Word: renaults
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...incremental approach can bear fruit. Over the past decade, governments of both left and right have privatized or partially privatized most of the major French companies that were state-owned. Each privatization was bitterly contested, and the whole program only took off after strikes at automaker Renault - and following catastrophic losses at state-owned bank Crédit Lyonnais. But change happened, and the firms and France have both thrived as a result. Similarly, France is less at risk than some of its neighbors from the costs of an aging population, partly because of the 2003 pensions reform. These days...
...parents and raised in Beirut, he studied in Paris and graduated from the élite Ecole Polytechnique. In 1978 he went to work for tiremaker Michelin, eventually heading the group's South American operations, based in Brazil, before taking over the North American operations. Recruited to the money-losing Renault in 1996, Ghosn undertook a three-year cost-cutting campaign, ultimately saving the company more than $5.2 billion--and allowing it to take its controlling stake of Nissan...
...spending "about 10 days a month in Japan"--where his wife Rita still owns the My Lebanon restaurant in Tokyo--and two weeks in Paris, Ghosn says he gets the "best of both worlds." The rest of his time is mostly spent overseeing Nissan's struggling U.S. business. Renault pulled out of the U.S. market in 1997, and Ghosn says it won't return "until we can dedicate all our mind, heart, guts and soul--and even then [we may] not be assured of success...
Almost everything about his plan is a gamble. Waiting until 2009 for full results means that the market may be dominated by "disappointing business news that Ghosn himself has warned of," says Christophe Laborde, an auto-industry analyst for ING in Paris. That could undermine Renault's share price, Laborde continues, and force Ghosn to respond with wider job cuts such as rivals have made. Meanwhile, Philippe Martinez, head of the automotive sector at the General Confederation of Labor, France's labor union, is pleased that the plan has avoided firings. But he would also like to see "significant numbers...
...French state still owns 15.7% of its former property Renault, so no past CEO has expected an entirely free hand. If Ghosn is forced to renege on his promise to avoid layoffs, Renault's fortunes could become a political issue in the 2007 presidential elections. But Ghosn suggests that times--and France--have changed. He's the first Renault president selected purely for his business record, rather than for his political contacts. "If they'd wanted a yes-man at Renault," he says, "I wouldn't have been named...