Careers at Visteon
Mission
Visteon provides a range of electronics products and components to automotive manufacturers, with the aim of providing reliable and efficient displays, audio systems, and telematics systems.
Business segments
Visteon’s business activities are organised into two reportable business segments:
- Electronics, which provides vehicle cockpit electronics products, including audio systems, information displays, instrument clusters, head up displays, infotainment systems, and telematics solutions; and
- Other, which comprises the operations of entities located in Europe previously associated with the Company’s interiors business but not subject to the Company’s recent interiors divestiture, as well as entities in South America and South Africa previously associated with the Company’s climate business.
History
Visteon was founded in 2000 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ford Motor Company. The Company initially provided electronics and climate control products, as well as automotive interior solutions, for Ford Motor Company vehicles. The Company, however, was separated from Ford Motor Company later the same year when all of the Company’s common stock was distributed by Ford Motor Company to its shareholders.
Visteon was affected significantly by the global economic downturn in 2008, with many of its subsidiaries and local operating entities entering bankruptcy proceedings. The Company subsequently devised a reorganisation plan, which would see the Company exit its automotive interiors and a consolidation of its climate control business. Visteon began divesting its interiors operation in 2009, a process which is still ongoing, and sought to consolidate its climate control operations under a single ownership structure; the Company, however, has since exited its principal climate control business.
Visteon remains a leading automotive electronics provider, counting a number of leading automotive brands among its customers, including Ford, GM, Mazda, and BMW. The Company has operations across the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, and employs a workforce of around 11,000. Visteon trades shares on the New York Stock Exchange and has a current market capitalisation of $2.46 billion.
Benefits at Visteon
Business model of Visteon
Customer Segments
Visteon principally serves customers operating within the automotive sector. The Company principally designs, engineers and manufactures electronics products for original equipment manufacturers across the global automotive industry.
Visteon provides products to the majority of the world’s leading automotive companies, including Ford, Nissan, Renault, Mazda, BMW, General Motors and Honda. Ford, Mazda, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance in particular are important customers, accounting in 2015 for 31%, 17%, and 14% of the Company’s Electronics sales.
Europe is Visteon’s largest market, accounting for 35% of the Company’s total sales in 2015, with Portugal alone accounting for 13%. The US, however, is the Company’s largest national markets, accounting alone for 26% of total sales for the year.
Value Propositions
Visteon provides value to its customers in the following ways:
- The quality and reliability of its products, with the high quality of the Company’s products and services indicated the Company’s ability to secure recurring business from high-profile automotive manufacturers such as BMW, Mazda, and Renault;
- Its efficient and reliable production systems, which enable the Company to reliably deliver products and components to manufacturers during the assembly and manufacturing process;
- The breadth of its product portfolio, with the Company providing a range of audio systems, information displays, instrument clusters, head up displays, infotainment systems, and telematics solutions;
- Its technical and industry expertise, with the Company employing specialist staff and experienced industry executives; and
- Its commitment to innovation and development, with the Company commitment a significant portion of its revenue to research and development activities, with a view to providing its customers with innovative products.
Channels
Visteon operates a website at www.visteon.com, through which it provides information on its product portfolio, operations and organisation. The Company also operates affiliate websites for Halla Visteon Climate Control Corporation, Yanfeng Visteon, and Duckyang Industrial Company. The Company, however, does not operate an online sales channel.
Visteon makes all of its sales through business-to-business sales channels. The Company’s sales teams are organised geographically, with the Company maintaining a physical presence in the form of customer centres and technical centres across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa, including in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Sofia, Bulgaria; Shanghai, China; Paris, France; Chennai, India; Jakarta, Indonesia; Hiroshima, Japan; Seoul, South Korea; and Rayong, Thailand.
Customer Relationships
Despite its online presence, Visteon does not provide any products or services to its customers on a self-service basis. All of the Company’s sales are made through its direct sales teams, which consult with customers over a period of time in order to establish detailed sales agreements that comprehensively cover the requirements of each individual customer. The Company seeks to establish long-term relationships with its customers, often agreeing multi-year sales contracts.
Visteon provides ongoing support to its customers. It includes a range of technical and corporate information for customers on its website, including product descriptions, presentations, webcasts, and news releases. Customers are also able to contact the Company’s sales and support teams directly over the phone or via an online contact form. Additionally, the Company operates social media accounts, notably with Twitter, through which it is able to interact directly with new and prospective clients.
Key Activities
Visteon is an automotive component supplier. It is principally engaged in the design, development, and manufacture of electronics products for original equipment vehicle manufacturers across the world.
The Company includes among its customers a number of high-profile automotive companies, including Ford, Nissan, Renault, Mazda, BMW, General Motors and Honda. The Company's operates primarily through one core business segment, Electronics, which provides vehicle cockpit electronics products, such as audio systems, information displays, instrument clusters, head up displays, infotainment systems and telematics solutions.
The Company’s other activities, including its remaining interior and climate businesses, are organised into a single segment entitled Other.
Key Partners
Visteon collaborates a range of partners throughout the process of designing, developing, manufacturing and distributing its products. The Company’s partners can be broadly placed into the following categories:
- Supplier Partners, comprising suppliers of tools, resources, and services that support the Company’s own production and distribution operations;
- Technology and Innovation Partners, comprising technology and electronics companies that provide technologies and advisory services in relation to the development of the Company’s products; and
- Alliance and Strategic Partners, comprising a range of companies with which the Company shares certain resources and collaborates on joint projects.
Visteon has recently established a number of partnerships, including a collaboration with Verizon to produce solutions for connected vehicles, a tie-up with Rightware to develop effective graphic display products for the automotive industry, and a partnership with Autonet Mobile to develop automotive connectivity solutions.
Key Resources
Visteon’s key resources are its technologies and intellectual properties, its manufacturing and development infrastructure, its sales and marketing channels, its partnerships, and its personnel.
Visteon owns or leases 25 corporate offices, technical and engineering centres, and customer service centres in ten countries worldwide, and owns or leases 20 electronics manufacturing and/or assembly facilities in Mexico, Macedonia, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, France, Tunisia, India, Japan, South Korea, China, Thailand and Brazil. It additionally has 5 manufacturing and/or assembly facilities in Argentina, Brazil and South Africa.
Searches of records published by the US Patent and Trademark Office identified 31 patent applications filed in Visteon’s name, including patent applications entitled ‘Single external antenna for FM phase diversity for a vehicle radio unit’, Efficient two-stage asynchronous sample-rate converter’ and ‘Refrigerant circuit of an air conditioner with heat pump’.
Cost Structure
Visteon incurs costs in relation to the development of its products, the production and assembly of its products – including its acquisition of supplies and consumables, the operation of its sales and marketing channels, the management of its partnerships, and the retention of its personnel.
Visteon accrues substantial research and development costs, which totalled $294 million in 2015, and significant selling, general and administrative expenses – including the payment of salaries and benefits to its global workforce of 11,000 employees – amounting to $245 million.
Revenue Streams
Visteon generates revenue primarily through the sale of automotive electronic components and products. The Company also derives a small portion of its revenue from the sale of automotive heating, ventilation and air conditioning products, and the provision of automotive interior solutions.
In 2015 Visteon recorded total sales for the year of $2.20 billion, down considerably on the $5.76 billion generated by the Company in 2014. This decrease was attributed largely to the Company’s divestment of it’s the majority of its climate control and automotive interior businesses.
Sales of electronics products comprise the vast majority of Visteon’s total sales, notably sales of instrument clusters and information displays, which accounted respectively for 36% and 19% of electronics sales for 2015.
Our team
info: Sachin (“Lawande”) has served as President and Chief Executive Officer at Visteon since joining the Company in 2015. He also serves on the Company’s Board of Directors. Lawande began his career in 1991 as a network engineer at Meridian Technology. He moved to AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1994, serving as a member of the company’s technical staff for two years, before being appointed Director of Internet Appliances Engineering at 3Com. In 2001 he joined QNX Software Systems, serving as Director of Product Management for five years. From 2006 to 2015, Lawande was employed by Harman International, first as Chief Software Architect at Harman Becker and later as the company’s Chief Technology Officer and President of the Lifestyle Division.
info: William (“Robertson”) was appointed Interim Chief Financial Officer at Visteon in 2016, having previously been the Company’s Finance Director. He also serves as Vice President and Corporate Controller. Robertson first joined Visteon in 2000, serving in a variety of roles including Director of Corporate Finance and Operations Manager. Prior to joining Visteon, Robertson was a long-serving employee of Ford Motor Company, beginning his career as a financial analyst at Ford Motor Credit Company in 1990. In 1998 he moved to the Ford Motor Company’s Finance department and in 1999 was appointed Controller of the company’s Chicago Stamping Plant, his last role before joining Visteon.
info: Markus (“Schupfner”) has served as Visteon’s Chief Technology Officer since joining the Company in 2016. Schupfner has held a range of senior leaderships roles within the electronics and technology sectors. From 2002 to 2005 he served as a Director of Navigation and Head of Research and Development at SiemensVDO. He joined Harman International in 2005 as its Vice President of Navigation, a role he held for four years before being appointed Vice President of Infotainment at Elektrobit in 2009. He served in this position for just over four years before being named Executive Vice President, his last role before joining Visteon.