Word: nissan
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After renault took a controlling stake in nissan in 1999, the French carmaker sent in Carlos Ghosn, a Brazilian-born, 47-year-old turnaround expert, to lead the overhaul. TIME's Tokyo bureau chief Tim Larimer recently spoke with Ghosn about the most dramatic makeover to date of a Japanese company...
CARLOS GHOSN Nissan...
...Brazilian-born Ghosn is widely admired for his revival of Nissan. Lately he's a fashion role model for Japanese executives. The stocky, thin-haired CEO doesn't look like GQ material. But profiles in Japanese media have focused as much on his dark, stylishly tailored suits, colorful ties and rimless eyewear as on his management skills. Masakatsu Ochiai, a Tokyo fashion writer, says traditionally staid Japanese businessmen think that "if they can dress like Ghosn, they will be like...
...Eisuke Sakakibara, a former Ministry of Finance vice minister for international affairs. "Japan delayed the structural reforms that were needed." It's not as if Japan did nothing. Sectors long shielded from competition, like financial services, have been opened to foreign investment. Foreign firms that now run car companies Nissan and Mitsubishi are closing factories and revamping inefficient supply systems. And the Sonys and DoCoMos of Japan have flourished in part because they separated themselves from the old cartels and figured out how to combine technological know-how with marketing savvy...
Make no mistake: there are still some real questions about whether Ghosn's reforms are sustainable. Morale is still low in many parts of the company, particularly among the white-collar managers who by now know their days are numbered. Ghosn must further reduce the number of Nissan's suppliers and cut purchasing costs an additional 10% by next year. A global economic slowdown could erase an awful lot of profit in the meantime and total Ghosn effort...