Carlos Ghosn, Nissan, Renault

Friday 11th July 2008

Currently the CEO of Renault and Nissan, Carlos Ghosn is recognised as an extremely successful business man. Not least is he credited, as a foreigner, to turning round a failing Japanese car firm (Nissan) but the business world is still in awe of a man who succeeded in running two big firms 6,000 miles apart. And while many may see running Renault and Nissan a fairly mammoth task in itself, Mr Ghosn is also on the board for aluminium producer, Alcoa, electronics giant Sony and computer maker, IBM.

Mr Ghosn became the CEO of Nissan in 2001 where he was considered an outsider by the media and sectors of the company itself. The company was believed to be in around $20bn of debt when Mr Ghosne joined. He promised the public sector and his employees that if Nissan was not profitable within a year of his appointment, he would resign his post as CEO. A year later, its net profit had risen almost ten billion dollars producing a profit and painting a very different picture to the year before.

Mr Ghosn’s management of Nissan, which lead to a turn around in profit and fortunes gained him a sort of celebrity status in Japan where he became a published author and had a manga character based on him.

Mr Ghosn spends two weeks in Paris then two weeks in Tokyo. He says that the way this routine is effective is by him being “super organised” and having “no room for amateurs” in his work.

Asked why, considering his busy schedule, Mr Ghosn doesn’t merge Nissan and Renault, he says “We said from the beginning that if our companies don’t keep clear, distinct identities, then you spend a lot of energy fighting a resistance. And you can say we’ve been wise, because everyone else who tried mergers and alliances, they disappear.

“Bankers and analysts are always asking, ‘When will you put the companies together?’ I tell them, it’s like a couple. You and your wife are united yet different, aren’t you? Are you going to merge into one? No. You have respect for each other’s identity and you develop things you have in common, the synergies.”

Mr Ghosn recently said that in an attempt to modernise the automobile industry, Renault and Nissan will shortly be unveiling fully electric cars to compete with Toyota and Honda and conform to an environmentally conscientious world . He ensures drivers that this new product would be “modern, real cars, cool and good to drive, not bulky or ugly” and able to drive 100 miles before needing to be topped up.

There are not many CEOs in the world as busy as Carlos Ghosn and certainly not many who make it looks so easy.

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