Be fast and be flexible

If you have just taken over the main job, Nissan Espinos’s new Nissan CEO has advice for you.

Espinosa enters the role in a stormy time for world auto industry – with a slowdown in EV sales, increased competition from China and new tariffs that threaten profits.

“Support optimism because the environment is very rigid and you do not want to overload,” CNBC Espinosa said on Wednesday. “If you are overloaded, you can paralyze – and paralysis is not what you need under current conditions. You need to keep moving.”

And it’s not just a car world. In various sectors, the Directors are pressured to move on geopolitical instability, economic uncertainty and rapid technological changes. Many did not last the course.

According to Challenger, Grey & Christmas, the departure of the CEOs from US companies increased by 38% in December. For all 2024, 2221 executives left the post – the highest number since the 2002 tracking began.

Espinosa believes that the modern CEO must lead with other thinking. “This is a very violent environment in which we live. In the past, some executives have been very stubborn, very resistant to change. I think now you need to remain open and remain flexible.”

As the industry changes, so is the style of leadership. “There is much more cooperation,” he adds. “We have more open discussions about what we can do together. The context is very unique – geopolitics, problems with the supply chain – and sometimes it is simply impossible to go alone.”

While last year there was a record number of trips to the CEO, it will also be put into a fresh wave of leadership. By Boiling and Starbucks by Stellantis and NikeThe new class of executives is the center of attention – and in some of the most difficult business conditions in the last memory.

These leaders accept the reins against the background of global uncertainty, geopolitical tensions and rapid achievements of artificial intelligence. Add to this growing risks of cybersecurity threats and disruptions to the supply chain, and the description of the modern CEO looks more demanding than if it is.

Espinos Nissan, took over in AprilWhat makes it the fourth CEO of the company in eight years. He has a lot of work experience in the Japanese giant giant, where he has worked since 2003, assuming the first role of a specialist in the Products in Mexico Division and then positions in Thailand and Japan.

Despite your extensive experience, Espinosa now has a tough: turn the sales decline and affect intensive competition from Chinese automakers.

“We need to move quickly. We need to make decisions on the spot. And you need to make a comfortable decisions, even if you don’t have 100% available information,” Espinosa CNBC said. “It is better to move, and then correct the course than just sit and wait.”

Shortly after he took the main job, Espinosa submitted plans to reduce 11,000 jobs and close seven factories within the main restructuring. But beyond the cost reduction, it focuses on the creation of a cohesive team.

“The fact that you cannot afford in a very difficult situation is a team that does not have the same goals and does not share the same goals,” he said.