A biography for Carlos Ghosnhasn’t been written yet.
“Incentives are not strategy, they are tactics. Defensive measures.”
“More and more, in any company, managers are dealing with different cultures. Companies are going global, but the teams are being divided and scattered all over the planet.”
“Profit is the most global aspect of a business, and it is cross-functional.”
“Being in a multicultural environment in childhood is going to give you intuition, reflexes and instincts. You may acquire basic responsiveness later on, but it's never going to be as spontaneous as when you have been bathing in this environment during childhood.”
“You don't implement change easily in Japan unless you explain very clearly why you need to do this change, how you're going to do this change and what's going to be the outcome of this change. If you offset or you forget to explain one of these three steps you're not going to do it.”
“At the age of 20 I bought a used Fiat 127. This was the only one I could afford!”
“Good is somebody who delivered and allowed the company to overcome obstacles, without leaving a profound impact on its culture. Great is somebody who leads his company to achievements and performance and value that nobody was expecting it had.”
“I always loved cars. I don't know why, I can't explain it to you. It has always been with me.”
“We continue to be bullish on China.”
“What I worry about is not just Nissan, but Japanese manufacturers losing motivation to maintain production in Japan. The high yen is definitely a headwind.”
“There are always lessons that can be learned from another manufacturer. You can learn from their successes and from their mistakes also. But you cannot replicate; you can only learn.”
“China will be the answer to Japan's problems.”
“The time is right for electric cars - in fact the time is critical.”
“I think the new generation is much more demanding about respect for the environment than we have ever imagined.”
“We are still keeping, as much as we can to the one million commitment that we made, hoping that at a certain point in time, the headwinds represented by the strength of the yen will be a little bit less strong.”
“When I come to a design decision, people know that is that.”
“If we come to the conclusion after 90 days that the synergies are big enough to justify the efforts, then we can go to the second step, which consists of saying: what would be the best organization and conditions - including shareholdings - in order to make sure the synergies happen.”
“You'll never convince me there is a hopeless situation or there is any finality in any success or any failure.”
“Don't believe what I say. Believe what I do.”
“I'm the C.E.O., nominated by the shareholders. If they're not happy, I have to take the consequences.”