On his recent trip to Lebanon, Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault and Nissan addressed a group of Executive MBA students at the American University of Beirut (AUB). Ghosn who is credited for revamping the Japanese heavy-weight car maker has been spending much of his time between Europe, the USA and Japan. Executive managed to talk to the international business figure. From your early years at Nissan, you’ve been dubbed by many as a cost killer, how much has this particular skill been put to work at Renault? In 1999 and after a decade of decline, Nissan, with a $20 billion debt, was on the verge of bankruptcy. It was therefore urgent to cut down costs and I had to make some difficult decisions, that no one had the courage to make before. The situation was very different from when I took over Renault. The company had a sound balance sheet
