Word: nissan
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Carlos Ghosn has every reason to have that bounce in his step at the annual Detroit Auto Show this week. The Brazilian president of Japan's Nissan Motor Co., now controlled by France's Renault, has been itching to unveil the dazzling new iteration of a sports car that once defined an affordable testosterone boost. Remember the 240Z, the long-nosed rocket that every boy just had to drive after it came out in 1970, later known as the fastest-selling sports car of its time? Monday, to cacophonous music and a panoply of strobe lights in the Motor City...
...bright story to tell--and he wants the Z to help tell it. It is the tale of how he and a small band of Renault executives saved one of Japan's industrial icons. In the 18 months since he arrived in Tokyo, the intense, bespectacled Ghosn has turned Nissan from a debt-ridden basket case into a profitable car company, with 22 new models in the pipeline and a truck plant under construction in Mississippi. While Ford, General Motors and Chrysler all saw sales decline last year, Nissan enjoyed an 11% increase. The company's luxury division, Infiniti...
When Renault bought 37% of Nissan in March 1999, analysts thought the French had flipped. Once a symbol of Japan as global industrial powerhouse, the automaker was on the verge of bankruptcy, $22 billion in debt and had a moribund sales record. As with so many other Japanese companies, Nissan had become arrogant and oblivious to changes in the market, and the old-boy network that ran the Tokyo-based company simply didn't feel like answering a new call--and certainly not one from a foreign master...
...Ghosn is a globalist--Lebanese heritage, French education, Brazilian passport--who earned his spurs as an aggressive turnaround artist at Michelin, the tire company, and then Renault. To bring Nissan to heel, the 46-year-old used psychological leverage that nobody had ever bothered to exploit in Japan. "People within the company were convinced that Nissan was sick and could die," he says. "They knew it had to change, and they were willing to help...
...went for a paltry $41 when it was auctioned last week on eBay by a former longtime friend. Indie-film director Paul Yates claims Moby has been selling out: all 18 songs on his platinum album, Play, have been licensed for use in commercials and TV shows ranging from Nissan ads to Dawson's Creek. Yates also alleges that Moby is trying to doctor his image: the musician is now distancing himself from Yates' upcoming comedy, Porno, which includes a scene of Moby playing guitar with two sex toys strapped to his head. As executive producer, Moby no longer agrees...