As Carlos Ghosn's stint saving Nissan from the junkyard ends, I'm thinking more of Apple's iPhone than cars.
That the most prominent foreign CEO in Japanese history is resigning, and turning the keys over to Hiroto Saikawa, isn't a big surprise. Ghosn long said he wanted a Japanese back in the Nissan driver's seat so he could focus on Renault's alliance with Mitsubishi Motors. The surprise is that a Brazilian-born, Lebanese-raised Frenchman succeeded so spectacularly in insular, change-averse Japan.
The journey began back in 1999, when Japan Inc. scowled at the idea a gaijin (foreigner) could rescue a 40,000-employee zombie from bankruptcy. No other Westerner had ever flown that close to the Land of Rising Sun's corporate core. And Ghosn, then 45, was inheriting a wreck: nearly $40 billion of debt, a roster of duds clogging showrooms, a labyrinthine distribution system, losses in five of the previous six years and a stubborn culture not about to bow to some coddled outlander.