Carlos Ghosn - Career

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 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. 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.

In 2006, Ford Motor Co. made Ghosn a formal offer to lead the company, according to "American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company," by Bryce Hoffman. Ghosn refused, reportedly saying the only way he would come to the struggling Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford was if he was named both the CEO and chairman of the board. Bill Ford Jr. refused to give up his chairmanship.

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.