The decision of Carlos Tavares to quit from his role of Renault's Chief Operating Officer with immediate effect came was announced on 29th of August. Two weeks prior to this declaration, Tavares had hinted that he would like to join one of the American car makers. Tavares said that he had the "the energy and appetite for a No. 1 position" but the chance to succeed Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn, 59, in the near future was quite unlikely. He also said, "My experience would be good for any car company. Why not GM? I would be honoured to lead a company like GM."
Reacting to this statement, on the condition not to be identified, one of the Renault's insider said, "It raised a lot of eyebrows. How do you motivate your teams when you've said publicly you'd rather be at GM or Ford ?"
Another colleague commented on the current proceedings that the ouster of Tavares has followed after an informal meeting on August 26. The meeting was addressed by Ghosn who "sounded out" senior company officials. Adding further, he also said, "It's brutal, but what Tavares had said in (the interview) did not win him any friends."
Interestingly, Patrick Pelata, the predecessor of Tavares, earlier was ousted for his role that lead to wrongful dismissal of three executives from the company. Pelata had broken the code of conduct and got the penalty on the same. Reacting to the latest news of exiting from the role of COO, Deutsche Bank analyst Gaetan Toulemonde said, "This is clearly bad news for Renault. Tavares is a real car guy, and replacing him internally is no easy matter because the alliance structure isn't simple - you need someone who has a certain recognition at Nissan as well."
Commenting on departure of Tavares, Renault said that Tavares would cease to be COO of the company with immediate effect. His role and responsibilities will be temporarily assumed by Ghosn who is also heading the Japanese affiliate Nissan. Amidst this surprise news of major top management change, any comment from General Motors is yet to come. In fact, Dan Akerson, CEO General Motors declined to make any comment on Tavares' remarks or his departure.
On this development, Ford's spokesman Jay Cooney said, “The company has succession plans in place for each of our key leadership positions including CEO Alan Mulally, 68. Chief Operating Officer Mark Fields is widely seen as heir apparent. Our preference always is to develop talent internally, and we are fortunate to have a strong list of internal candidates."
Highlighting the journey of Tavares, he joined Renault in 1981 and then moved to Nissan after 23 years to lead a program director for compact cars. After rising to the rank of Americas Chief, he finally returned to Renault in 2011. One of the major achievements of Tavares while working for Nissan was the critical role played by him, in order to procure a fund of $1.6 billion from U.S. Energy Department, which was used for running an electric-car battery plant.
It is believed that the departure of Tavares from Renault will dampen the efforts of Ghosn for reviving the domestic industrial base of the company. Tavares' decision to depart seems to be justified after hearing out the senior executives who earlier have worked with him. As per them, he is capable of taking a high placed role in an American car company. One of them said, “If it's between Germany and the U.S., America would be more in line with his temperament and experience."
