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Collision Course

Carlos Ghosn and the Culture Wars That Upended an Auto Empire

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About this listen

In Japan, it's called the "Ghosn Shock" - the stunning arrest of Carlos Ghosn, the jet-setting CEO who saved Nissan and made it part of a global automotive empire. Even more shocking was his daring escape from Japan, packed into a box and put on a private jet to Lebanon after months spent in a Japanese detention center, subsisting on rice gruel.

How did it come to this, and why? This is the sprawling story of what led to the Ghosn Shock and what was left in its wake. The book chronicles Ghosn's two decades building a colossal partnership between Nissan and Renault. To the world it looked like a new model for a global business, but the alliance's shiny image fronted an unsteady, tense operation. Culture clashes, infighting among executives and engineers, dueling corporate traditions, and government maneuvering constantly threatened the venture.

Expertly reported, Collision Course explores the complex suspicions around what and who was really responsible for Ghosn's ouster. It explains how economics, history, national interests, legal traditions, and hubris converged on arguably the most important foreign businessman ever to set foot in Japan.

©2021 Hans Greimel, William Sposato (P)2021 Gildan Media Business Professionals & Academics Government
All stars
Most relevant
Listened in 2 days. Gripping story and I learnt a lot (especially about Japan). The cultural/sociological, business, and legal stuff is fascinating. Even enjoyed learning about automotive industry haha.

Brilliantly presents all the nuances, different points of view, complexity.

The HBR Ideacast 4-part podcast series is superb, too, and worth listening to separately.

4 stars for performance because perfectly fine and not annoying but not exceptional

Loved it

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For those familiar with the story there is nothing really new, except background information on Japanese culture to help us perhaps to better understand the story from the Japanese side.

There are a lot of repetitions as if the chapters were assembled afterwards without having been trimmed due to aspects already mentioned in other chapters.

So the book is OK, but not something great or exceptional.

Good for setting the context and background

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I was looking for a neutral, factual, detailed story so I can come up with my own conclusions.

biased story

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