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Communities of Leadership: Carlos Ghosn’s Renault-Nissan
No comments · Posted by Scott in Case Studies
For our list of interesting communities of leadership: I think the Renault-Nissan alliance is especially intriguing because it is a partnership between a Japanese and a European company, based on a cross-shareholding rather than a merger. In no small part, I believe it exists because of Carlos Ghosn, who is CEO of both companies, another extraordinary feature.
The alliance partners are sharing expertise, designing common platforms, using common parts, and distributing specialities, for example Renault for diesel engines, Nissan for gasoline. The arrangement strikes me as a fascinating example of Prahalad and Krishnan’s R=G principle: meaning that the resource base for 21st century business is global.
According to Wikipedia, Ghosn was born in Brazil, with a Lebanese heritage. He has been credited with engineering dramatic turnarounds at both companies, not to mention the orchestration of the alliance itself. It would be hard to find a better recipe for being a citizen of the world: born in Latin America, Middle Eastern roots, simultaneously CEO of a Japanese and a French auto company, selling a lot of cars in the U.S. and in China. In March, Ghosn opened a new alliance plant in Chennai, India.
Even jointly, the alliance is not the largest car maker in the world. However, given its striking structure, truly international character, and Ghosn’s remarkable role, I’d say this one bears watching.
The growing list of Interesting Communities of Leadership is at http://lovingwork.org/interesting-communities-of-leadership
Scott is scott@lovingwork.org and @scottdowns3 on Twitter.
business models · emerging markets · global · leadership · Nissan · Renault
