Carlos Ghosn, the French rescue artist who saved Japanese carmaker Nissan, takes the wheel this week of its partner Renault in a dual-steering challenge over rough global terrain.
The alliance will be driving head-to-head with the world's biggest carmakers as high commodities prices pressure the industry worldwide, and sputtering economic growth in Europe, has dulled appetite for new cars.
When Ghosn, chief executive of Nissan, also becomes CEO of Renault on Friday, he slides into the driver's seat of a much different looking vehicle than the alliance launched six years ago.
PHOTO: AFP
A global business icon at only 51, the Brazil-born Frenchman comes to this unprecedented challenge with a string of turnaround successes behind him.
He had restructured tire maker Michelin and Renault before his crowning success to date: the transformation of a nearly dead Nissan in 1999 to the world's most profitable car manufacturer in 2003.
When he was brought in by Renault to save Nissan, the Japanese automaker was in rapid decline, with billions of dollars in debt and a plunging market share.
Today, Nissan is the number two domestic carmaker, after Toyota, in terms of capitalization. And it is twice as big as Renault in sales.
In the globe-spanning partnership, Renault owns 44.4 percent of Nissan, which in turn holds 15 percent of Renault.
The polyglot boss, who has made a reputation in slashing costs, arrives back in Europe with the reputation of "cost killer" -- a label he detests.
And he returns to a European automobile market marked by weak sales and faltering production.
Recent distress signs have been the bankruptcy of MG Rover in Britain and DaimlerChrysler's massive job cuts in its Smart division.
To manage Renault and Nissan, which are 10,000km apart and have a combined 300,000 employees, Ghosn intends to spend 40 percent of his time in the Paris headquarters of Renault and 40 percent at Tokyo-based Nissan, with the remaining 20 percent in the US and elsewhere.
A challenge will be "perhaps his time management," Renault CEO and chairman Louis Schweitzer said recently. Schweitzer will keep the non-executive chairmanship of the company after Ghosn officially becomes CEO.
Ghosn has given himself six months to re-acquaint himself with the inner workings of Renault before delivering his diagnosis.
But it is not only the unusual piloting of the alliance that promises to prove tricky. Renault posted record profit last year of more than 3.5 billion euros (US$4.6 billion), partly due to the contribution from Nissan. But its worldwide sales are stagnating: between 1998 and last year, they rose only 100,000 units to 2.3 million cars and utility vehicles.
Chairman Schweitzer has fixed an ambitious target of 4 million units by 2010.
Other tasks awaiting Renault are a return to the US with the support of Nissan, which already has a strong foothold in the world's biggest automobile market; the conquering of the coveted Chinese market; and the internationalization of the company's operations.
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