">> On behalf of the entire Stanford community, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us today. I'm delighted to get the chance to, to have this conversation. I'd like to structure the int..."

"As the dean said, Nissan was hemorrhaging money. I believe you, you found later only four of 43 models that sold were profitable, that had lost domestic market share for, for 27 years in a row. 27, 21..."

">> [LAUGH]. >> Well look I think from time to time you have opportunities coming, you are not expecting them. You just have to make a decision, you take them or not. Independently of how much chance o..."

"And this was this huge opportunity. Obviously, it was a complete mess in my own life, professional life, personal life. Because we were, you know, coming back from the Unites States, settling in in Pa..."

">> Can you, can you tell us a little bit about what your first day at Nisan was like? What, what do you do in that situation? >> Well, you gotta be disappointed because, you know, when you arrive the ..."

"Where are the main location, the plant's location of Nissan? What are the main technical centers of Nissan? So I was, during my first, trying to establish just the communications system, and the list ..."

"at the end of the day, everything is about execution. And when it comes to execution, you want people buying in. And people will never buy in as much as, it is our plan, it's our own plan. So from the..."

"say, this is our plan and we're gonna execute it. Maybe the plan would have been better with a consultant. Maybe, it's not sure. But I can't tell you, when it comes to execution, you know, it could no..."

">> So, so can you tell us a little bit about what you did differently or how you, how you, how you helped Renault help itself, or help Nissan help itself? >> Well let me tell you. Let me the, the, no ..."

"Let me give you an example, 50% of the PNL of the car company is purchasing. You know, I mean a Nissan has in 100 and 10 billion dollars sales a year. From the 110 billion dollars sales, you have abou..."

"But, but when you go and you are a foreigner and you're going to Japan, you're going to Japan for one reason, and that's it. It's turning around the company, period. That's what people are expecting f..."

"Put it, put it right. So I knew from the beginning that what was expected from me is, fix it. Fix it. So if, if, when you know you need to fix it, you, you can say, okay, I'm gonna make as many change..."

"I challenge the seniority system by saying, it's not I'm, I'm, I have nothing about people who are 50 or 60 or 70 years old. But I don't want a segregation against younger Japanese people who have a l..."

"So, so what does that mean, and how did you actually, what did you do differently? >> Well, you know the, the five percent yeah, I said, yeah, five percent of the challenge is the strategy and 95% is ..."

"In our industry, at the end of the day, yes, strategy is important. But at the end of the day, the most disciplined organization, the, the organization which gives a lot of importance to processes end..."

"Can you talk about that a little bit? >> Oh, that, that's, I mean, our industry is an industry around the product, and everything starts from there and ends up here. It's, it's, I don't think you can ..."

"So I wanted to start in manufacturing, and frankly, I don't, I don't regret it. But I can tell you some of our top executives both in Renault and Nissan, not all of them, but some of the top executive..."

"There is, there is a solution for it. But it requires lot of choices, personal choices. There are a lot of things you cannot do, you know. There are a lot of things you can do, but you gonna do them w..."

"Took the plane, flew, I am here today. Later I'm going to our, research center, that we have opened in, Silicon Valley in order to make sure that we understand what the startup are doing, particular a..."

"You go through all the elements, and then I'm flying for Paris. I have my schedule for 2014 booked already. That's so we [LAUGH]. Now you can't, I mean, you, you have to accept that. I mean, I know ex..."

">> yeah, but, you know, leadership also depends on the time. I don't think if you're a good leader today, you're gonna be a great leader ten years down the road or 20 years down the road. And I don't ..."

"Are Russians. The second largest group of employees we have is Chinese. The third largest group we have is Japanese, and the fourth is French. And then you continue like this, and you have American, y..."

"Obviously, you have other attribute, but you're asking me some of them. I'm telling you I consider empathy is, is the, probably the most important really. >> And I think you already said this. Would y..."

"That's your goal. So the question now is, when should you make the decision in order to make sure that this thing has changed in the fastest, period of time. So from time to time, you have to wait to ..."

"from niche players into mass market leaders? >> Yeah. Well, you know, I, I considered that, the future of our industry is based mainly from, still with oil, but second with electricity. When I say ele..."

"They're waiting for Chinese carmakers to really master the technology of electric cars in order to hit it. Japan is, is, is putting a lot of incentive. The charging system in Japan is really developin..."

"It's coming because lot of cities, lots of states are investing. Some only in the United States. But France, Japan, China, we are signing an agreement with cities with different cities now. It's comin..."

"A lot of objective reason. The first one is we want zero accident. Any car company would like zero accident. The only way you move to zero accident is autonomous driving, because 95% of accidents happ..."

"I wanna have the impression that I made a difference. No matter how you measure this difference, but the way you measure difference must be important for you. Okay? I think that's what matters all the..."

"imagined by our self, no matter where we're coming from. So I totally agree with you. That's why I think Japanese companies coupled with other companies as long as they know how to make these things h..."

"It happens that you can lose your common common sense. >> In the back row over there. >> Hi. I'm Alex, a second year MBA student. I'm curious to get your view on developing countries boost for a compa..."

"least the level of Portugal, or Spain, if not, if not more. So, when you are in China, in the case of China, at 100, less than 100 car pool [UNKNOWN] inhabitants. And Portugal is at 500. You can imagi..."

"And see all the metrics, which matter for your industry or your area of of interest, but it's not gonna be linear, you're gonna have ups and down, and stabilization and consolidation and then, acc, ac..."

"And the technology in term of battery, motor, inverter, everything is moving very fast. So I don't think we're gonna add too much to it. Everything which is around the charging system still needs, to ..."