On October 30, President & CEO of Renault/Nissan Alliance Carlos Ghosn visited Tsinghua SEM and delivered a speech titled “Challenges and Opportunities in the Light of the Crisis”.

Friday’s lecture was the second speech delivered by Mr. Ghosn at Tsinghua SEM. Before the speech, Dean QIAN Yingyi, Senior Associate Dean YANG Bin met with Mr. Ghosn and presented him a gift on behalf of the School.

Mr. Ghosn introduced to the audience about the Renault-Nissan Alliance, current situation of automotive industry as well as challenges facing the two companies after financial crisis. In Q&A session, Mr. Ghosn talked about the value of “diversity” in particular, as Renault/Nissan has benefited a lot from the advantages brought by diversity. “Diversity can be the source of wealth, the source of innovation”, said Mr. Ghosn, and he especially emphasized on the value of diversity in the long run. When asked if there were challenges brought by taking charge of two large multi-national companies, Mr. Ghosn put emphasis on the importance of connecting with people, “You go to Japan, you go to Russia, you need to connect with people with different age, different background; they are your friends, your resources.” As for the leadership in the light of crisis, Mr. Ghosn said the first element is “to be in control of yourself.” And a leader also needs to make right diagnosis, take immediate action, and associate with the management team. Carlos Ghosn also said in his speech that in the future the company will pay attention to the emerging market in the developing countries such as China, India and Brazil, and the company will also make efforts in technological innovation to meet with the challenges brought by oil issue and global warming. Carlos Ghosn is the President and CEO of Nissan Motor Co. Ltd, a global automotive company with more than 200,000 employees and $ 98 billion in revenue. Mr. Ghosn joined the company as its Chief Operating Officer in June 1999, became its President in June 2000 and was named CEO in June 2001. In May 2005, Mr. Ghosn was named President and CEO of Renault S.A. in addition to its current responsibilities at Nissan. As head of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, Mr. Ghosn is responsible for two separate companies with combined annual global sales of 6.2 million vehicles.