In March 1978, Ghosn received a call from a manager at Michelin, informing him that the company

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In March 1978, Ghosn received a call from a manager at Michelin, informing him that the company was looking for French-educated engineers with ability to speak Portuguese, and work in its Brazilian factories. Ghosn went ahead and joined Michelin Group as the company provided him two things: visit to his birthplace and challenges at work...

The Next Destination - Renault

Around the same time, headhunters from Paris offered Ghosn the top executive position in the French auto major Renault.3 In October 1996, Ghosn joined Renault as Executive Vice-President reporting directly to the CEO, Louis Scheweitzer (Scheweitzer).

By the time Ghosn arrived at Renault, the company had reported a loss for the first time in 10 years, and its sales were declining. In addition, the French government divested its stake in Renault and the company was listed as a public limited company...

Management and Leadership Style

When Ghosn joined Nissan he did not have any pre-disposed opinion of the company or the prevailing situation. Said Ghosn, "This is extremely important in management. You must start with a clean sheet of paper because the worst thing you can have is prefabricated solutions…you have to start with zero base of thinking, cleaning everything out of your mind"6...

Man of Action

Immediately after taking charge as COO in Nissan, Ghosn toured Nissan plants in Japan and worldwide. During his tours, he enquired about the problems faced by employees and the probable solutions that they could offer.

Ghosn was a man of action and therefore impatient. For instance, soon after took over as the COO of Nissan, he handpicked 17 people from Renault and gave them exactly 48 hours to decide whether they would like to accompany him to Japan or not. Similarly he gave three months’ time to the CFTs at Nissan to suggest solutions for the company's problems...

Empowerment & Motivation

According to Ghosn, unless employees identified themselves with the organization and its goals, no company would be successful. Said Ghosn, "Respect for identity is very important because the basic backbone of the company is the motivation of its people. A company has nothing else...

Communication & Transparency

Ghosn also believed in transparency. When he joined Nissan, he publicly announced the problems that the company faced and the drastic steps required to revive it. He was also open about Nissan's financial health in all his statements.

Ghosn believed that by giving employees and media the true picture of the company, it would be easier for him to convince them about the drastic steps that would follow. Another step that Ghosn took after empowering employees was to improve communication in the company...

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Managing in a New Culture

Ghosn took lessons in Japanese language from a former Nissan employee and adapted fast to the Japanese environment. Ghosn believed that every culture had a positive quality of its own. According to media reports, Ghosn's approach to adapting the Japanese culture made significant impact on the employees...

What Next

Mr. Ghosn?

Ghosn won many awards for his yeoman service and for turning around Nissan.

In January 2002, Automobile Magazine declared Ghosn as 'Man of the Year' and he was also listed in the BusinessWeek Asia Top Stars list in 2002 for his unparalleled managerial skills.

In early 2003, Autonews - online magazine declared Ghosn as 'Industry Leader of the Year' and 'Top CEO of Asia' for his performance at Nissan

In reference to our class discussions, and the above introduction and Renault-Nissan Cooperation, kindly use your search and professional skills and emphasize your personal point of view on the following questions:

What was his personality and leadership traits with evidence during his journey of business?
Why were he called the charismatic leader. What Was he applying from the leadership theories we discussed with evidences
What were the challenges he faced during his work in Renault, Nissan and throughout the merger and how he overcame it.
How did he manage his team of employees and diversified culture in every company he joined?
Was motivating people a skill he used which theories he used with evidence