Publisher: Currency
Authors: Carlos Ghosn
List Price: $25.95
Amazon Price: $17.13
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Reviews:
Summary: Must-read for auto-enthusiasts
This autobiography by stellar auto executive Carlos Ghosn is part family history, part memoir and, it must be acknowledged, part corporate public relations exercise. Ghosn covers his international childhood, student days and working experience at Michelin and Renault, but the meat of the content concerns his remarkable achievements at Nissan. Ghosn's account of his work is clear and interesting, if somewhat superficial. He rarely offers original or striking insights. He tells readers what he did and sometimes why, but neither the "what" nor the "why" seem to break new ground. Ghosn may be a man of action unaccustomed to reflection, or he may be a private man who keeps his deeper conclusions to himself. We recommend his book to automotive industry readers, because it is a memoir of an industry leader. Others might enjoy the occasional memorable flash of insight - such as Ghosn's observations on Japan's traditional and somewhat illusory "consensus" approach to management, or his comment that Japanese business leaders do not know how to take the actions that circumstances demand. Of course, anybody else's actions might look a little tentative in the face of Ghosn's decisive career path.
Summary: A Great Business Leader
Begins by tracing Ghosn's ancestry, early upbringing, and first assignments (Michelin - Brazil, U.S.; Renault, in France). The best part of the book, however, covers his revival of Nissan.
Renault felt threatened by the Daimler-Chrysler merger, and began looking at Nissan (along with G.M.). G.M., however, backed out, and the management challenge went to Ghosn. Nissan had lost Japanese market share for 27 years in a row, and was operating at 50% capacity, with far too many suppliers, constant goal changes, poor accounting data regarding product line profitability (later found only 4 of 43 models were making a profit), and goals generally lacked quantitative specificity on amount (eg. "Build a quality product"), timing, or priority.
He began with nine three-month cross-functional recommendation teams in key areas - eg. procurement, etc. The procurement team found Nissan paying 20-25% more for parts than Renault. Ghosn, based on prior experience, suggested achieving 1/3 of the improvement through engineering changes. The rest was attained through reducing the number of suppliers to a targeted level. Other goals included reducing general/administrative costs 20%, reducing dealership overlap by cutting the number 10%, cutting debt 50% by selling Nissan's holdings in its suppliers and reapplying the funds to debt reduction and new investment, and a specific date for returning to a stated level of profitability.
Ghosn also concluded that Nissan had a weak brand image - forcing it to sell products at lower prices than otherwise; he brought in a new chief designer from Isuzu to kick-start improvement.
Ghosn's focus throughout was on results, not culture change. (The old culture was one of excuses - problems were always someone else's fault.) Finally, staff previously learned their performance rewards at the end of the year. Ghosn changed that so that specific rewards were set at the beginning of the year.
Ghosn's report of actions taken at Nissan were interesting and valuable. I only wish he had gone into greater detail.
Summary: Well, that was dull
The Nissan story certainly should be compelling and Ghosn himself is a rockstar business celebrity. How come the book was so dull and after reading it I still didn't know what Ghosn had actually done to turn around Nissan?
Two things recommend this book: Ghosn's recollections of starting out at Michelin...his portrait of that privately owned corporation was much more interesting than his Nissan story; and as a companion to the Reckoning, David Halberstam's history of Detroit that focused on Ford's eclipse by none other than Nissan. To find out that Nissan was already rotting from within by the time Halberstam was finishing his great book, makes this poor one at least an interesting appendix.
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