The Rise and Fall of Carlos Ghosn: Part 3

A decade into Ghosn’s tenure, Nissan starts missing his goals for growth, profits, and electric vehicle sales. Then a devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan and a self-made crisis at Renault in France test his leadership. Who is holding Ghosn accountable?

In part three of a special, four-part series, host Curt Nickisch explores the cracks that appear in Ghosn’s track record. Did his aggressive performance targets harm Nissan in the long run? Was Ghosn stretched too thin, running two global companies eight time zones apart? Was anyone pushing back on his decisions? And after two decades leading the Japanese and French automakers, what was Ghosn’s succession plan?

NOTE: If you haven’t listened to the first or second episodes yet, we recommend you start there. The series begins with episode 800 of the HBR IdeaCast podcast.

These episodes ask how Carlos Ghosn went from being one of the world’s most admired CEOs to a fugitive from justice. What went right — and wrong — during Ghosn’s time leading Nissan and Renault? And what can we learn from it?

This special series is inspired and informed by the new book Collision Course: Carlos Ghosn and the Culture Wars that Upended an Auto Empire.

This episode was produced by Anne Saini. Contributing reporting from Tokyo by Collision Course coauthors Hans Greimel and William Sposato.

Editing by Scott Berinato, Maureen Hoch, and Adi Ignatius. Sound engineering by Tim Skoog. The team includes Sally Ashworth, Adam Buchholz, Rob Eckhardt, Ramsey Khabbaz, Scott LaPierre, Christine Liu, Melinda Merino, and Karen Player.