Carlos Ghosn Arrest: International Lessons from a Very Japanese Crisis

The recent arrest of Renault Chairman & CEO ,and former Nissan Chairman, Carlos Ghosn, was stunning. In this short video for C-Suite TV and CommunicationsMatch™, Japan-based David Wagner, one of the world's leading crisis communications training consultants, shares takeaways for international businesses and their leaders. 

Ghosn, credited with saving Nissan, has been accused of under-reporting compensation. He was summarily detained in Tokyo. Almost three weeks later, Ghosn and fellow board member Greg Kelly’s side of the story have yet to be told, while details of alleged financial improprieties have been shared with Japanese and international media by Nissan.

The Ghosn affair raises a number of questions for companies doing business in Japan. Since Ghosn and Kelly are not the only business leaders to have been arrested around the world in recent weeks (Meng Wanzhou, CFO of Huawei, was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of fraud involving violations of United States sanctions in Iran), companies and communicators are trying to make sense of it all.

In the video, Wagner shares the importance of understanding the context of the arrest, how Japan is changing, and, although he argues c-suite leaders don't have to be wary of travel to Japan, he notes businesses will be considering how the country fits into their strategic priorities.

Watch the video:

The interview with Wagner, who was in Tokyo, was conducted via Zoom.

Wagner has conducted more than 4,000 media and crisis workshops for over 400 global companies and organizations throughout North America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle-East. He’s coached ambassadors, CEO’s, presidents and billionaires in countries that include Australia, China, Hong Kong, Ireland, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, Scotland, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and Vietnam.

For more information, search for David Wagner at www.communicationsmatch.com

Simon Erskine Locke, Founder & CEO of CommunicationsMatch^TM 

CommunicationsMatch offers communications & PR agency search tools and resources that help companies find, shortlist, and hire communications, digital marketing and branding agencies, consultants and freelancers by industry and communications expertise, location and size.  The site has 5,000 agency and professional profiles in areas including: crisis communications, public relations, internal communications, government affairs, investor relations, content marketing, social media, SEO, website development, photography and video. Prior to founding CommunicationsMatch, Locke held senior corporate communications roles at Prudential Financial, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank and founded communications consultancies.