Law 28: Big Lessons from Carlos Ghosn

Law 28 of the 48 laws of power by Robert Greene entails the importance of entering into actions with boldness. The law reads:

If you are unsure of a course of action, do not attempt it. Your doubts and hesitations will infect your execution. Timidity is dangerous: Better to enter with boldness. Any mistakes you commit through audacity are easily corrected with more audacity.

Robert Greene espoused his proposition with a somewhat radical thought by Niccolo Machiavelli, adapted from the latter’s book, the Prince, which superimposes impetuousness over cautiousness. According to Machiavelli, it is better to be impetuous than to be cautious because fortune is a woman that would rather be attracted to the impetuousness of the bold than the cautiousness of the cold and timid.

Observers of the law radiate power as they hypnotize their opposition or people into their biddings. The transgressor is often ensnared into traps set by people secretly unsettled by his overbearingness. In the corporate setting, the bold manifest agile leadership and ruthless pragmatistm.

Ghosn characterizes both the observation and transgression of the 28th law of power.

Who is this man?

Carlos Ghosn is a Lebanese and Brazilian-born business tycoon and renowned CEO of three fortune five hundred companies, a very rare thing to find in the top 10 percent of the word’s CEOs. His is an interesting story.

With ruthless pragmatism and grace, Carlos grew his profile in the automobile industry, spanning North America, France and Japan. He started his career at Mitchelin, where he worked as Chief Operating Officer for eight years before he moved to Renault. At Renault, Goshn served as the deputy president and he was able to turn the company around from near-bankruptcy by implementing an elaborate two-years plan that helped to cut costs, reduce the workforce, and revised production processes and business models.

Due to his ability to keep an impressive book, Ghosn was named the cost killer aka “Le Cost Killer”. In the early 2000s, he earned the nickname “Mr Fix it”for orchestrating one of the auto industry’s most aggressive downsizing campaigns and spearheading the turnaround of Nissan from its near-bankruptcy in 1999.

Following the Nissan financial turnaround, in 2002 Fortune awarded him Asia Businessman of the Year. In 2003 Fortune identified him as one of the 10 most powerful people in business outside the U.S., and its Asian edition voted him Man of the Year. Surveys jointly published by the Financial Times and PwC named him the fourth most respected business leader in 2003, and the third most respected business leader in 2004 and in 2005. He quickly achieved celebrity status in Japan and in the business world and his life has been chronicled in Japanese Comics.

During the financial crisis of 2008, when many brands found themselves out of business, Carlos managed to keep the businesses that he managed above the waters, although he did not achieve this without stepping on some people’s toes. Crushing opposition and moving with compelling force was what Ghosn did very comfortably.

The Lebanese CEO may have been able to beat the economic forces and the market competition around him but his career and freedom were brought to a halt by some disgruntled co-workers.

He was accused to have underreported his earnings, and involved in other financial misdemeanors. Then he was arrested by the Tokyo Police but later released on bail. With the assistance of a friend, Ghosn defied the bail terms and orchestrated his own escape from Japan.

Hidden in a box in the cargo of the aircraft that was arranged for his escape, the cost killer fled Japan for asylum in Beruit. He claimed he would never get justice in Japan where he had built much of his reputation.

Some of his adversaries admitted to this: he was a fine executive but he was enriching himself while many of them around him were being underappreciated.

You can watch the documentary of the exploit travails of Carlos Ghosn here: