Case Report on Carlos Ghosn and Nissan Motor

The Problem statement

Nissan is one of the largest automobile companies in the world. In 1993, Nissan had a nightmare of the year which ended with USD 0.3 billion operating loss. Aggressive investment to increase the production, excessive supply and low demand resulted low prices and damage of brand image. In 1996, Nissan’s market share in Japan was 20.8% lowest in the history (Exhibit 1). This was eventually leaded to a situation (Exhibit 2), where Nissan has to go for a strategic global alliance partner.

Carlos Ghosn: Nissan’s turnaround Artist

Carlos Ghosn, the then Vice president of Renault played a key role in the negotiations between Nissan and Renault. It was a strategic partnership and alliance between Nissan and Renault and the later party finding a partner to compete more effectively on a global scale.

Ghosn succeeded in the negotiations by:

 Providing in-depth answers when the questions raised about the specificities

 Showing a way to deal the problem such as cost reduction by forming the Cross Functional Teams thorough analysis, fact based and engaging.

 Creating Cross Company Teams to find the possible synergies between the companies.

Track record

Ghosn started his career with a French tire manufacturer Michelin. In 1985 he has been promoted as COO of Michelin’s Brazilian subsidiary. As a COO he managed the turnaround of operations that has been suffering massive losses from runaway inflation. He made his reputation overseeing the restructuring of North America operations, including the acquisition and integration of Uniroyal Goodrich. Later at Renault he implemented aggressive cost cutting measures and gained the name as “Le Cost-Killer”.

Transformational Leadership

Being a transformational leader Ghosn inspires the people around him to transcend their self interest for the company’s success.

 Good Listener and Observant

Ghosn is a good listener and observant. To find solutions one has to listen. His management approach would be...