Message from
Planning Function
Executive
Senior Vice President
Global Product Strategy and Product Planning Division
Global Program Management,
NISMO (Nissan Motorsports)
Ivan Espinosa
Creating the Future: Sustainable & Exciting Products
Developed by a Diverse Team
My division is in charge of defining the future product and service portfolio for all Nissan and Infiniti markets worldwide. To execute that mission, I oversee three departments: the Program Directors Office, Product Planning and Strategy, and the EV Program & Energy Ecosystem. It is super-rewarding to be part of a team that includes over 20 nationalities collaborating with planning, design, engineering, and manufacturing to create the future.
The Program Directors Office maximizes the profit and presence of new models by looking at the competitiveness, design, and performance of new products and services. This requires receiving commitments throughout the organization. Product Planning’s mission is to develop innovative and exciting products and services. Success here requires deep market and customer understanding, forecasting, and updating the life cycle plan of our offers. The EV Program & Energy Ecosystem Department finds new business opportunities and enhances the customer experience through strategic innovations. This department is focused on developing the 4 stages of what we call the Eco-cycle. This includes not only selling the vehicle but using it as an energy solution, and then, reusing, re-purposing and recycling the batteries.
Our team strength comes from understanding the whole value chain. My team is uniquely positioned to be involved from the earliest stages of product ideation and development, all the way down to the end of lifecycle management. We also gain strength from different nationalities here in Japan and in planning groups in our main markets, which gives us a direct understanding of the market conditions, our competition, our customers and how they use and live with the products we create for them.
As for challenges, the industry is experiencing three major transformations. The most obvious is the shift to electric vehicles, and Nissan is aggressively moving to electrify its entire lineup. Especially with EVs there is a demand for new technology and innovation, and it is essential to challenge further new value creation that brings tangible benefits to our customers, and this starts in the product planning phase. The second challenge is connectivity. We live in an ever-more connected world; various technologies are converging in vehicles, which means that customers’ expectations for connectivity are becoming increasingly important as they expect a seamless connection between their lives and their experiences in a car. The third challenge is autonomous driving technologies and the new experiences that these technologies will allow drivers and passengers to enjoy together.
We are bolstering our super-tool—diversity—by focusing on talent acquisition, training, and digitization to integrate and embrace these transformations. This involves bringing people in from other industries to teach and provide perspective. We are, for example, onboarding to give our people experience in mobility and the tablet industry. This all comes down to striving to understand how we can better connect our products with customer expectations. We are also regularly training people and constantly developing programs so that our team can be more innovative and creative. And we are moving ahead with functional digitization to provide the tools to understand our markets better.
In my division, one of the primary value experiences is that you get to touch the technologies of the future. You also have the opportunity to interact with different disciplines, from engineering to marketing and sales to manufacturing, so you’re constantly exposed to the entire value chain.
Nissan provides an international experience for personal growth. I believe that this has provided value to the company and, at the same time, allowed me to grow and develop as a professional. At 100 countries and counting, I’m probably one of the poster child for conducting business on a global scale in Nissan.
My message to prospective employees is that if they are looking to have a rewarding and fulfilling experience, Nissan, and particularly my division, is a great place to be. You have the ability to shape the world from many angles and to contribute to a better society. Cleaner, environmentally friendly products and services that excite people and more-innovative mobility solutions will help megacities become better organized and make our customers’ lives better. Being a part of our team, you can contribute to how the world will look because we influence how cars are designed and developed. And ultimately, you can impact people’s experiences. We are combining products and services to help people have better lives and enjoy exciting experiences. In return, the best reward is to see the smiles in our customers’s faces as they enjoy the products we put in their hands.
Last but not least, I want to say that our division is fun and rewarding. You can touch the technologies of the future while interacting with the various nationalities and cultures in our team in Japan and worldwide. This experience is incredibly enriching. What more can I add? It’s a journey of constant learning supported by various training programs and driven by a once-in-a-lifetime transformation of our industry.
