Japan’s second-largest automaker has been busy with multibillion-dollar deals, but the legal team helping making it happen is surprisingly small. Nissan’s global general counsel shares how his lean team punches above its weight.
The legal team at Nissan Motor Corporation’s headquarters in Japan has been very busy. Last year, the automaker completed a $2.29 billion deal to take a controlling stake in Mitsubishi, resulting in a Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance and placing it among the top three automotive groups by sales volume.
The transaction was complicated and regarded as the first of its kind in Japan, but the Nissan legal team finished it in a very short period of time – about half a year, from April to October 2016. Not long after the Mitsubishi deal, the legal team was hard at work again with the divestment of some Nissan ancillary businesses. In November 2016, the company sold its auto parts manufacturing unit Calsonic Kansei to U.S. buyout firm KKR for $1.8 billion. And just a few months ago in August, GSR Capital, a Chinese private equity firm, agreed to purchase Nissan’s electric battery business.
“On the deals front, we’ve done quite a number of meaty, interesting and technically challenging transactions led by the team here in Japan,” says Ravinder Passi, global general counsel at Nissan.
The 22-strong team, which was recently named Innovative In-House Team of the Year at the ALB Japan Law Awards 2017, is smaller than its competitors. It is even leaner than Nissan’s global legal team, which has about 150 people.
But what the Japan team lacks in people, it makes up for with a rich, diverse range of experience, says Passi. “The team is diverse in nationality, but also gender and age,” he says, adding that a number of women are in managerial positions and on track for leadership roles within the legal function.
That’s one reason why it punches above its weight. “You get different opinions, different experiences brought to the table,” shares Passi, who has qualified lawyers from the UK, U.S., Germany, France, and Japan in his team. “The uniqueness that it provides, from a very practical perspective, is the speed in which we can solve the problems.”
“When the team comes together, we can very quickly mobilise ourselves using experiences from different parts of the world to tackle particular issues,” he adds. “Instead of having to make a mistake ourselves and then learning from it, we utilise some of the mistakes that the others have made elsewhere.”
PAUSE AND REFLECT
Passi also credits the use of the Hoshin Kanri, a Japanese management methodology as a factor in the team’s success. In essence, he explains, you specify in advance what your objectives are and set certain milestones and markers. Then you track on a monthly basis where you are against those milestones and markers, and if you are lagging, you have to pause and reflect as to why you are behind.
“We use Hoshin Kanri, and we are rigorous about tracking and following that because thanks to that methodology, we can see where things are working very quickly, where things aren’t working quickly, and where improvements are advised,” he adds.
In addition to the methodology, Passi also promotes a self-service philosophy. “We try and make sure that our clients are educated – you can’t do everything with our limited numbers,” he says. “For example, we use standard templates, ‘frequently asked questions’ documents and hold legal surgeries so that we can make the most of our resource.”
Apart from the major deals the team has worked on, Passi is proud of the changes that the Japan team has made.
“From a cultural ethos perspective, one of the biggest accomplishments has been changing the team’s mindset and beliefs so they are much more proactive in terms of providing services,” he says. “We are ingraining ourselves more to the business, so it’s much more practical, pragmatic, digestible advice and being proactive with it, and not waiting for the clients to say they have a problem.”
