LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- The twin announcements that Nissan made a record profit of 372 billion yen last year and that Carlos Ghosn has been appointed chief executive officer of the parent company, Renault, as well as retaining the presidency of Nissan, are an extraordinary landmark.
The Ghosn/Nissan story illustrates a number of points. An underlying theme throughout this series is that Japan should open up. This is what globalization is about. As Masao Yukawa, former board member of Mitsubishi Corp., among others, pointed out in his brilliant article "Japan's Enemy is Japan" (The Washington Quarterly, Winter 1999), when the Japanese use the word "kokusaika" (internationalization), very much in fashion a decade or so ago, they invariably mean internationalization from Japan -- outward investments and acquisitions, and tourists going abroad -- as opposed to internationalization into Japan -- inward investments, acquisitions and immigration. The Ghosn/Nissan story emphatically demonstrates the benefits that can be derived from a foreign input at the highest managerial level.
Ghosn is a Brazilian of Lebanese extraction. It was very wise of Renault, a company not hitherto known for its "globalism," but rather the reverse, to have brought him into its top management team. This brings home the very important point that Japanese institutions -- and not only the ones acquired by foreign capital -- also should widen their top talent pool to include Indonesians, Indians, Filipinos, Brazilians, etc., as well as Americans and Europeans.