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A decisive board of directors is held this Thursday morning at Renault. Who to replace CEO Carlos Ghosn incarcerated for two months in Japan? An unlikely lapse at the height of his journey at the head of the alliance with the Japanese manufacturers Nissan and Mitsubishi.
He was the man of superlatives: boss boss, samurai or imperator as the international press called him. He has achieved what few leaders have achieved before him: to unite car manufacturers and make it the first world group, as recalls Flavien Neuvy, director of Cetelem automobile observatory.
" The alliance of two manufacturers is something very complicated and it is true that finally succeed in working together engineers, companies to culture so different - French European culture on one side, Japanese culture of 'other- it's something that was not won in advance ,' he says.
After recovering Nissan in 1999 at the price of 21,000 layoffs, Carlos Ghosn will apply the same method at Renault. In 14 years of reign, the sales of the brand in the diamond pass from two million and a half to 4 million thanks to Dacia, but at what price? Wages down, infernal rates, suicides on the Guyancourt site, the Ghosn method has a disastrous human cost as recalled Fabien Gache, CGT delegate to Renault.
" It's the man of regression. Since 2005, the Renault group in France has lost 22,000 employees, this is the increase in working time. Carlos Ghosn will have cut in the heart, "says the trade unionist.
A report also tarnished by the case of spies and its governance without sharing. Renault at the foot of the wall finds him this Thursday a successor at the head of a French manufacturer shaken by the case Carlos Ghosn .
► Carlos Ghosn case: what is said in Davos
Carlos Ghosn is a little the boss of globalization, a regular at the World Economic Forum in Davos (WEF) where his peers are very divided on what happens to him. Reportage.
With our special correspondent in Davos , Mounia Daoudi
" If Davos was a person, she would be called Carlos Ghosn ." A provocative title in 2017 from the Bloomberg agency, but which says a lot about what symbolized the boss of Renault.
So necessarily this year, Khalid Abdullah Jahani, a financier of the Gulf who knows him well can only regret what happens to him:
" It's a great absentee, no doubt. It's sad. I think it was a shock for all of us. Knowing him, he will defend himself by all means. Let's just hope it does not affect his health, "he says.
Bjorn Johansson is a regular in Davos, a connoisseur of the world of business, he heads a recruitment firm. The Ghosn Affair is emblematic for him.
" It shows how fast things can go. We are at the top and in no time we end up in jail. But he did a lot of good things. He should also be judged for that. Maybe he was wrong. We are all human beings. But some are more greedy than others, "he says.
The American Patrick Conway shows himself, without concession: " I certainly do not know all the details . But it's important to have ethics and integrity in business, he says . I worked for 10 years for the US government. Then I became a big boss in the private sector. And I think that integrity and honesty are important in both the private and public sectors. "
One thing is certain, the Ghosn case will leave traces.
► (Re) read: A new application for bail of Carlos Ghosn rejected
► (Re) read: Presidency of Renault: who to replace Carlos Ghosn?