Carlos Ghosn
Encyclopedia
Carlos Ghosn, KBE born 9 March 1954, is a Brazilian-Lebanese-French businessman who is currently the Chairman and CEO
of Yokohama
, Japan-based Nissan
and holds the same positions at Paris-based Renault
, which together produce more than one in 10 cars worldwide. Ghosn is also Chairman and CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance
, the strategic partnership overseeing the two companies through a unique cross-shareholding agreement.
For orchestrating one of the decade's most aggressive downsizing campaigns and spearheading the turnaround of Nissan from near bankruptcy in the late 1990s, Ghosn earned the nicknames "le cost killer" and "Mr. Fix It." After the Nissan financial turnaround, he achieved celebrity status and ranks as one of the 50 most famous men in global business and politics. His life has been chronicled in a Japanese manga
comic book. His decision to spend €4 billion so Renault and Nissan could jointly develop the world's first lineup of electric cars, starting with the Nissan Leaf, is a subject of the 2011 documentary "Revenge of the Electric Car."
and married a Nigerian-born woman whose family also came from Lebanon.
Carlos Ghosn was born on 9 March 1954. When he was about one year old, he became sick after drinking unsanitary water, and the family moved to Rio de Janeiro, the city he still considers home, according to "Turn Around: How Carlos Ghosn Rescued Nissan." In 1960, when Ghosn was six years old, he moved with his three siblings and mother to Beirut
, Lebanon
. He completed his secondary school studies in Lebanon, at the Jesuit school Collège Notre-Dame de Jamhour. Then he completed his classes préparatoires at Lycée Stanislas in Paris. He graduated with engineering degrees from the École Polytechnique
in 1978 (X1974) with the final year's specialisation at the École des Mines de Paris
.
After graduation, Ghosn spent 18 years at Michelin & Cie., Europe's largest tiremaker. He worked in several plants in France and in 1985, when Ghosn was 30 years old, he was appointed chief operating officer of Michelin’s $300 million South American operations. He returned to Rio de Janeiro, reporting directly to Francois Michelin, who tasked Ghosn with turning around the operation, which was unprofitable and struggling under Brazil's hyperinflation. Ghosn formed cross-functional management teams to determine best practices among the French, Brazilian and other nationalities working in the South American division. The experience in multicultural Brazil formed the basis of his cross-cultural management style and emphasis on diversity as a core business asset. ("You learn from diversity... but you're comforted by commonality," Ghosn said.) The division returned to profitability in two years. After turning around Michelin's South American operations, Ghosn took his family to Greenville, South Carolina, where he became CEO of Michelin’s North American operations.
Ghosn has attracted controversy for his candor and for his demanding and sometimes confrontational style. He has also drawn criticism for investing heavily in developing economies, including Brazil, Russia, Korea, India and in particular China, where Nissan is now the No. 1 Japanese carmaker. His strategy for penetrating emerging markets includes selling cars with sticker prices under $3,000 and commercializing affordable zero-emission vehicles: "If you're going to let developing countries have as many cars as they want -- and they're going to have as many cars as they want one way or another -- there is no absolutely alternative but to go for zero emissions. And the only zero-emissions vehicle available today is electric.... So we decided to go for it," he told the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business.
Ghosn is married and has four children. Ghosn, whom Forbes Magazine called "the hardest-working man in the brutally competitive global car business," splits his time between Paris and Tokyo and logs roughly 150,000 miles in airplanes per year. Japanese media also call him “Seven-Eleven” (“work very hard from early in
the morning till late at night”).
Ghosn is a both a Brazil
ian and French
citizen. Ghosn is multilingual
and speaks at least four languages, including Japanese. He also maintains substantial ties to Lebanon, where he lived for 10 years and where he completed his primary and secondary education. He is a passive investor in Ixsir, an environmentally friendly vineyard and wine exporter in the northern coastal town of Batroun.
Ghosn is often hailed as a potential presidential candidate in Lebanon. In a June 2011 survey by insurance company AXA, Ghosn was ranked seventh in a random poll asking Japanese people, "Which celebrity do you want to run Japan?" (Barack Obama was No. 9, and Naoto Kan
was No. 19.) He has so far declined such overtures, saying he has "no political ambitions."
In 1999, Renault purchased a 36.8 percent stake in Nissan. While maintaining his roles at Renault, Ghosn joined Nissan
as its chief operating officer
in June 1999, became its president in June 2000 and was named chief executive officer in June 2001. When he joined the company, Nissan had debt of $20 billion and only three of its 48 models were generating a profit
-- and reversing the company's sinking fortunes was considered "mission impossible.". Ghosn promised to resign if the company did not reach profitability by the end of the year, and claimed that Nissan would have no net debt by 2005. He defied Japanese business etiquette, cut 21,000 Nissan jobs (or 14 percent of total workforce), shut the first of five domestic plants, and auctioned off prized assets such as Nissan's aerospace unit. His radical methods would make him a “target of public outrage,” according to the Wall Street Journal. However, in one year, Nissan's net profit
climbed to $2.7 billion from a loss of $6.1 billion in the previous year. Twelve months into his three-year turnaround plan, Ghosn had Nissan back in the black, and within three years it was one of the industry's most profitable auto makers, with operating margins consistently above 9% -- more than twice the industry average. Nissan's operating profit (EBIT
, or earnings before interest and taxes) margin increased from 1.38% in FY 2000 to 9.25% in FY 2006,
Ghosn, who was the third non-Japanese person to lead a Japanese automaker after Henry Wallace and Mark Fields
, who were appointed by Ford to run Mazda
-- spearheaded major structural changes at Nissan, dramatically altering the corporate culture. Most notably, he ended Nissan's reliance on an interwoven web of parts suppliers with cross-holdings in Nissan—a Japanese operating model called "keiretsu." The dismantling of Keiretsu
earned Ghosn the nickname "Keiretsu
killer." He changed the official company language from Japanese to English and included executives from Europe and North America in key global strategy sessions for the first time. For the forcefulness of his initiatives to change the culture at Nissan, Ghosn has been compared with General Douglas MacArthur (the chief of staff of the US Army who radically changed Japan's political and economic structure during the post-World War II occupation).
In May 2005, Ghosn was named president and chief executive officer of Renault. When he assumed the CEO roles at both Renault and Nissan, Ghosn became the world's first person to run two companies on the Fortune Global 500 simultaneously. However, he is not the first person to be CEO of two high-profile companies at once. Steve Jobs, who was CEO of Apple and Pixar simultaneously, was one of several technology entrepreneurs to be at the helm of two companies at the same time. Sergio Marcchione, who is CEO of Italy's Fiat, took over the troubled American carmaker Chrysler in June 2009 and is heading the attempted turnaround of Detroit's smallest carmaker.
In 2005, billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian
acquired a 9.9 percent stake in General Motors and seated one of his representatives on the company's board, then urged GM to investigate a merger with Renault and Nissan with Ghosn as the new chairman of GM. In 2006, GM's embattled management rebuffed the takeover attempt, and by the end of the year Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. sold most of its GM stock.
Recently he has become one of the most visible leaders in recovery efforts after the Japanese earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, one of the worst natural disasters in modern history. Ghosn was one of the first business executives to travel into Japan's radiation zone, and at his direction Nissan restored operations at its hard-hit Iwaki engine plant weeks ahead of expectations. He has appeared frequently on TV Tokyo to encourage rebuilding. Amidst speculation that automakers will shift production away from Japan, Ghosn has remained committed to building at least 1 million of Nissan's cars and trucks in Japan annually. Ghosn's ambitious recovery timeline -- with complete rebuilding of all damaged plants, and full production expected to be restored by October 2011 -- has put Nissan ahead of competitors such as Toyota.
" which follows four men in their quest to build electric cars. Ghosn, who is responsible for the zero-emission Nissan Leaf, is the only protagonist whose company successfully launched a mass-produced EV.
Ghosn's life story was turned into a superhero comic book series in Japan, titled The True Story of Carlos Ghosn (カルロス・ゴーン物語―企業再生の答がここにある!!). It was first serialized in the 2002-01-18 issue of Big Comic Superior
. The 7-chapter stories were later published as a separate book in 2002-04 by Shogakukan
. The book was written by Yoko Togashi, and illustrated by Takanobu Toda.
Ghosn also has Japanese "bento box" named after him on the menus at some Tokyo restaurants. Bento boxes are popular with businessmen, students and others who want a quick lunch. The Financial Times called the "Carlos Ghosn Bento" a "measure of the extraordinary rise of Mr. Ghosn in Japan that he should be deemed worthy enough to eat. The Japanese take their food seriously and do not welcome foreign intrusions. As such, the 'Ghosn bento' could be seen as a Japanese way of bestowing acceptance upon him."
Ghosn wrote a best-selling business book called "Shift: Inside Nissan's Historic Revival." He was the subject of another business book called "Turnaround: How Carlos Ghosn Rescued Nissan" by David Magee. He also provided strategic business commentary and on-the-job lessons to aspiring managers in a book called "The Ghosn Factor: 24 Inspiring Lessons From Carlos Ghosn, the Most Successful Transitional CEO" by Miguel Rivas-Micoud.
Because of his appearances at auto shows and in the media, Ghosn has become closely identified with two car models in particular—the Nissan Leaf and the Nissan GT-R. The zero-emission Leaf, which Nissan began delivering in late 2010 in the United States and Japan, is the world's first mass-produced electric vehicle. Ghosn authorized more than $5 billion to bring the Leaf (and numerous derivative electric cars based on the Leaf's architecture) to market—a gamble that prompted Business Week to ask whether he was "crazy." The twin-turbo V-6 GT-R, which debuted in 2008, is a $70,000 four-seater sports car. The most affordable "supercar" worldwide has also been dubbed "Ghosn's dream car" because he was considered the biggest champion of the GT-R's development inside of Nissan.
Ghosn is a frequent subject of university thesis papers and essays among business students. Cyberessays has a section dedicated to papers about Ghosn's corporate leadership. One of the more commonly cited thesis papers was written by Koji Nakae of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose June 2005 master's thesis compared Ghosn to US General Douglas MacArthur in restructuring Japanese society after World War II.
. He may use the postnominal letters KBE, but since he is not a citizen of a Commonwealth realm
he cannot use the title "Sir."
In September 2010, CEO Quarterly Magazine listed Carlos Ghosn as one of the "Most Respected CEOs"
In November 2010, Forbes.com listed Carlos Ghosn as one of the "Seven Most Powerful South Americans". He was voted Man of the Year 2003 by Fortune magazine
's Asian edition. In 2004 he was added to the Japan Automotive Hall of Fame
.
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
of Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
, Japan-based Nissan
Nissan Motors
, usually shortened to Nissan , is a multinational automaker headquartered in Japan. It was a core member of the Nissan Group, but has become more independent after its restructuring under Carlos Ghosn ....
and holds the same positions at Paris-based Renault
Renault
Renault S.A. is a French automaker producing cars, vans, and in the past, autorail vehicles, trucks, tractors, vans and also buses/coaches. Its alliance with Nissan makes it the world's third largest automaker...
, which together produce more than one in 10 cars worldwide. Ghosn is also Chairman and CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance
Renault-Nissan Alliance
Renault-Nissan Alliance is a strategic partnership between Paris-based Renault and Yokohama, Japan-based Nissan, which together sell one in 10 cars worldwide. The companies, which have been strategic partners since 1999, have 350,000 employees and five major brands: Renault, Nissan, Renault...
, the strategic partnership overseeing the two companies through a unique cross-shareholding agreement.
For orchestrating one of the decade's most aggressive downsizing campaigns and spearheading the turnaround of Nissan from near bankruptcy in the late 1990s, Ghosn earned the nicknames "le cost killer" and "Mr. Fix It." After the Nissan financial turnaround, he achieved celebrity status and ranks as one of the 50 most famous men in global business and politics. His life has been chronicled in a Japanese manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
comic book. His decision to spend €4 billion so Renault and Nissan could jointly develop the world's first lineup of electric cars, starting with the Nissan Leaf, is a subject of the 2011 documentary "Revenge of the Electric Car."
Origins and personal life
Ghosn's grandfather Bichala Ghosn emigrated from rural Lebanon to Brazil at the age of 13, eventually settling in remote Guaporé, Rondonia, near the border between Brazil and Bolivia, according to the autobiography "Shift: Inside Nissan's Historic Revival." Bichala Ghosn entered the rubber industry and eventually headed a company that bought and sold agricultural products. His son Jorge Ghosn settled in the regional capital of Porto VelhoPorto Velho
Porto Velho is the capital of the Brazilian state of Rondônia, in the upper Amazon River basin. The population is estimated to be 426,558 people...
and married a Nigerian-born woman whose family also came from Lebanon.
Carlos Ghosn was born on 9 March 1954. When he was about one year old, he became sick after drinking unsanitary water, and the family moved to Rio de Janeiro, the city he still considers home, according to "Turn Around: How Carlos Ghosn Rescued Nissan." In 1960, when Ghosn was six years old, he moved with his three siblings and mother to Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
, Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
. He completed his secondary school studies in Lebanon, at the Jesuit school Collège Notre-Dame de Jamhour. Then he completed his classes préparatoires at Lycée Stanislas in Paris. He graduated with engineering degrees from the École Polytechnique
École Polytechnique
The École Polytechnique is a state-run institution of higher education and research in Palaiseau, Essonne, France, near Paris. Polytechnique is renowned for its four year undergraduate/graduate Master's program...
in 1978 (X1974) with the final year's specialisation at the École des Mines de Paris
École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris
The École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris was created in 1783 by King Louis XVI in order to train intelligent directors of mines. It is one of the most prominent French engineering schoolsThe École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris (also known as Mines ParisTech, École des Mines de...
.
After graduation, Ghosn spent 18 years at Michelin & Cie., Europe's largest tiremaker. He worked in several plants in France and in 1985, when Ghosn was 30 years old, he was appointed chief operating officer of Michelin’s $300 million South American operations. He returned to Rio de Janeiro, reporting directly to Francois Michelin, who tasked Ghosn with turning around the operation, which was unprofitable and struggling under Brazil's hyperinflation. Ghosn formed cross-functional management teams to determine best practices among the French, Brazilian and other nationalities working in the South American division. The experience in multicultural Brazil formed the basis of his cross-cultural management style and emphasis on diversity as a core business asset. ("You learn from diversity... but you're comforted by commonality," Ghosn said.) The division returned to profitability in two years. After turning around Michelin's South American operations, Ghosn took his family to Greenville, South Carolina, where he became CEO of Michelin’s North American operations.
Ghosn has attracted controversy for his candor and for his demanding and sometimes confrontational style. He has also drawn criticism for investing heavily in developing economies, including Brazil, Russia, Korea, India and in particular China, where Nissan is now the No. 1 Japanese carmaker. His strategy for penetrating emerging markets includes selling cars with sticker prices under $3,000 and commercializing affordable zero-emission vehicles: "If you're going to let developing countries have as many cars as they want -- and they're going to have as many cars as they want one way or another -- there is no absolutely alternative but to go for zero emissions. And the only zero-emissions vehicle available today is electric.... So we decided to go for it," he told the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business.
Ghosn is married and has four children. Ghosn, whom Forbes Magazine called "the hardest-working man in the brutally competitive global car business," splits his time between Paris and Tokyo and logs roughly 150,000 miles in airplanes per year. Japanese media also call him “Seven-Eleven” (“work very hard from early in
the morning till late at night”).
Ghosn is a both a Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian and French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
citizen. Ghosn is multilingual
Multilingualism
Multilingualism is the act of using, or promoting the use of, multiple languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers. Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. Multilingualism is becoming a social phenomenon governed by the needs of...
and speaks at least four languages, including Japanese. He also maintains substantial ties to Lebanon, where he lived for 10 years and where he completed his primary and secondary education. He is a passive investor in Ixsir, an environmentally friendly vineyard and wine exporter in the northern coastal town of Batroun.
Ghosn is often hailed as a potential presidential candidate in Lebanon. In a June 2011 survey by insurance company AXA, Ghosn was ranked seventh in a random poll asking Japanese people, "Which celebrity do you want to run Japan?" (Barack Obama was No. 9, and Naoto Kan
Naoto Kan
is a Japanese politician, and former Prime Minister of Japan. In June 2010, then-Finance Minister Kan was elected as the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan and designated Prime Minister by the Diet to succeed Yukio Hatoyama. On 26 August 2011, Kan announced his resignation...
was No. 19.) He has so far declined such overtures, saying he has "no political ambitions."
Career
In 1981, Ghosn joined French automotive supplier Michelin as a plant manager in Le Puy, France. In 1984 he was named head of research and development for the company's industrial tire division. One year later, he became chief operating officer of Michelin's South American operations, based in Brazil. In 1990, he was named chairman and chief executive officer of Michelin North America, where he presided over the restructuring of the company after its acquisition of the Uniroyal Goodrich Tire Company. He held those positions until 1996, when Renault hired him as executive vice president responsible for advanced research, car engineering and development, car manufacturing, powertrain operations, purchasing and supervision of Renault activities in South America.In 1999, Renault purchased a 36.8 percent stake in Nissan. While maintaining his roles at Renault, Ghosn joined Nissan
Nissan Motors
, usually shortened to Nissan , is a multinational automaker headquartered in Japan. It was a core member of the Nissan Group, but has become more independent after its restructuring under Carlos Ghosn ....
as its chief operating officer
Chief operating officer
A Chief Operating Officer or Director of Operations can be one of the highest-ranking executives in an organization and comprises part of the "C-Suite"...
in June 1999, became its president in June 2000 and was named chief executive officer in June 2001. When he joined the company, Nissan had debt of $20 billion and only three of its 48 models were generating a profit
Profit (accounting)
In accounting, profit can be considered to be the difference between the purchase price and the costs of bringing to market whatever it is that is accounted as an enterprise in terms of the component costs of delivered goods and/or services and any operating or other expenses.-Definition:There are...
-- and reversing the company's sinking fortunes was considered "mission impossible.". Ghosn promised to resign if the company did not reach profitability by the end of the year, and claimed that Nissan would have no net debt by 2005. He defied Japanese business etiquette, cut 21,000 Nissan jobs (or 14 percent of total workforce), shut the first of five domestic plants, and auctioned off prized assets such as Nissan's aerospace unit. His radical methods would make him a “target of public outrage,” according to the Wall Street Journal. However, in one year, Nissan's net profit
Net profit
Net profit or net revenue is a measure of the profitability of a venture after accounting for all costs. In a survey of nearly 200 senior marketing managers, 91 percent responded that they found the "net profit" metric very useful...
climbed to $2.7 billion from a loss of $6.1 billion in the previous year. Twelve months into his three-year turnaround plan, Ghosn had Nissan back in the black, and within three years it was one of the industry's most profitable auto makers, with operating margins consistently above 9% -- more than twice the industry average. Nissan's operating profit (EBIT
EBIT
EBIT may refer to:*EBIT, or Earnings before interest and taxes, in finance*EBIT, or Electron beam ion trap, in physics*An ebit, a two-party quantum state with quantum entanglement and the fundamental unit of bitpartite entanglement...
, or earnings before interest and taxes) margin increased from 1.38% in FY 2000 to 9.25% in FY 2006,
Ghosn, who was the third non-Japanese person to lead a Japanese automaker after Henry Wallace and Mark Fields
Mark Fields
Mark Fields may refer to:* Mark Fields , American football linebacker* Mark Fields , head of Ford Motor Company's Americas divisionSee also*Mark Field, British politician*Mark Field...
, who were appointed by Ford to run Mazda
Mazda
is a Japanese automotive manufacturer based in Fuchū, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan.In 2007, Mazda produced almost 1.3 million vehicles for global sales...
-- spearheaded major structural changes at Nissan, dramatically altering the corporate culture. Most notably, he ended Nissan's reliance on an interwoven web of parts suppliers with cross-holdings in Nissan—a Japanese operating model called "keiretsu." The dismantling of Keiretsu
Keiretsu
A is a set of companies with interlocking business relationships and shareholdings. It is a type of business group. The keiretsu has maintained dominance over the Japanese economy for the greater half of the twentieth century....
earned Ghosn the nickname "Keiretsu
Keiretsu
A is a set of companies with interlocking business relationships and shareholdings. It is a type of business group. The keiretsu has maintained dominance over the Japanese economy for the greater half of the twentieth century....
killer." He changed the official company language from Japanese to English and included executives from Europe and North America in key global strategy sessions for the first time. For the forcefulness of his initiatives to change the culture at Nissan, Ghosn has been compared with General Douglas MacArthur (the chief of staff of the US Army who radically changed Japan's political and economic structure during the post-World War II occupation).
In May 2005, Ghosn was named president and chief executive officer of Renault. When he assumed the CEO roles at both Renault and Nissan, Ghosn became the world's first person to run two companies on the Fortune Global 500 simultaneously. However, he is not the first person to be CEO of two high-profile companies at once. Steve Jobs, who was CEO of Apple and Pixar simultaneously, was one of several technology entrepreneurs to be at the helm of two companies at the same time. Sergio Marcchione, who is CEO of Italy's Fiat, took over the troubled American carmaker Chrysler in June 2009 and is heading the attempted turnaround of Detroit's smallest carmaker.
In 2005, billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian
Kirk Kerkorian
Kerkor "Kirk" Kerkorian is an American businessman who is the president/CEO of Tracinda Corporation, his private holding company based in Beverly Hills, California. Kerkorian is known as one of the important figures in shaping Las Vegas and, with architect Martin Stern, Jr...
acquired a 9.9 percent stake in General Motors and seated one of his representatives on the company's board, then urged GM to investigate a merger with Renault and Nissan with Ghosn as the new chairman of GM. In 2006, GM's embattled management rebuffed the takeover attempt, and by the end of the year Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. sold most of its GM stock.
Recently he has become one of the most visible leaders in recovery efforts after the Japanese earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, one of the worst natural disasters in modern history. Ghosn was one of the first business executives to travel into Japan's radiation zone, and at his direction Nissan restored operations at its hard-hit Iwaki engine plant weeks ahead of expectations. He has appeared frequently on TV Tokyo to encourage rebuilding. Amidst speculation that automakers will shift production away from Japan, Ghosn has remained committed to building at least 1 million of Nissan's cars and trucks in Japan annually. Ghosn's ambitious recovery timeline -- with complete rebuilding of all damaged plants, and full production expected to be restored by October 2011 -- has put Nissan ahead of competitors such as Toyota.
Popular Culture
Ghosn stars in the 2011 documentary "Revenge of the Electric CarRevenge of the Electric Car
Revenge of the Electric Car is a 2011 feature documentary film by Chris Paine, who also directed Who Killed the Electric Car?. The documentary, executive produced by Stefano Durdic, and produced by PG Morgan and Jessie Deeter, had its world premiere at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival on Earth Day,...
" which follows four men in their quest to build electric cars. Ghosn, who is responsible for the zero-emission Nissan Leaf, is the only protagonist whose company successfully launched a mass-produced EV.
Ghosn's life story was turned into a superhero comic book series in Japan, titled The True Story of Carlos Ghosn (カルロス・ゴーン物語―企業再生の答がここにある!!). It was first serialized in the 2002-01-18 issue of Big Comic Superior
Big Comic Superior
is a semimonthly seinen manga magazine published since 1987-07-01 by Shogakukan in Japan. Its target audience is somewhere between the audience for Big Comic Original and Big Comic Spirits....
. The 7-chapter stories were later published as a separate book in 2002-04 by Shogakukan
Shogakukan
is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, manga, non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan.Shogakukan founded Shueisha which founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the Hitotsubashi Group, one of the largest publishing groups in Japan...
. The book was written by Yoko Togashi, and illustrated by Takanobu Toda.
Ghosn also has Japanese "bento box" named after him on the menus at some Tokyo restaurants. Bento boxes are popular with businessmen, students and others who want a quick lunch. The Financial Times called the "Carlos Ghosn Bento" a "measure of the extraordinary rise of Mr. Ghosn in Japan that he should be deemed worthy enough to eat. The Japanese take their food seriously and do not welcome foreign intrusions. As such, the 'Ghosn bento' could be seen as a Japanese way of bestowing acceptance upon him."
Ghosn wrote a best-selling business book called "Shift: Inside Nissan's Historic Revival." He was the subject of another business book called "Turnaround: How Carlos Ghosn Rescued Nissan" by David Magee. He also provided strategic business commentary and on-the-job lessons to aspiring managers in a book called "The Ghosn Factor: 24 Inspiring Lessons From Carlos Ghosn, the Most Successful Transitional CEO" by Miguel Rivas-Micoud.
Because of his appearances at auto shows and in the media, Ghosn has become closely identified with two car models in particular—the Nissan Leaf and the Nissan GT-R. The zero-emission Leaf, which Nissan began delivering in late 2010 in the United States and Japan, is the world's first mass-produced electric vehicle. Ghosn authorized more than $5 billion to bring the Leaf (and numerous derivative electric cars based on the Leaf's architecture) to market—a gamble that prompted Business Week to ask whether he was "crazy." The twin-turbo V-6 GT-R, which debuted in 2008, is a $70,000 four-seater sports car. The most affordable "supercar" worldwide has also been dubbed "Ghosn's dream car" because he was considered the biggest champion of the GT-R's development inside of Nissan.
Ghosn is a frequent subject of university thesis papers and essays among business students. Cyberessays has a section dedicated to papers about Ghosn's corporate leadership. One of the more commonly cited thesis papers was written by Koji Nakae of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose June 2005 master's thesis compared Ghosn to US General Douglas MacArthur in restructuring Japanese society after World War II.
Awards and recognition
In October 2006, Ghosn was created an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British EmpireOrder of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
. He may use the postnominal letters KBE, but since he is not a citizen of a Commonwealth realm
Commonwealth Realm
A Commonwealth realm is a sovereign state within the Commonwealth of Nations that has Elizabeth II as its monarch and head of state. The sixteen current realms have a combined land area of 18.8 million km² , and a population of 134 million, of which all, except about two million, live in the six...
he cannot use the title "Sir."
In September 2010, CEO Quarterly Magazine listed Carlos Ghosn as one of the "Most Respected CEOs"
In November 2010, Forbes.com listed Carlos Ghosn as one of the "Seven Most Powerful South Americans". He was voted Man of the Year 2003 by Fortune magazine
Fortune (magazine)
Fortune is a global business magazine published by Time Inc. Founded by Henry Luce in 1930, the publishing business, consisting of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, grew to become Time Warner. In turn, AOL grew as it acquired Time Warner in 2000 when Time Warner was the world's largest...
's Asian edition. In 2004 he was added to the Japan Automotive Hall of Fame
Japan Automotive Hall of Fame
-Concept:In the Western world, it is customary for those who have excelled in their chosen field - be it sports, art, medical research, industry, et cetera - to be held up and admired. Their achievements, more often than not, are recognized in a Hall of Fame...
.
See also
- Steve JobsSteve JobsSteven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...
, former CEO of Apple and Pixar, one of the few people who also served as CEO of two multinational companies and who led the historic turnaround of Apple Computer. - Lee IacoccaLee IacoccaLido Anthony "Lee" Iacocca is an American businessman known for engineering the Mustang, the unsuccessful Ford Pinto, being fired from Ford Motor Company, and his revival of the Chrysler Corporation in the 1980s...
, former CEO of Chrysler, who led a turnaround at America's third largest automaker in the early 1980s and was hailed as a presidential candidate in the USA.
External links
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anMAn089sC0&feature=feeduVideo on Interview with Ghosn by Robert LlewellynRobert LlewellynRobert Llewellyn is an English actor, presenter, and writer. He is best known as the mechanoid Kryten in the hit sitcom Red Dwarf, and for his role as presenter of Scrapheap Challenge.-Early career:...
] - Renault bets on electric - by Sean O'Grady, The Independent.
- Renault-Nissan emerges as global giant under Ghosn, by Jorn Madslien, BBC News
- Carlos Ghosn Revealed on CNN.com
- Detroit News "Nissan CEO: The making of a superstar"
- Business Week "A Spin with Carlos Ghosn"
- Man Behind the Wheel, Nissan’s Carlos Ghosn speaks to Forward
- CEO Hall of Fame: Carlos Ghosn