|
O‘zbеkiston rеspublikasi oliy ta’lim, fan va innovatsiyalar vazirligiBog'liq mustaqil ta\'limTask 2. Reading
_________________________________
by Alison Maitland
Nissan Motor's sales executives in Japan used to take cars 10 customers'
homes for viewing, often late in the evening. Now the showrooms and salespeople
operate more regular working hours.
The change of approach might sound like a decline in personal service. In
fact, it is signed to be the opposite. Cars are no longer just 'boys' toys', even in
conservative Japan. Nissan's research shows that women make a third of car
purchases, and women and men jointly make another third. Female customers
overwhelmingly would like there to be more women in the sales teams, but the late
hours made the job unappealing to women in a country where there is still often a
stark choice between work and family.
These findings prompted Carlos Ghosn, Chief Executive of Nissan and
Renault, to adopt a strategy to hire and promote more women into the leadership
ranks.
Since 2004, Nissan's 'Women in the Driver's Seat' initiative has more than doubled
recruitment of female engineering graduates to 17 per cent this year and
recruitment of female salespeople has jumped from 15 per celli to 34 per cent.
The number of women managers at Nissan, while still tiny, has risen from 2
per cent to 5 per cent. 'In an ideal situation, we should mirror the market we serve -
50 per cent - but there is a long way to go,' says Miyuki Takahashi, General
Manager of the Diversity Development Office that runs the initiative to woo
female employees and customers. At a conference organised by Catalyst, which
researches and campaigns for the advancement of women in business. Nissan was
one of this year's two award winners, not least for having hit its initial target of 50
women making lip 5 per cent of its managers in an industry in which the average is
just 0.6 per cent.
Nissan says that getting more women engineers into the company, in which
80 per cent of employees are engineers, is important to its success. 'Males are
attracted by big pictures of cars and specifications about performance,' says Ms.
Takahashi, who was previously Marketing Director in Japan. 'We found most
mothers were attracted by pictures of a family having a great time with the car.'
To priorities female customers, three years ago Nissan launched the Serena
people carrier, which was designed by and for women. Last year, it won the top-
selling spot in Japan. Ms. Takahashi says, 'I am convinced that this hit is closely
related to women's advancement in Nissan in terms of marketing and sales.
|
| |
