How To Manages 3 Companies And Still Remain Human

Carlos Ghosn, is a businessman born in Brazil, who is half French and half Lebanese and who at the time spoke only enough Japanese to make short, formal speeches. the joint CEO of Renault and Nissan, became such a hero in Japan for saving Nissan that a manga maker released a 7-part comic about him in 2002. That’s right about a businessman. The manga was a best-seller.

Since then, Ghosn has taken Nissan from has-been to industry leader, aggressively pushing into electric cars — the Leaf is by far the top-selling electric in the world — and declaring that “autonomous drive” vehicles are coming up shortly. He’s also continued to expand his reach, this summer completing the takeover of Russian automaker AvtoVaz, which makes the top-selling Lada. Ghosn is now AvtoVaz’s chairman.

In other words, if comic makers thought he was impressive for his leadership a decade ago, the fact that he now steers 3 international car companies, in 3 different languages, responsible for 10% of all cars sold and grossing an expected $140+ billion in 2014 sales should practically guarantee Ghosn an Avengers movie by now (in which, of course, he’d play every role).

But that would assume that Ghosn (pronounced like “phone”) is a larger-than-life, Elon Musk-like character. He’s not. Ghosn lives his life — as he says — “almost like a monk:" everything is planned and everything is telegraphed. (Even our interview ran with precision: He walked in, went over the time constraints, answered the questions and left — in the exact window he had laid out.)

That’s because the discipline of running 3 companies in 3 far-flung countries requires exactly that: insane amounts of discipline. Want to know where Ghosn is going to be next year this week? Ask his staff. His schedule is mapped out 15 months ahead and distributed widely. His plane flights are reserved for sleeping since he knows that as soon as he touches down, he’s going to get hit with questions from the local staff who now have an audience with the CEO. And when he’s in each of those countries, he focuses only on the company whose name is on the local headquarters.

“I start with the principle that when I'm in Japan, I'm making decisions for Nissan,” says Ghosn. “When I'm in Paris, I'm making decisions for Renault. And when I am in Russia, I'm making decisions, eventually, for AvtoVAZ. I don't mix the different responsibilities because I just want to make sure the different teams in charge feel responsible and there is no confusion between the different companies. So, a lot of pragmatism, some basic rules, professional people around you and, at the end of the day, it's possible."