We are facing extreme volatility.
— Carlos Ghosn
We have some worse scenarios for which we need to prepare as companies. For the moment, we're planning for the worst, and the worst is now, and the car market is down more than 15 percent in France. There is so much uncertainty.
The time is right for electric cars - in fact the time is critical.
In a difficult and uncertain environment, Renault remains on track to meet its 2012 objective.
Talking about stepping down in five years is frankly not a topic of particular actuality now.
Electric cars are going to be very important for urban transportation.
There are always lessons that can be learned from another manufacturer. You can learn from their successes and from their mistakes also. But you cannot replicate; you can only learn.
Good is somebody who delivered and allowed the company to overcome obstacles, without leaving a profound impact on its culture. Great is somebody who leads his company to achievements and performance and value that nobody was expecting it had.
The most interesting information I can have about a competitor is the cost.
I think the new generation is much more demanding about respect for the environment than we have ever imagined.
I don't believe in hostile moves. I don't believe they carry any value.
When I come to a design decision, people know that is that.
You don't build your character by doing what everybody else is doing.
You don't implement change easily in Japan unless you explain very clearly why you need to do this change, how you're going to do this change and what's going to be the outcome of this change. If you offset or you forget to explain one of these three steps you're not going to do it.
I have my family, my children - I have a lot of outside activities.
When a company is facing a problem, it always takes a stance and takes a decision, but at the same time it wants to make sure of what it can learn from it, what enhancements it can make.
Don't believe what I say. Believe what I do.
We continue to be bullish on China.
I think we're going to have some difficulty in front of us. I have absolutely no doubt the next three, four years Europe are going to be at best stagnation. We are preparing for tough times.
If we come to the conclusion after 90 days that the synergies are big enough to justify the efforts, then we can go to the second step, which consists of saying: what would be the best organization and conditions - including shareholdings - in order to make sure the synergies happen.
We are still keeping, as much as we can to the one million commitment that we made, hoping that at a certain point in time, the headwinds represented by the strength of the yen will be a little bit less strong.
You have to be careful to react when you start to deviate from your course.
Employees are your most valuable assets. They are the heart and guts of a company. This doesn't mean that from time to time, you aren't going to do what is good for the company.
You'll never convince me there is a hopeless situation or there is any finality in any success or any failure.
Being in a multicultural environment in childhood is going to give you intuition, reflexes and instincts. You may acquire basic responsiveness later on, but it's never going to be as spontaneous as when you have been bathing in this environment during childhood.
When you're CEO, you have to have two conditions: first, shareholders need to trust you and want you to head your company. The second is that you need to feel the motivation to do the job. So, as long as both are reunited, you continue to do the job.
Regulations about environments are going to get tougher and tougher.
Synergies are not only about cost reduction. Synergies can be access to markets, exchange of products, avoiding overlaps, exchange of best practices.
When the CEO makes a decision, people don't come back on it.
I always loved cars. I don't know why, I can't explain it to you. It has always been with me.
It would be easier to make money in other sectors, but since I was a kid, I liked cars.
I love not to be busy in a certain way.
Every single time you make a merger, somebody is losing his identity. And saying something different is just rubbish.
I think that the best training a top manager can be engaged in is management by example.
What I worry about is not just Nissan, but Japanese manufacturers losing motivation to maintain production in Japan. The high yen is definitely a headwind.
Is Europe going to be breaking? I don't think so. I think the euro will stay. I think at the end of the day Europeans will find the solutions in order to hold Europe together.
We are not making a capital investment into GM as the first element or condition.
When you're C.E.O., you have to have two conditions: first, shareholders need to trust you and want you to head your company. The second is that you need to feel the motivation to do the job. So, as long as both are reunited, you continue to do the job. And today, they are reunited.
When your results are good, you are obviously going to have a lot of press. And when you start to falter a little bit, you are going to have some criticism, and there is nothing abnormal in that.
You go to a plant not only to pat the people on the back, but to tell them about the opportunities they have to do a better job. Quality is one of the opportunities they have to do a better job.
If you have not been a villain at a certain point in time, you will never be a hero. And the day you are a hero, you may become a villain the next day.
More and more, in any company, managers are dealing with different cultures. Companies are going global, but the teams are being divided and scattered all over the planet.
Electric cars are not going to take the market by storm, but it's going to be a gradual improvement.
You want to make sure this particular car is going to please the customer and then you're going to be rewarded with something that is going to please the shareholder.
I'm the C.E.O., nominated by the shareholders. If they're not happy, I have to take the consequences.
I approve designs not because I think I am more gifted or somebody who can see ahead three or four years from now, but just to make sure that the design is a logical, rational decision, taken after analyzing pros and cons.
I would say a good leader brings results. A great leader writes a new story, it's different. Obviously a new story has to incorporate a lot of results. But a story is a chapter in the life of a company that people want to write and want to remember.
Business is tough; you need tough guys.
I mean, when you're a pioneer and you are at the forefront of an offensive, you're going to be the most optimistic person.
As the CEO, I have to take care of the short term, mid term and the long term.
