NISSAN Philippines Inc. recently held a leadership turnover ceremony and introduced its new president and managing director. Ramesh Narasimhan has passed the torch to Atsushi Najima who joined Nissan in 2016 and previously held the position as general manager of Nissan Motor, Yokohama. Najima’s role as NPI’s new president and managing director took effect last April. He will report directly to Vincent Wijnen, Nissan Asia & Oceania senior vice president for sales and marketing.
Under Narasimhan’s three-year strong leadership stint, NPI achieved remarkable progresses including finishing 2018 as its best financial year so far with 40-percent sales growth to an almost 9-percent market share. “We grew almost 59 percent from last year and we saw the highest unit ever in Nissan Philippines,” he revealed. In fact, this year’s March sales alone broke NPI’s previous record of the highest record per month which was last year’s August when the Terra was launched. This, in turn, have significantly advanced NPI’s industry ranking. “We [NPI] jumped from No. 9 nine to No. 7 and now to number three!” he added.
“I would like to thank my friends in the industry, our business partners, our government stakeholders and friends from the media for taking time tonight. You are all a huge part of Nissan and most important, my journey in the Philippines. And our milestones are sweeter with you by our side. Speaking of journey, this story of growth is also my own. In my time here at NPI, I felt that I grew as a leader and most important, as a person,” Narasimhan concluded. From NPI, Narasimhan will take on a new role in Nissan Thailand.
Najima, on the other hand, also has a solid leadership background. For 18 years, he held various finance and general management roles at Procter & Gamble across Asia (Philippines, Singapore and Japan). He eventually joined Nissan in 2016 as deputy general manager of Nissan’s regional financial management group in Japan. He graduated from the University of Tokyo with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and completed his Master of Business Administration at Kobe University in Japan. “Whatever Nissan has set in motion for it to grow bigger and better must be sustained. We always go back to the basics in enriching the lives of Filipinos,” he explained.
Najima further expounded on these four basics. First is “Product” through promoting Nissan Intelligent Mobility and bringing in the Leaf to country by 2020. Next is “Service” pertaining to Nissan’s ranking at the JD Powers customer service index as a standard to maintain in keeping the customers at the heart of the business. Then “Customer Experience” by further expanding the dealership network. Last, is ‘People’ since NPI built a corporate culture of trust, transparency and empowerment. “Building on this success would be my challenge and I feel very optimistic because of the direction and momentum Ramesh [Narasimhan] has set for us,” he concluded.
As NPI’s new president and managing director, Atsushi will be responsible for developing business strategies to maximize Nissan’s overall performance, managing product introductions and expanding the availability of the Nissan brand in the country under its midterm plan Nissan M.O.V.E. to 2022. “With his rich experience in managing teams across multiple countries, I am confident that Atsushi will continue to drive the strong growth trajectory established by the current leadership team,” said Wijnen.
Image credits: Randy S. Peregrino, Nissan Philippines