Collision Course: Carlos Ghosn and the Culture Wars That Upended an Auto Empire

The saga of Nissan and Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn’s shocking arrest for corporate malfeasance, and later escape from Japan by being put in a box and spirited away on a private jet by former Green Berets, is the stuff of movies. But there’s so much more to this sprawling story of how Ghosn—arguably the most important foreign businessman ever to set foot in Japan-saved Nissan, built a colossal auto empire, and remade the model for global cooperation in a massive and massively important industry. Only so it seemed. Behind the scenes, culture clashes, infighting, corporate traditions, and government involvement made for a fragile, teetering alliance between carmakers. Collision Course is part cautionary tale; part object lesson; part forewarning about the increasing complexity of doing global business in a nationalistic world.

• Entertaining narrative.
• Authoritative and deeply considered account of a complex story from creditable, on the ground reporters.
• Instructive story about organizational culture, globalization, and the intersection of interests.
• Draws on history and shines a light on a world many only barely know (Japan Inc).
• Timely, smart.

Audience: Narrative non-fiction enthusiasts, automotive industry enthusiasts, global business managers, Japanophiles, business audience interested in the intersection of globalization and nationalist politics, news junkies.

Hans Greimel is an award-winning American business journalist based in Tokyo, where he serves as Asia Editor for Automotive News, overseeing coverage from Japan, China, and South Korea. He has been writing about Nissan and the alliance for more than a decade and has interviewed Carlos Ghosn multiple times, including a one-on-one interview after Ghosn’s arrest. He also attended Ghosn’s surprise press conference in Lebanon after his stunning escape from Japan. Greimel’s coverage of the Ghosn scandal for Automotive News won the national 2019 Folio Eddie Award for Best Series of Articles. William Sposato is a Tokyo-based correspondent and consultant who has been active in Japan for more than twenty years, with senior roles at Reuters and the Wall Street Journal. He is currently a writer and regular contributor to Foreign Policy magazine. He is also a consultant to corporations and government bodies on economics, corporate issues, and regional diplomacy.

You can find Hans Greimel and William Sposato on Twitter:
twitter.com/hansgreimel
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