by Peter High, published on Forbes
5-26-2015
Celso Guiotoko’s background is quite diverse. He is half Brazilian and half Japanese. Having a foot in multiple cultures has served him well, especially in his current role as the Alliance Global Vice President, Corporate Vice President, and Chief Information Officer of Global Corporate IS/IT for Renault-Nissan. Guiotoko must balance a number of responsibilities, but he also has to juggle a diverse travel schedule. One of the keys to making this work is to have a solid team in place in each geography, and in each area of responsibility.
Guiotoko and his team have also tapped into Silicon Valley, setting up shop there along side the Engineering function’s team there. This innovation lab has helped spur creative thinking around investments into the Internet of Things, and driverless cars, as Guiotoko notes herein .
(To listen to an unabridged audio version of this interview, please visit this link. This is the 22nd article in the CIO-plus series. To read the prior 21 articles, featuring interviews with the CIOs of ADP, P&G, McKesson, the San Francisco Giants, and Walgreens among others, please visit this link. To read future articles in the series, please click the “Follow” link above.)
Peter High: I thought we’d begin with your responsibilities, which are quite varied. You are the Alliance Global Vice President, a Corporate Vice President, and Chief Information Officer of Global Corporate IS/IT. You have responsibilities within Nissan and across the relationship between Nissan and Renault. Could you talk a bit about your various areas of responsibility?
Celso Guiotoko: In 2004, I joined Nissan, as the CIO, and I was responsible for the global IS/IT for the company. Since 2009, I have also had the mission of creating synergies between the two companies, and I was appointed the IS/IT managing director for Renault-Nissan. Since then I have also become responsible for the Renault IT organization. It’s been almost six years since that time.
In the beginning of 2014, we announced the creation of four additional converged functions. One is on the engineering side, the second is in supply chain manufacturing, the third is in purchasing, and the fourth is HR. I think we’ve had a good contribution in those areas because the board members of both companies (Renault and Nissan) felt comfortable that with the many benefits to having a single leader driving some of the functions there. I believe the IS/IT functions in Renault-Nissan are very proud of the fact that our experiences since 2009 have been very successful.
We have several initiatives to support the conversion functions. This is one part of the job where we need to make sure that the business strategies in Renault and Nissan are fulfilled by the organization in each of the companies. At the same time that we need to fill the needs of the individual companies, we also need to make sure that we are going to generate synergies so that we can communalize the solutions that can be deployed in both companies. It’s quite the exercise in terms of communicating and making sure that everybody is aligned and has great teamwork because it is so important to make this alliance successful. Independent of the fact that there is an alliance, Renault and Nissan have independent boards and executive committees, so it is a little tricky. My job is a little different from most CIOs because you need to keep the independence of the two companies, but at the same time you need to bring them together.
To read the full article, please visit Forbes