The providential man? The least that can be said is that Luca de Meo is eagerly awaited by the 180,000 employees of Renault. Because the task that awaits the former boss of Seat is Herculean. It goes far beyond the catastrophic reality of sales and profitability figures, greatly amplified by the coronavirus crisis. It is a question of giving the French automobile group a new strategic impulse which can re-mobilize demoralized troops after a year and a half of managerial crisis, and who pay nearly fifteen years of strategic errors under the reign of Carlos Ghosn.
Critical situation
It must be said that Renault’s financial situation is particularly critical: falling sales and cash in danger to the point that the group had to resort to a state guaranteed loan of 5 billion euros. “The road to recovery is already partly marked with the savings plan presented a month ago, there is little chance that Luca de Meo will deviate from this trajectory”, recalls Frédéric Rozier, equity manager at Mirabaud. In May, Clotilde Delbos, acting general manager of Renault, …
