It’s been one year since Johan de Nysschen was ushered out as Cadillac President. At the 2019 New York International Auto Show, Automobile sat down for a lengthy discussion on a number of topics, but he also spoke quite a bit about his time inside GM’s luxury division.
Foremost, as we’ve reported in the past, de Nysschen did not lead Cadillac’s move to New York City, he confirmed. The former Cadillac boss shared it was former GM CEO Dan Ackerson’s decision, which newly appointed CEO Mary Barra carried out. De Nysschen was the executive to announce the move. Even though critics called the decision a disaster for the brand, de Nysschen believes to this day that a premium brand needs space from a parent automaker. All the while, he said Detroit was always the brand’s home. Instead of cheerleaders, Cadillac made enemies with the New York City move, he said.
The former executive said his ultimate goal at Cadillac was to see the division grow again. De Nysschen described numerous areas where he implemented new ways of thinking and programs to ensure the brand received what it deserved. For example, he described the implementation of Cadillac-specific teams for things like product planning, powertrains, manufacturing, design, and engineering.
De Nysschen said previously, engines were often developed with the Chevrolet brand in mind first. So the ethos went, it was “good enough for Cadillac,” he said. A new Cadillac-specific team would have a voice at the table to argue for better NVH levels, or perhaps minor adjustments for the premium brand.
The former executive described numerous instances where GM’s mainstream brands simply took Cadillac along for the ride. Despite his exit, he believes these plans are still very much on track—including the shift to make Cadillac a technology leader and spearhead GM’s electric car programs. He confirmed Chevrolet will not lead the EV pack going forward.
De Nysschen also seemed to hint we’ll see more exciting things coming from the brand next decade. The vehicles the brand has debuted so far were part of a first phase to simply catch Cadillac up to the competition, he said. These include the XT4 and XT6, which compete in two major crossover segments. He called out the next Escalade specifically and said it will be “fantastic.”
Personally, de Nysschen wasn’t ready to leave Cadillac. He called his departure a “big setback” personally and professionally. He remains sure he did everything he said he would do for the brand. Looking back, it’s “all water under the bridge,” he commented.
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Source: Automobile
Comments
His new Cadiilac products stunk in terms of design. With a straight face he was peddling excellence, etc he would say. Not even close. The new sedan looks like a blob from the side. Generic. The opposite of Cadillac and its original position in the world. Gutless.
What’s a blob? How does the “new sedan” look like “a blob”?
The styling is actually one of the things that the new wave of products continues to get right. Those who argue against it simply do not get it. The goal is to appeal to a much wider audience, something that the prior design language didn’t help, while still being unique. The prior design language was definitely unique, but turned off many. It didn’t cast a wide enough appeal.
But to talk only about design, whether you like it or not, is to miss the forest for the trees… and in a big way. Cadillac needs to be apart from GM, with its own engineering, design, product planning, parts sourcing (as appropriate). It’s an organizational hazard that permeates into product. Sure, efficiencies should be realized when apropiarte, but GM has historically been very aggressive in deciding how much is appropriate… and someone was needed to rethink that, and present logically to GM’s top-level decision makers… it sounds simple in theory, but it is no small task to implement. There is a significant amount of pressure within GM to follow the status quo… and an outsider with some courage (read: balls) was needs to shake things up.
That’s what JdN did… and he got the boot. Who has Cadillac’s back now that he’s gone? Who is willing to fight tooth and nail for the brand? Will Mr. Carlisle do that, and put his 30 year-long career at GM at risk? Will he fight for what’s best for the brand and it’s products, which still have a long way to go before it can truly think like and compete with the market leaders, or will he simple take the easy way out so as not to jeopardize his career?
I think the answers are relatively obvious. So even if you don’t like how the new Cadillacs look, you should understand that this cuts so much deeper than the highly-subjective topic of styling and design.
I have been SCREAMING this for the longest. In fact, I send Cadillac and GM a tweet every morning that contains a quote from the CEO of Aston Martin. Quite frankly, he said that premium brands inside mass market parent companies won’t make it. And basically, in this article jDN is saying the same thing. Those who do (VW and Audi) have found ways to differentiate enough to give Audi the prestige it needs. And… because VW also holds Porsche, Lamborghini, and others, they have the ability to create prestige by connecting lesser brands to upper brands. Cadillac has no such upper brand to connect to. jDN knew this. He understood that chasing profits at the expense of product does not work in this space. Luxury is a different animal because no one NEEDS a luxury ANYTHING. So, they can’t just be “good cars.” They have to be EMOTIONALLY engaging. They have to be authentic. Real materials. Rare details. That’s why the plastic panel on the rear pillar treatment on the CT5 cheapens the design. It’s plastic mean to give the appearance of glass. That’s NOT authentic. That’s pseudo. That’s not luxurious! To add to this, you hear almost NO ONE say they were wrong about “his” decision to move the brand to New York. Their ignorance of the facts caused them to have a bias that was founded on nothing but more ignorance. I desperately wanted Cadillac to succeed. And Carlisle? Under him, Cadillac will be more of the same. In fact, GM has set a precedent for the brand, and anyone who would “Dare Greatly” to make it great! SAD really. So Sad!
“Luxury is a different animal because no one NEEDS a luxury ANYTHING. So, they can’t just be “good cars.” They have to be EMOTIONALLY engaging. They have to be authentic. Real materials. Rare details.”
And that truly sad thing is that only JDN seemed to know this. The rest of GM didn’t seem to care so long as it sold.
He may have been a corporate big-wig, but he knew what Cadillac needed, and he was the best shot Cadillac had in decades.
“Even though critics called the decision (to move to NYC) a disaster for the brand, de Nysschen believes to this day that a premium brand needs space from a parent automaker.”
The same kind of space and independence that Audi enjoys away from Volkswagen or what Lexus enjoys from Toyota. Shame GM can’t stop seeing Cadillac as an expensive Chevy, which in turn has conditioned the market everywhere to think the same.
Aston Martin might not even make it: https://europe.autonews.com/automakers/aston-martin-slumps-after-loss-takeover-speculation-mounts
I agree with your overall point though
My wife and I just watched the Green Book and I commented on how Cadillac was the king of the hill in those days when “style” was everything. Now it seems the corporate strangle hold is really hurting GM in general. Case in point – Ford inking a deal with Rivian after GM screwed up first dibs. I truly am wondering if such a stifling climate within the legacy companies will survive this new transition… time will tell the tale.
Time has already told the tale !!
If it wasn’t for China GM would have already killed Cadillac !!
Cadillac has one Chevy Suburban Cadillac left in the US.
The reliability and cheapness of the brand put up against the competition for the price is now laughable !!
Good luck China people, I hope your government makes GM pay for the up and coming issues on your vehicles !!
GM sure will not take responsibility for there actions !!
I wouldn’t read much into the Rivian thing since Ford needs it much more than GM does. Ford is about half a decade behind GM in electrification efforts, despite making a lot of noise about it.
That said, GM does have a problem of not having the capability to create successful luxury brands (a few individual models like Escalade notwithstanding). They were on the right track with New York and JdN… not sure about now.
“There is a significant amount of pressure within GM to follow the status quo…”
a true understatement if there ever was one.
Read more: http://gmauthority.com/blog/2019/04/former-cadillac-chief-johan-de-nysschen-opens-up-about-his-time-with-the-brand/#ixzz5m2bfOcRy
When you talk about GM, in many ways it’s like talking about the federal government (an over bloated out-of-control leviathan). This is true for many other large corporations as well. Once you reach scale, it becomes exponentially difficult to be efficient while adding additional layers of management.
Yet adding more people is always necessary but they eventually get weighed down by the layers. A constant dilemma in the corporate world. It takes leadership though, to see through this and execute a successful plan. Can a company become “too big?” The answer is yes. Look at GE, yet another company that begins with the word General.
Alex, you are correct, Mr. Carlisle will not risk his career, just like any six-term senator in Washington. Therefore, (and I could be wrong) it will be unlikely Cadillac will self-actualize and be the brand they and their customers aspire them to be. The company is rich in the “swamp.”
People with bold ideas who raise alarm bells to the management status quo are generally ran out. Lee Iacocca is one specific example. I’m not suggesting JDN was a pariah, because I have no evidence. I am merely pointing out that people who demonstrate leadership can often get run out if it threatens the top management. Human behavior is relatively predictable.
Cadillac should be treated as a separate company with some autonomy. It will only succeed if it has the the right leadership and the right vision. The operative word here is leadership.
Man I will always think about how different Cadillac would have looked if he got his way inside of GM.
I thought that too, but after seeing the milquetoast XT4, XT6, and CT5, I’m thinking he might be all talk. The only “real details” he nailed are Cadillac’s vastly improved instrument cluster.
And don’t forget the service side !!
It was him and ONLY him who said the Cadillac CUSTOMER experience was lacking and needed to be improved at a dealer level.
The dealers did not like it, but sometimes the truth hurts.
After all GM truly has ZERO customer service !!
There were some bad dealers out there. They were part of the problem.
WERE some.
How about ARE some !!
This is a GM problem NOT dealer problem !!
If GM FIXED the KNOWN troubles there would be ZERO issue !!
GM, not Cadillac, not the dealer, GM !!
GM is the auto manufacturer, the purchaser of the low quality parts !!
The dealer should be told to fix them at GM expense !!
You can’t expect the dealer to survive fixing GM cheapness on the dealer dollar !!
@Alex Luft – your essay makes assumptions and excuses to put it simply. Design is subjective, but for those in the know, it is also subjective objective – meaning there are great designs – and if one does not like it or get it – tough luck. If you want to talk “design” strictly – the “new” Cadillac’s fail in ever measure both emotional and technical. It’s a failure from the outside. No ambition, no beauty. If you think it’s “pretty” then more power to you – but Cadillac is what Gucci, Prada et used to be – now, its some frumpy mid level Sears sucker suit.
Col! Discumboobalation ‘Cubed’.
He makes Alex’s argument and doesn’t even know it.
Col! Chuckling out loud.
bubba – you’re confusing your personal perception with reality.
You not liking a design and calling it a failure does not necessarily correlate to what the rest of the target market for a car may think. Caddy did its homework on the styling of the CT5, and it performed extremely well in clinics. For every one detractor such as yourself, they will gain five new people who will react positively to the design. That’s a net win.
Assumptions? Excuses? Not really. Just a perspective from someone who worked for the company in question, and who has been in this industry in various roles for over a decade. What’s your resume read so as to be able to counter my claims?
Heck, have you even seen the CT5 in person? How about the XT6?
Alex, your wasting your time and you know it.
But, we should all appreciate the effort.
Kudos on that effort.
I honestly think he did a fine job.
After being one of the early adopters to the luxury SUV trend (Escalade), Cadillac just wasn’t prepared for the luxury crossover craze.
As it exists, the XT5 is basically trying to cover a very wide market. The interior and details in the lower priced models are vastly different than what is in the higher level trim, and the price range is massive considering there isn’t really a high performance model available. It definitely served it purpose, but it should have been accompanied by an XT6 and XT4 much sooner.
Cadillac has (and is about to release) some great sport sedans. They really should have pushed harder on the crossover SUV front, and much earlier.
GM NEED TO LEARN ONE THING, UNTIL EVERY SINGLE MODEL WILL GO FROM 0 TO 60 FASTER THAN THE MODEL THEY ARE COMPETING WITH, THEY WILL STAY IN THE SAME PLACE THEY ARE NOW.
In addition to this, the cars need to have a true unique appearance. The body lines of the current Cadillac models tend to mimic those it’s competing against; the general bean shape. I look at the designs of the 60’s Cadillacs and think why can’t a few more ques be included into the today’s models to break the mold; examples being the sharp body lines of the first gen Eldorados, the forward lean front ends of the 67-68 DeVilles. Cadillacs of the bygone eras made a statement and stood out; and quality was just expected. I hope GM can get their act together with Cadillac soon!
It’s obvious that General Motors CEO Mary Barra and Johan De Nysschen just didn’t speak the same automobile language as it’s a wonder why GM hired him because the two had different views as to the direction to take Cadillac and how to get there.
Perhaps this interview with JDN will quiet all the arm-chair critics who hopped on the ‘New York City was a bad idea from JDN’ band-wagon. Many were not in the know that he was only carrying out what his predecessor had already put in place.
GM is all about immediate gratification and short term profit; not long term vision, which JDN had for Cadillac. Save for the change to the soulless nomenclature , I was drinking the Kool-Aid he was serving as he spoke so differently than the in house people who shared the very mindset that ran the brand into the ground from the outset.
I think the soon to market CT5 is not the final version we would’ve seen if he was still with the brand. Initial impressions have been mostly lukewarm to negative about its design. It doesn’t speak luxury or carry presence as a luxury car and just comes across as a disjointed vehicle with a nice premium front end that morphs to economy aft of the B-Pillar . Art & Science had its critics but it held its own over the years and advanced nicely. I’m hoping the upcoming CT4 will be more appealing.
Basically when the Escala concept came out, the response was ‘Wow!’. We were to expect many aspects of its design language to carry over to upcoming products. Something got lost in translation. When the CT5 was introduced the response was more like ‘What happened!?’.
Another SCREAM from the rooftop that seems to fall on deaf ears. I can’t for the life of me understand this mindset of mediocrity. Seemingly always 80% there. From my assessment, we all understand manufacturers share platforms to keep costs down. We KNOW this, yet somehow GM has not figured out how to change the perception of the public.
Perception of luxury matters just as much as anything. When you create new tech, it needs to start at the TOP and then trickle down to lesser brands. In this way, they see the Chevrolet as a “de-tuned” Cadillac. To introduce a model at the “bottom” and then add luxury bits later, is to make people think you have a “tarted up” Chevy. Sure you have to share at some point, but the cadence has to be reversed.
Case in point: The Volt was a game-changer. That tech SHOULD HAVE STARTED at Cadillac. In the mind of the public, the ELR was a Volt with luxury trim. Doesn’t matter if it was superior if it is PERCEIVED as being an expensive version derived from a lesser platform. Luxury is an ideal that goes beyond leather and brushed aluminum. It’s something that can’t always be quantified by price. Cadillac has to understand this at some point. It just boggles my mind, that someone who makes 21 million a year can’t grasp the concept of luxury. Maybe she does. But Cadillac can’t survive as a “Value Luxury Brand.” That’s actually an oxymoron. Luxury is about excess. About exclusivity. Until GM and Cadillac learn to handle the intangibles, they will never be taken seriously. And those intangibles are not on the P&L sheet. They are in the heart, because true luxury is about the expression of your soul! While I understand it’s a business, to play in the realm of luxury takes more than P&L. Don’t believe me? BMW and Mercedes have cars that cost MORE than Cadillac, but outsell them by a factor of 4. That’s because these brands are built on an idea, just as much as a product. Timex and Rolex both do their jobs VERY WELL. Only ONE will ever command the hearts as well as the desires of the people. Cadillac better learn that!
+10
VERY WELL WRITTEN AND THE NEXT SAME MISTAKE THEY WILL MAKE IS COME OUT WITH A MID ENGINE CHEVROLET CORVETTE AND LATER COME OUT WITH A CADILLAC VERSION.
GM’s good enough mentality will be the death of them.
I read his interview. He’s definitely smart and he gets it. But execution is totally lacking. Infiniti and Cadillac are both shadows of their former selves. Infiniti was more sporty and more coveted years ago before he joined. He renamed everything for no reason. Would anyone rename a BMW 3-series to a JW#? The Infiniti G, the M, the Q45, they were brands and he destroyed that for no good reason. His tenure at Cadillac has not produced anything aside from a few good head2head motortrend videos. When my wife first saw the brand-new ATS-V (I wanted one), she said it looked old. She’s right. Also, it has aged terribly, especially when compared to it’s competitors like the C63 and the M3.
He liked to discuss the need for exclusivity at Cadillac. For example, they built a Cadillac-exclusive twin turbo 3.6 and a twin turbo 3.0. Nobody demanded those engines. Instead, they could have invested that money into a superior interior and dash (and design!) and then dropped the Corvette’s LT1 V8 in the engine bay. They shared the wrong parts from the GM bin! I can only imagine how much it cost to develop and manufacture the 3.0. Also, the poured money down the CT6 platform, only to release it immediately and proclaim it wasn’t yet the flagship. As if to tell those who have in excess of $80k to spend on a car, “wait, the better one is coming out. this is for poorer people”. Not a fan of JDN, sorry.
@Megatron
JDN had nothing to do with the ATS or its V variant or the CT6. Those ATS was already on the market and the CT6 was well along in development before his arrival at Cadillac.
The only vehicles under his watch have been the XT5 forward and something tells me that the execution of the CT5 and CT4 have been diluted since he left. In the overall, the CT5 does not speak luxury upon first impression which is what he was gunning for.
YOU DON’T HAVE A LUXURY CAR UNTIL IT IS LONG LOW AND WIDE. MY XTS IS THE PERFECT EXAMPLE OF WHAT YOU DO NOT WANT.