express Lanes Opening in Middle East

In 2011, five Mopar Express Lanes were opened Saudi Arabia (Riyadh and Jeddah), Kuwait and Jordan. In 2012, seven Mopar Express Lanes will open in United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi), Qatar (Doha), Saudi Arabia (Dammam and Jeddah), Iraq(Baghdad) and Kuwait.

Following are facts about Mopar’s current global footprint:

• More than 45 commercial offices and more than 50 parts distribution centers supporting more than 120 markets
• Parts distribution centers occupy nearly 20 million square feet
• 22 customer-care call centers
• 350,000 order lines daily
• More than 3,500 suppliers
• More than 11,000 ship-to locations

Mopar-First Features

Mopar has introduced numerous industry-first features including:

• Vehicle-information apps: first to introduce smartphone vehicle-information applications, a new channel of communication with consumers
• Electronic owner manuals: first to introduce traditional owner manuals in a DVD and brief user-guide format
• Wi-Fi: first to offer customers the ability to make their vehicle a wireless hot spot
• Electronic Vehicle Tracking System (EVTS): first to market with a new interactive vehicle tracking device that sends owner a text when vehicle is driven too fast or too far based on pre-set parameters
• 2011 Mopar Challenger Drag Pak: first to introduce a 500-plus cubic-inch V-10 drag-race package car
• Camper trailers: first to introduce off-road camper trailers
• WiTECH: first to support vehicle diagnosis and software updates leveraging off-the-shelf personal computers and a dedicated wireless tool network

About the Mopar Brand

Mopar is Chrysler Group LLC’s service, parts and customer-care brand.

Mopar distributes approximately 280,000 parts and accessories in more than 120 countries and is the source for all original-equipment parts for Chrysler, Jeep^®, Dodge, SRT, and Ram Truck vehicles. Mopar parts are unique in that they are engineered with the same teams that create factory-authorized vehicle specifications for Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, SRT and Ram Truck vehicles  Ea direct connection that no other aftermarket parts company can provide. A complete list of Mopar accessories and performance parts is available at http://www.mopar.com.

More than 70 Years of Mopar

When Chrysler bought Dodge in 1928, the need for a dedicated parts manufacturer, supplier and distribution system to support the growing enterprise led to the formation of the Chrysler Motor Parts Corporation (CMPC) in 1929.

Mopar (a simple contraction of the words Motor and PARts) was officially trademarked for a line of antifreeze products in 1937. It also was widely used as a moniker for the CMPC. The Mopar brand made its mark in the 1960s  Ethe muscle-car era. The Chrysler Corporation built race-ready Dodge and Plymouth ”package cars” equipped with special high-performance parts. Mopar carried a line of “special parts” for super stock drag racers and developed its racing parts division called Mopar Performance Parts to enhance speed and handling for both road and racing use.

With the creation of the Chrysler Group and Fiat S.p.A. partnership, Mopar has extended its global reach, integrating service, parts and customer-care operations in order to enhance dealer and customer support.

Hitachi Plant Technologies to pursue its expansion in Asia

TOKYO & SINGAPORE—-Stepping up the pace of its global expansion, Hitachi Plant Technologies, Ltd. (“Hitachi Plant Technologies”) is in the process of establishing local subsidiaries in Southeast Asia and India. The new companies will engage in autonomous diversified operations and build close ties with customers and communities in their location.

The subsidiary to be established in December 2011 – Hitachi Plant Technologies (Asia) Pte. Ltd. – in the Republic of Singapore will oversee operations of local subsidiaries in Southeast Asia. Moreover as its affiliated subsidiaries, Hitachi Plant Technologies (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (provisional name) in the Kingdom of Thailand will be established in December 2011 and PT. Hitachi Plant Technologies (Indonesia) Co., Ltd. (provisional name) in the Republic of Indonesia and Hitachi Plant Technologies (Vietnam) Pte. Ltd. (provisional name) in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam will be established in March 2012.

Furthermore Hitachi Plant Technologies (Asia) Pte. Ltd. will retain existing subsidiaries including Hitachi Aqua-Tech Engineering Pte. Ltd. in Singapore, PHPC Co., Ltd. Inc. in the Republic of the Philippines and MHPT Engineering Sdn. Bhd. in Malaysia.

A further subsidiary, Hitachi Plant Technologies (India) Pvt. Ltd. (provisional name) in the Republic of India, will be established in February 2012.

These local subsidiaries are being launched to speed up decision-making and create a system to clarify responsibilities. The aim is also to develop business activity firmly rooted in the region. Supervisory control of region-wide operations will be assigned to Hitachi Plant Technologies (Asia) Pte. Ltd. to provide management support in areas such as marketing, sales, technology, and procurement. This arrangement is also expected to enable efficient allocation and utilization of management resources and to strengthen global recruitment of human resources, training and corporate governance.

Since establishing a Singapore Office in 1977, Hitachi Plant Technologies has aggressively expanded operations in the Asian Belt Zone^* and has steadily learned more about market environments in each country and region as it established representative offices, sales offices and local subsidiaries.

In recent years, economic expansion and population growth has accelerated in India and emerging countries in this region, resulting in active investment in social and industrial infrastructure. At the same time, Japanese companies have set up new production bases or expanded existing ones.

Hitachi Plant Technologies made the decision to establish the subsidiaries in Southeast Asia and India in order to respond to regional market trends and meet the needs of customers in the region. Hitachi Plant Technologies expects these autonomous diversified operations with close ties in their localities will accelerate the strategic growth for forming group companies to generate stable high profits. Through these efforts, Hitachi Plant Technologies intends to reach its business goals: to ‘Strengthen our Ability to Provide Total Solutions E ‘To Expand our Service Business E and ‘To Accelerate Global Expansion E

*. The Asian Belt Zone comprises 24 countries and regions along the coast of the Asian continent, from Japan to the Arabian Peninsula, including China, ASEAN-member nations, India, and the Middle East.

Hitachi highlights its Asian young leaders intiative

Bangkok  EHitachi Asia Ltd. (NYSE: HIT / TSE:6501) announced the confirmed list of speakers for the 11th Hitachi Young Leaders Initiative (HYLI). The event, which will be held in Hanoi, Vietnam between 9 and 13 January 2012, will see the gathering of regional politicians and key thought leaders from the region.

Since its inauguration in Singapore in 1996, HYLI has been successful in bringing the best and brightest students in Asia together. Each year, four outstanding students below the age of 28 are chosen to represent their country for the programme. These students come from seven Asian countries namely Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam and Japan. Read More

Tata chooses a 38 years old LBS graduate as its leader

This article is also featured in CareerBecause.Asia a career news and networking website for professionals connected to Asia.

It’s definitely a soft revolution at Tata, one of the most famous success story of India Inc. Ratan N Tata who multiplied by 10 the revenue of Tata and acquired Jaguar  is now ready to let a young manager (38 years old only) take the lead.

The new incumbent will be Cyrus P Mistry,  a graduate of civil engineering from Imperial College who also owns a master of science in management from the london Business School.

The board of directors of Tata Sons at its meeting appointed Cyrus P Mistry as Deputy Chairman. He will work with Ratan N Tata over the next year and take over from him when Mr Tata retires in December 2012. This is as per the unanimous recommendation of the selection committee.

Endorsing the appointment, Mr Tata, Chairman of Tata Sons, said: “The appointment of Mr Cyrus P Mistry as Deputy Chairman of Tata Sons is a good and far-sighted choice.

“He has been on the board of Tata Sons since August 2006 and I have been impressed with the quality and calibre of his participation, his astute observations and his humility. He is intelligent and qualified to take on the responsibility being offered and I will be committed to working with him over the next year to give him the exposure, the involvement and the operating experience to equip him to undertake the full responsibility of the group on my retirement. E

Mr Mistry, currently managing director, Shapoorji Pallonji Group, has been a director of Tata Sons since August 2006.