How did Nissan’s product line strategy help or hurt its ability to respond to and recover from the disaster?

How did Nissan’s product line strategy help or hurt its ability to respond to and recover from the disaster?

Nissan’s aggressive strides in expanding their foreign manufacturing footprint into other continents like North America and other developing countries, assisted its production continuity during the crisis.
Nissan, had a leveraged a regional decentralized supply chain structure, but with an instilled strong control and coordination during emergency situations. This helped maintain a flexible organization while incorporating various perspectives that were essential cultural attributes at the company.
Nissan’s corporate officers were of diverse nationalities with most of them having vast experience in overseas operations-traits that weren’t common in other Japanese OEM’s. This diversity was a source of strength in management of a large global operation and valued that the executive team would respond to the unique constraints and opportunities that were present in each market.
A simplified product line complemented Nissan’s flexibility. With an adoption of a build-in-stock strategy for a few SKU’s in each model and the rest a build to order strategy, management believed the strategy would help in simplifying its operations and product offerings and also increase its sales.
Nissan’s prior experience in overcoming daunting challenges like the 1999 crisis, when it faced severe financial difficulties which were resolved by forming an alliance with Renault, such a deal prompted Nissan to confront its deep-rooted practices and biases and took bold measures to ensure the company’s survival and ultimate success.
The 1999 near-death experience led to the inception of a risk management philosophy. Its main focus was on identification and analyzation of risks prior to their occurrence. Therefore, planning and quickly implementing countermeasures.
The company had a put in place and a dedicated risk management function which was responsible for the crisis activities. And also, an executive-level committee that decided on corporate risks, inducted ‘risk owners’ to manage specific risks and report regularly to the Board of Directors on the its progress.
Nissan had a well in place Earthquake Emergency-response plans in advance which were described in its 2010 annual report. Nissan’s emergency-response plan prioritized on human life, follow-on disasters prevention, rapid disaster recovery and business continuity, support for neighboring communities, companies and government.