...Leaders The Personality of Carlos Ghosn: The $10 Billion Man Read the following dossier of article extracts and answer the final questions. 1.- “The $10 billion man” Feb 24th 2005, The Economist Having turned round Nissan, Carlos Ghosn is about to run Renault as well It is said that he could add $10 billion to the market value of Ford or General Motors with a stroke of his pen. But Carlos Ghosn is not about to sign up as chief executive of either firm. Instead, in May, he will become the boss of Renault, France 's second-largest carmaker, while continuing to head Nissan, Japan's number two car firm. To ease the transition, this week he named Toshiyuki Shiga as Nissan's chief operating officer. Although Renault and Nissan have cross-shareholdings and a deep alliance, their relationship deliberately stops well short of outright merger. Perhaps that is why it has been so successful, avoiding the integration pain that has marred, for instance, DaimlerBenz's takeover of Chrysler. In his book, “Shift: Inside Nissan's Historic Revival”, published in English last month, Mr Ghosn says that the strength of the alliance “can be found, on the one hand, in its respect for the identities of the two companies, and on the other, in the necessity of developing synergies.” Certainly the benefit has flowed both ways since the Franco -Japanese deal was done in 1999. First, Renault rescued Nissan, buying a stake (now 44%) and installing its Mr Ghosn as chief operating officer...
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...Individual Analysis Paper Chairman and CEO of Nissan and Renault – Carlos Ghosn Chao Ru chao.ru@laverne.edu University of La Verne Graduate School of Business BUS 586 – CRN 1354: Leadership for the Future Professor John C. Sivie June 28, 2012 I. Table of Contents I. Table of Contents 2 II. Background and Award of Carlos Ghosn 3 III. Important Contributes for Nissan from Ghosn 4 IV. Doing the Right Things of Carlos Ghosn 5 V. Learn from Carlos Ghosn 7 VI. References 9 Chairman and CEO of Nissan and Renault – Carlos Ghosn II. Background and Awards of Carlos Ghosn Background Information of Carlos Ghosn: Carlos Ghosn is the president and CEO of Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., a global automotive company with 180,000 employees and $83 billion in revenue. He joined to Nissan in June 1999 as its chief operating officer. And then, he became Nissan’s president in June 2000, and also became the chief executive in June 2001. Carlos Ghson is also the president and CEO of Paris-based Renault, SA which was named in May 2005. Both companies together produce more than one in 10 cars sold worldwide. He is also Chairman and CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, the strategic partnership overseeing the two companies through a unique cross-shareholding agreement (Wikipedia, 2012). Currently, he is not only the president and CEO of Nissan and Renault. He also serves on the board of director at Alcoa Automotive, Inc and Closure Systems International, Inc. He serves these...
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...Carlos Ghosn Carlos Ghosn, born 9 March 1954 is a Brazilian-Lebanese 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.[1] 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."[2] After the Nissan financial turnaround, he achieved celebrity status[3] and ranks as one of the 50 most famous men in global business and politics.[4] In Japan, he is the superhero protagonist in a popular "manga" comic book series.[5] His polemical decision to spend $5 billion to develop the world's first mainstream electric car, the Nissan Leaf, is a subject of the 2011 documentary "Revenge of the Electric Car." Personal life Ghosn was born in Porto Velho, Brazil on 9 March 1954 to a French mother and Lebanese father. At age 6, he moved to Beirut, Lebanon, with his mother. He completed his secondary school studies there, in a Jesuit school (Collège Notre-Dame de Jamhour). Then he completed his classes préparatoires at Lycée Stanislas in Paris.[7] He graduated with engineering degrees from the École Polytechnique in 1978 (X1974) with...
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...Slide 1: Education Bachelor's Degree Ecole Polytechnique France Bachelor's Degree Groupe Ecole des Mines Bachelor of engineering at Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal Speaks 7 languages french english portuguese italian arabic japonise and spanish he spends the following 3 month on the road, personally studying Nissan’s problems He promises to the audience that if he or his team don’t make Nissan profitable in one year, he will quite Slides 4: video about his traits as leader Slide 5: video to explain how to be a healthy manager Slides 6: He is like a duck, because ducks are calm on the surface and pushing like crazy getting things done under the surface. Slides 7: Motivated his employee by rewards: Ghosn held a belief that employees at all levels of a company possess the solutions to the problems. Reward: opportunity and career development, give credit of all success Democratic Meet every employee, shake hands, walk around the entire company, encourage innovations Once the employee conficence was gained, they were very commitment to the company and deliver expectations beyond their promise His ability to communicate and lead his Japanese staff in spite of the fact that he didn’t speak jap Cross-Functional-Team 1 Business growth—new products, new services, new markets 2 Purchases which represent 60% of expenditures 3 Manufacturing and logistics 4 Research and development 5 Sales and marketing 6 General and administrative services 7 Finance 8 Everything...
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...Carlos Ghosn weakness Looking into the weak area of Carlos’s leadership, it is very hard to find because, the results from decision he took in past always led to success. One aspect about Carlos’s style that is tough to entitle either weakness or strength as from the earliest sight it describes for the negative association, however, on the other side it has proved very effective. This aspect was his autocratic leadership style when he took over Nissan. By defining clear roles, he told his employees directly what he found to be the problem and he clearly stated his goals. He closely directed his employees about his expectations and focuses on to meet them and challenged employees to try harder. This gave the impression that it could have been threatening to staff; however, they kept on performing which led to success in long run. Another aspect was Carlos by applying negative reinforcement, demanded that everybody had to spoke English at the senior managers meeting. By using his Coercive Power if an employee did unable to speak English, they were separated from the company. Criticism on Carlos: Other than a part of Carlos’s leadership weakness, initially he was also remained a victim of criticism from Japanese’s people and Business analysts (OECD Observer. 1999). An immense resistance from his employees was the promotion of younger once over older and longer serving employees. Carlos has strong belief on fair management. Carlos brought cultural change in promotion based...
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...I-Carlos Ghosn’s Management Style Carlos Ghosn, clearly an extraordinary man with an impressive list of accomplishments already under his belt at a relatively young age. But what is it exactly about his management style that makes him stand-out from other leaders, why is it that so much attention has been showered onto him? In the first part of this report that is exactly what we will try to uncover. Ghosn truly does have a unique management style, one that is perfectly suited to today’s global economic reality. In our view the following management practices are the ones that have been integral to the success of not only Ghosn’s turnaround of Nissan but also in his previous accomplishments at Michelin and Renault: Adaptability What really strikes you as you read and learn more and more about Ghosn is that he truly does not have any preconceptions or stereotypes. Whether he is facing a new and unknown country and culture or a situation within a company, Ghosn’s approach is what he calls “a clean sheet of paper.” What Ghosn has been able to do so well is transcend what Peter M. Senge describes as “Mental Models” in his article The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization. As we have seen in the Senge’s article whenever you limit yourself to your Mental Models you reduce you ability to react effectively to changes in the environment. Senge uses the example of oil companies unable to effectively deal with changes in market conditions...
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...Case study: Leading a Global Organization This paper will evaluate Carlos Ghosn’s approach to turning Nissan around from his appointment of COO at a very critical time in Nissan’s history. After many years of success, Nissan began facing difficulties in the 90s and Carlos Ghosn was invited to help turn the organization around. Both national and organizational culture was very strong in Nissan and made changes difficult, but Ghosn’s management style enabled him to implement the Nissan revival plan (NRP), which turned the company around to profitability. Background The case revolves around Nissan and its management. The company was established in 1933 under a different name, but quickly changed to Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. Following the Second World War, Nissan expanded its operations around the world and grew steadily. By 1991 Nissan was highly profitable and had four out of the top ten cars in the world. The success didn’t last though. In the years 1993-1999 Nissan had seven consecutive years of losses and credit rating services were threating to lower their status from “investment grade” to “junk”. Part of the problem was the managerial decision to emphasize short-tem market share growth rather than long-term success. Inspired by local Japanese culture and customs, especially keiretsu, Nissan invested heavily in suppliers. This was done to encourage loyalty and cooperation between members of their value chain. Unfortunately, the Asian financial ended up devaluating...
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..."Leading Change – Carlos Ghosn at Michelin, Renault, and Nissan Motors" case is an example of how one person was able to turn around three different companies from the brink of failure, and implement change through effective leadership. Carlos Ghosn exemplified strong leadership through three interrelated notions, one, affecting the behaviors of others, two, mobilizing employees to encourage commitment, and three, by mobilizing adaptive behaviors. His success can be attributed through the five core tasks that are the “heart of effective change leadership.” Those core tasks are to develop, and communicate purpose, establish demanding performance goals, enable upward communication, forge an emotional bond between employees and the organization, and develop future change leadership. This paper will explore how Ghosn used the five tasks of change leadership to revitalize Michelin, Renault, and Nissan Motors. One of the first strategies Ghosn established was to get all employees to work towards the same common goal. Within each of the companies mentioned above, he developed cross-functional teams. Cross-functional teams allow people from a diverse group to exchange information to solve problems. Michelin-South American personnel had two groups from different cultural backgrounds-French and Brazilian employees. He believed by creating cross-functional teams, it would create teamwork to re-energize employees to work together. He stated, “a cross-functional team was fundamental...
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...Develop and Articulate clear and consistent sense of purpose and direction for the organization Ghosn was only moderately successful in articulating an organization purpose. In presenting his first analysis of Nissan, he identified the challenge of “save the business without losing the company” while simultaneously presenting the goal of “ do everything in my power to bring Nissan back to profitability at the earliest date possible and revive it as a highly attractive company”. While the combination of saving the business and returning Nissan to attractiveness is an appropriate organizational purpose, the discussion of profitability goals appears to veer into the strategy arena, which would be more specific. While he is able to establish a common sense of direction and goals for all employees, saving the company, there had to have been questions regarding what not losing the company meant in the context of returning it to profitability. Additionall, a clear purpose is generally supported by decentralized and autonomous decision making. Ghosn makes a point of referring to everything that is in his power which seems inconsistent with establishing high levels of coordination and teamwork. Establish Demanding Performance Expectations Ghosn was successful in creating demanding performance expectations. Similar to the tactics employed by Jack Welch at GE, Ghosn worked to instill the concept of “stretch”. Stretch goals are those that cannot be achieved by incremental or...
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... Spring Semester 2016 CARLOS GHOSN The “COST KILLER” Presented By: Michel Gerges Samar Nimer Introduction: Carlos Ghosn, born on March 9, 1954 is a French-Lebanese-Brazilian businessman born in Porto Velho, Brazil, who is currently the Chairman and CEO of France-based Renault, a European leading carmaker, and Chairman and CEO of Japan-based Nissan, a Japanese leading Carmaker, and Chairman of Russia-based automobile manufacturer AvtoVAZ. He completed his secondary school studies in Lebanon, at the Jesuit school College Notre-Dame de Jamhour. He then completed his preparatory classes in Paris, at the “College Stanislas” and the “Lycée Saint-Louis”. Carlos Ghosn earned two engineering degrees in Paris, the first from the “École Polytechnique” in 1974, and the second from the “École des Mines de Paris” in 1978. He joined Michelin in 1978 as a management trainee and soon he became a manager of the “Le Puy” plant in France. Then, he became Chief Operating Officer of Michelin’s South American activities based in Brazil before being appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Michelin North America in 1989. He joined Renault as Executive Vice President in 1996. In addition to supervising Renault activities in Mercosur, he was responsible for research, automobile engineering and development, manufacturing, powertrain operations, and purchasing. Carlos Ghosn joined Nissan Motor as Chief...
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...bubble economy collapsed in the early 1990s and Nissan’s profits deteriorated in parallel (Wiki – 2011). In response to a dire operating situation, Nissan formed a partnership with Renault in 1999. While the injection of capital was much needed by the Japanese car manufacturer, the most important asset exchanged in the strategic alliance turned out to be Carlos Ghosn, the Renault Executive Vice President appointed to turn around Nissan. The following analysis focuses on Carlos Ghosn’s leadership and the Nissan Revival Plan (NRP). The NRP saved Nissan and its roots seem to have originated from the Lean Action Plan framework. Get Started (First Six Months) Find a change agent (Score - 5 of 5) The Lean Thinking textbook places a considerable amount of emphasis on starting the Lean Leap. While it may seem basic in nature, kicking off the process is not easy, and it requires an organization to have an executive base with leadership talent. In particular, finding a “change agent” that is committed to co-developing and implementing a plan to accomplish concrete objectives is hard to unearth. Carlos Ghosn was an ideal “change agent”. Ghosn quickly established a vision for Nissan, which he was able to clearly communicate to the employees of the organization. He displayed a willingness to engage and...
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...Why was the former Nissan Management unsuccessful in turning the company around? Why could they not prevent the slide of Nissan’s ranking market share, etc.? The former managers of Nissan had been struggling to turn Nissan into a profitable company for eight years. Nissans major problem were the extremely low margins due to its lack of brand power and the very unprofitable cost structure (especially regarding purchasing costs). Nissan’s organizational and financial structures where very traditional and typical Japanese (e. g. the cross-shareholdings within the kereitsu structures). All previous Nissan CEO’s where Japanese , probably each of them with a long tenure and history in the company. Each CEO was surely skilled and experienced in leading an international company. But it can be speculated that it is much harder for a Japanese CEO to make fundamental changes in Nissan's long-standing operating practices and behavioral norms of Japanese society that are deeply integrated in the corporate structure. The former managers were simply stuck in their Japanese organizational structures and no one wanted to break with their own tradition. In addition, the company advisors, a group of senior managers without line responsibilities, made sure that Japanese business practices were implemented and pursued. Some examples of these country specific, traditional structures are the kereitsu partnerships and the predominant seniority rule: Nissan was consistently strapped for cash and...
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...NAME : MUHAMMAD AMMAR BIN MOHAMMAD YATIM STUDENT ID : 2012882218 ARTICLE TITLE : LEADING IN THE 21st CENTURY : AN INTERVIEW WITH CARLOS GHOSN Carlos Ghosn, born 9 March 1954 is a French-Lebanese-Brazilian businessman born in Porto Velho, Brazil, who is currently the Chairman and CEO of Paris-based Renault, holds the same positions at Japan-based Nissan, and is Chairman of Russian automobile manufacturer AvtoVAZ. Ghosn is also Chairman and CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance. He led one of the most dramatic turnarounds in the history of the modern corporation through his leadership to this automobile company. He managed to rescue Nissan motors from collapsed in 1999. In March 2011, once again he had rescued Nissan when earthquake and tsunami happen in Japan which disproportionately damaged Nissan. As mentioned by Carlos Ghosn, one of strategies is a leader should be ready to deal with crisis. A leader must be able to face every internal and external crisis that arises. The two kind of crises which first there are internal crises that arise because a company has not been managed well and the second one are external crises, such as the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the earthquake in Japan, and the flood in Thailand. Leaders need to be more prepared for external crises, where it is not the strategy of the company that is in question but it is the ability of leaders to figure out how to adapt that strategy. Leaders should have learning agility, which they adapt quickly to...
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...1. To enlist support from the employees, I think a shared vision and a clear strategy is key success factors. One of the fundamental problems when Carlos Ghosn arrived at Nissan was the lack of vision from management. By a restructuring in the organization and the grouping of Cross Functional Teams, I believe that the explaining and communication sharing, hereunder common vision, across the entire company was improved. Next step was the formulation of the new strategy. When formulating a strategy it is very important to choose a strategy that is compatible with the organizational culture. It is my opinion that Carlos Ghosn succeeds with the adaption of strategy into organizational structure, by letting the employees in the CFT’s create the strategy themselves, or at least be a big part of the strategy creation. In order to achieve an effective strategy execution you need to adapt the culture to the selected strategy. By reaching to conclusions of plant closures and employee reductions, I think that the CFT’s managed to adapt the culture to the selected strategy. Overall Carlos Ghosn experienced a willingness of the Nissan employees at all levels to change their mindset and embrace new ideas. In my opinion Carlos succeeded in enlisting different parts of the organization, because he created and communicated a shared vision and included many of the employees in the new strategy and the underlying process. The employees in the Cross Functional Teams and sub-teams...
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...1. What factors account for the success of IKEA? The IKEAs success is derived from three factors. * Low price – 30% - 50% lower than market prices * Scandinavian design and style - good design and functional * Well-designed shopping area to be immensely appealing to customers– cheerful decorated model room, bright and inviting atmosphere, childcare centers, restaurant, etc. 2. What do you think of the product strategy? The product strategy of IKEA is to provide low price products but have meaning at well-designed shopping areas. In other words, IKEA provides cheap products with good design which will not make customers feel cheap at the place where they can enjoy shopping with their families. To provide cheap products, IKEA has global sourcing network. In addition, IKEA has a rigid cost saving culture. 3. Despite the success, what are Ikea downsides? * American Culture - Americans are notorious for their reluctance to buy new furniture. To expand in the US market, IKEA needs to sell product as much as possible and thus, IKEA needs to change the fix idea in the US. * Scandinavian design and style - There is no doubt that the Scandinavian design and style are attractive. However, IKEA needs to adopt some American style (Colonial American, American Country, Mission, Southwestern and Shaker) to meet American needs. * High-end Retailers – Competition with high-end retailers could be the downside factor. High-end retailers offer exclusive services...
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