When the financial results of our recovery were released, Japanese society began seeing Nissan Motor in a new light. As the now CEO and president of this success story, I was graciously welcomed everywhere I went. I received requests for interviews and speeches, and I even appeared on a couple of talk shows. Suddenly even our local yakitori restaurant, one of my family's favorite hangouts, was swarmed with cameras. The attention was new to me, but I didn't let it distract me from the ongoing work. Recovery is a continuous process.
Nissan's financial performance was on the upswing. At the same time, we were restructuring and adopting a fresh growth strategy, which included construction of our Mississippi plant in the U.S., which now produces large pickup trucks and is a backbone of Nissan's growth. It was time to move to the next phase.
