Collision Course

Carlos Ghosn and the Culture Wars That Upended an Auto Empire

By: Hans Greimel, William Sposato

Narrated by: Joel Richards

Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's Summary

In Japan, it's called the "Ghosn Shock" - the stunning arrest of Carlos Ghosn, the jet-setting CEO who saved Nissan and made it part of a global automotive empire. Even more shocking was his daring escape from Japan, packed into a box and put on a private jet to Lebanon after months spent in a Japanese detention center, subsisting on rice gruel.

How did it come to this, and why? This is the sprawling story of what led to the Ghosn Shock and what was left in its wake. The book chronicles Ghosn's two decades building a colossal partnership between Nissan and Renault. To the world it looked like a new model for a global business, but the alliance's shiny image fronted an unsteady, tense operation. Culture clashes, infighting among executives and engineers, dueling corporate traditions, and government maneuvering constantly threatened the venture.

Expertly reported, Collision Course explores the complex suspicions around what and who was really responsible for Ghosn's ouster. It explains how economics, history, national interests, legal traditions, and hubris converged on arguably the most important foreign businessman ever to set foot in Japan.

©2021 Hans Greimel, William Sposato (P)2021 Gildan Media

Interesting and a most informative read

The book was an eye-opener for me on Corporate Japan and on Carlos Ghosn. Great!

Great book

I already knew about the business climate in Japan but learned even more after listening to this book. The narrator was effective in conveying the pulse of the story, and it moved like a mystery novel. Highly recommend.

Unsurprising. Boring at times

Thought it was unsurprising. Already knew most of what’s in the book. Sometimes it seemed as if the book could have been shortened because there was a lot of information on non Nissan items

A great overview of the Ghosn saga

I bought "Collision course" because I wanted to learn more about the Carlos Ghosn saga. After finishing the book I learned much more. The book, not only offers details behind the former Nissan CEO story, but also provides, a pretty good overview of how Japanese companies operate and the overall business environment in Japan. It starts with the Ghosn story but also paints the larger story of the Japanese automotive industry.

I would be really hard-pressed to find any faults with "Collision Course". If I was really nitpicking, I would probably say that it feels that the narrator tried a little bit too hard with the Carlos Ghosn accent. It might be weird the first couple of times you listen to it, but after a while it actually contributes to the whole experience. You know that when you listen to the weird accent that it's Carlos Ghosn's direct quotes being read. It's also worth searching on the internet and watching some Carlos Ghosn videos. His accent is actually quite good.

In summary, buy this book if you went to learn more about the Carlos Ghosn story from the moment he joined Nissan to the point he made his escape. It also offers a pretty extensive overview of the stunning inner workings of Nissan, the Japanese justice system and the larger Japanese automotive industry.

Great Story

I thought the authors told a great story. They probably went on too many tangents to ensure the length of the book but the tangents were fascinating so no complaint. My only criticism is the narrator and his Ghosn accent. Best I can tell he was using a middle eastern accent but 2 mins of research and he would learn that he speaks English with a French accent. Terrible effort.

biased story

I was looking for a neutral, factual, detailed story so I can come up with my own conclusions.

Good for setting the context and background

For those familiar with the story there is nothing really new, except background information on Japanese culture to help us perhaps to better understand the story from the Japanese side.

There are a lot of repetitions as if the chapters were assembled afterwards without having been trimmed due to aspects already mentioned in other chapters.

So the book is OK, but not something great or exceptional.

Loved it

Listened in 2 days. Gripping story and I learnt a lot (especially about Japan). The cultural/sociological, business, and legal stuff is fascinating. Even enjoyed learning about automotive industry haha.

Brilliantly presents all the nuances, different points of view, complexity.

The HBR Ideacast 4-part podcast series is superb, too, and worth listening to separately.

4 stars for performance because perfectly fine and not annoying but not exceptional