Where Ex-Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen Went Right, And Where He Potentially Went Wrong
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Following the shock news that General Motors had ousted Johan de Nysschen, now-ex Cadillac President, we began to wonder what happened behind the scenes. Now, it’s become clear de Nysschen and upper management had very different timelines for Cadillac’s turnaround, and it was somewhat of a mutual decision for the executive to depart the brand.
After just under four years on the job, we look back at where de Nysschen, once hailed as the brand’s saving grace, went right, and where he potentially went wrong.
Right: More Exclusivity
de Nysschen realized Cadillac needed to move further away from GM’s other brands, and his vision placed the brand far outside the typical GM orbit. The executive took hold of Cadillac as it moved out of Detroit and into New York City for greater autonomy; he brought an exclusive Cadillac engine to life in the 4.2-liter twin-turbo LTA V8 engine; and he fought to stay away from heavily incentivizing Cadillacs to preserve future residual values. Not to mention, he called for more attention to vehicle quality and improved customer experience.
Wrong: FWD Crossovers
The Cadillac XT5 was already on the docket to replace the SRX before de Nysschen’s arrival, but the XT4 and upcoming XT6 have de Nysschen’s fingerprints all over them. Unfortunately, they’re based on shared GM architectures. The 2019 Cadillac XT4 sits atop the same platform as the Chevrolet Malibu, something we always felt was a bit of a rush job, and the 2020 Cadillac XT6 will likely ride on GM’s extended C1 platform—much like the Chevrolet Traverse. The Alpha and Omega platforms would have been better fits in our eyes, but development could have been too long for GM brass to swallow.
Right: Overhauling Cadillac Dealerships
de Nysschen got a lot of flack from dealers after rolling out Project Pinnacle, but Cadillac’s dealership model was in need of a transformation. In fact, the executive never even got his full wish after offering buyouts to the brand’s smallest dealers and dropping various elements of Project Pinnacle along the way. However, Cadillac dealers needed the change, and we think the franchises will be stronger in the long-run because of it.
Wrong: The Turnaround Timeline
For GM brass, de Nysschen’s 10-year “journey” to see Cadillac flourish again wasn’t good enough. The executive’s vision clearly took time, and it’s time that—from GM’s tone in the departure announcement—upper management wasn’t willing to dish out. After just under four years in the position, Cadillac is only now rolling out its first new vehicle, the XT4, this year. And, despite its good looks, the XT4 isn’t groundbreaking.
Right: The Turnaround Timeline
We see the GM point of view, but we also believe a Cadillac rush job is not what the marque needs. Although Cadillac’s revival has been slow and steady, and U.S. sales haven’t improved much, the timeline seemed right. de Nysschen began to overhaul Cadillac’s culture and plant the seeds for what the brand will be six years from now. It takes time to get things right, and we only began to see what de Nysschen had in store for Cadillac with the refreshed 2019 CT6 and 2019 CT6 V-Sport. Although the XT4 is slightly underwhelming, it’s also priced to undercut rivals, and we think it will still be a success.
Wrong: de Nysschen’s Brash Tone
de Nysschen freely spoke his mind in every encounter GM Authority had with the executive, and we have a feeling that ethos didn’t sit well with upper management. Perhaps it would even come off as negative at times. He was blunt, and perhaps even combative at times over his vision, and placing Steve Carlisle into the top role will likely erase those attributes.
Right: de Nysschen Was a Fighter
On the other side of the coin, de Nysschen’s personality was refreshing at Cadillac. The executive often called out German rivals and we adored the fighting spirit he brought to the brand. He always made it clear what the end goal was for various topics, and he’d push back when deemed necessary. Although we didn’t always agree, we’re not the ones running Cadillac, and we’ll never know if the attributes and vision de Nysschen fought for will pan out.
Wrong: The Advertising Message
“Dare Greatly” was poised to be Cadillac’s “Born by Fire” moment, but the message never really took off. Only now has the brand begun rolling out much more effective ads. Cadillac executives under de Nysschen insisted the advertising and marketing message was always intentional, however. The goal was to build the brand ahead of the product onslaught, which will really kick into gear in 2019. Unfortunately, those ads never translated to increased dealership traffic or sales. But, it also likely has something to do with the fact Cadillac has offered just one crossover and numerous sedans in today’s market climate.
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How about pointing out that Johan was an arrogant South African who loved only German cars, and wanted to throw away the American brand equity that was built up in Cadillac for over a century? All for his own silly dream of – nothing but being a total imitation of the Germans. In a market that already has plenty of real German cars. THAT’S a huge problem.
As to the FWD thing – I don’t understand the fixation of so many so-called “enthusiasts” about RWD over FWD. Yes FWD is less expensive to implement, so what? A gold plated engine would cost more to implement too – does that make it “better”? FWD has numerous advantages over RWD, and in fact FWD goes back to the 1966 Olds Toronado and the 1967 Cadillac Eldorado, when GM perfected FWD as other brands couldn’t do it. FWD yields more legroom, is much better in snow and slippery conditions, even yields better gas milage. And there are plenty of high horsepower, high torque implementations of FWD.
The XT4 is definitely underwhelming, but I doubt that many actual potential buyers of the XT4 will be turned off by it being FWD. The top selling luxury CUVs are from Lexus and are FWD. Let’s try to stop this insanity that FWD is hated by the majority of luxury car buyers – it isn’t. Yes there is a very vocal minority of no more than 15% who insist that a car just isn’t a car if it isn’t RWD. And for those people, there’s BMW, have at it. The XT4 is a cheap looking little car that doesn’t deserve the Cadillac name. But the problem is NOT FWD. Give it RWD and the cheap and little problems remain, it just would cost more now, and would sell even less.
As to “Exclusivity” that was a dumb idea by JdN too. He thought that by limiting production, by raising prices without raising content, somehow Cadillacs would be appealing because they were rare and relatively expensive. But even rich people expect something for their money, rather than just excess profit per car for the manufacturer. And another problem JdN missed was that due to the high fixed cost of developing each model, you can’t make much money even when you price each model well above your marginal costs. In other words, the guy was clueless about basic economics. And he wanted only platforms and engines that were exclusive to Cadillac, not even sharing with Corvette. How is GM supposed to pay for all of that, on a limited production basis? The guy wanted what he wanted, but he had no understanding of how profits work.
As far as being “exclusive”, what if Cadillac actually made cars that were real Cadillacs – i.e. not just clones of what the Germans did 10 years ago? That’s a much better form of exclusivity, being a leader and not a follower. Even when JdN had a chance to do something a little different with the Escala, he balked for 2 years (it was shown as a concept in 2016) before finally greenlighting – something after 2022. He didn’t do anything with the Ciel or Elmiraj either. I’m not saying those would have been the only tonic Cadillac needed, but JdN seemed to think he could just execute the same game plan that everyone else did, rather than actually “daring greatly” as advertised. When the XT4 showed that he couldn’t even execute a clone product well, he got canned. Hard to believe anyone would think that’s a bad thing.
Yes, I care all Cadillac models should/will be RWD/AWD configuration. Yes Cadillac V series /V sport models should be/will be around. These things were around before JDN got here and they are not going anywhere, people seems to forget that.
New:: VSS-R RWD/AWD, Omega ,alpha chassis’s that’s not going away.
The board in its infamous shortsighted wisdom & impatience wanted a Yes man who can deliver quickly on the cheap. Anyone who stands up to them or annoy them about expenses, gets the boot or reassigned… JDN is not the first & won’t be the last.
I had some issues with some of JDN’s decisions, but I gave him a chance to if he can delivers … Unfortunately, the results of his work won’t show up for another 2 years once his line up replaces the current cars. At least he left on his own terms. And I wish him the best of luck with the next chapter of his life. He left Cadillac in a better shape than he first got it.
Anyway, I’ll extend the same courtesy to the new CEO, Steve … But it doesn’t look good since he have to report to a beancounter. Good luck to him.
When you don’t have any crossover’s out here and your marketing is not good it’s hard to be patience. If these marketing was good and crossover’s were out here, you would hear a word from them. Went your competition pumping out crossovers all these time and you do have any, the problems come’s. Marketing should have been better even if the models were older.
Its not 1999 anymore, you can’t just slap a Cadillac badge on a Denali & call it a day. Cars take time to develop properly & there are consequences for a rushed job … GM went through that dark path before & should know better. Remember the Chevy Cobalt? That POS took 2½ years to develop from a thought to a production car.
If the Board can’t wait 3 years-ish for cars to reach production, how can we ever seriously expect GM & Cadillac to develop a world class flagship that goes toe to toe with the Germans and not do a “good enough” car?
The Germans spend 6 to 8 years working on their flagships. Remember the BMW 7-series E65 that was introduced in 2001? Work on it began in 1993 … 2 Years before its predecessor’s first model year (E38 in 1995). Another example is the current Mercedes S-class, work began on the current generation W222 once the W221 was signed off to production … The W221 first model year was 2006.
Granted, we are talking about entry level & midrange Luxury crossovers here, but you have to remember that they needed to assess the situation, work out a 5-year plan for the company & decide on the next generation of Art & Science design language before they can even start working on the cars … And those are no trivial matters that can be decided overnight. The time line fits once you put everything together. Around this time next year Cadillac should have a healthy 4 CUV\SUV line up covering all the main entries between $35k & $100k … Before someone says “But BMW have 7 CUVs”, Cadillac mentioned from the get go that they won’t build niche CUVs like the X4, X6 & so on.
Are they late to the party? Absoluty, work on new crossovers should’ve started once the development of the XT5 began. Half assed CUVs are not the answer though … Lincoln have had a 4 CUV\SUV line up for some time now (MKC, MKT, MKX & Navigator) & they are still behind.
I’m not worry about Cadillac’s future with JDN, which was nothing wrong with him, or future ceo over Cadillac.
Bottom line, despite new models, Cadillac market share is down in the US in a market which has grown by 1 million units. And no improvement internationally overall which means MIA in most markets.
http://www.autoline.tv/journal/?p=54981
Not Nysschen biggest fan , so oh that NOTE
BYE !!!! Especially all the letters & numbers for the cadillac models . Advice to the new Boss Just bring back the Names of the Cadillacs of OLD . make a big luxury Coupe and updates the interior cluster by now they should be OLED or HD clusters I own a 2017 CTS the car drives wonderful it just needs that wow factor when you push that start button cadillac has dropped the where there concepts should be on the Road now & not 2021 or 2022. It’s an EASY FIX
1. JdN wasn’t responsible for the naming nomenclature, as that decision was made before his tenure. Even so, names aren’t what sell cars – no one ever said that they won’t buy a Cadillac because it’s called a CT6 or an XT5. But it will definitely alienate many potential customers they’re trying to attract if the “names of the Cadillacs of OLD” are brought back. NOT a good idea.
2. The entire Cadillac sedan lineup was done pre-JDN.
I really have to laugh at how defensive some of you get about JDN. It’s like you feel personally attacked. Are you related to the guy? I’m a big GM fan and want Caddy to succeed as much as you do, but let’s get real. At the end of the day the only thing that matters is results. To all you defenders of the ATS, for example, have you bothered to look at the results.
2017 US Sales
3/4 series. 99,000
A4/A5 34,000
Q50. 40,700
ATS 13,100
You can call me names and argue all you want, but whether it’s the price, name, styling, features, marketing, back seat size, or anything else for that matter, for some reason people are staying away. Isn’t it the President’s job to figure out what’s wrong and fix it? And no the answer can’t always be it will take 10 years and everyone needs to be patient. That line doesn’t work at any company, not just GM.