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Nissan’s Ghosn Describes Talent War

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Carlos Ghosn

The CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, Carlos Ghosn, is respected around the world for what he has done to improve both automakers and bring Nissan back from the brink of bankruptcy. That’s why LinkedIn, the professional networking website, has looked to him for some thoughts on the job market and what companies need to do to get the right people and stay competitive. This week, Mr. Ghosn described the ongoing ‘Global War for Talent’ taking place in the world of technology.

The automotive field has always needed great engineering to help the machines function as well as possible, but cars are growing more and more complicated by the model year. Besides the mechanical features they need to move forward, cars now need computers for infotainment systems, safety features, and upcoming autonomous driving technology. Smart minds and software developers have joined mechanical engineers on the rosters of teams to build a new car.

Ghosn disclosed in his interview that Nissan is looking to hire at least 300 technology experts to form a connected vehicle and mobility services to group, and they want the best of the best from the fields of data analytics, cloud computing, systems architecture, and machine learning. For the first time, this puts Nissan in direct competition with non-automotive companies like Google and Apple when it comes to acquiring fresh minds to work on their cars. That’s even before you consider that both tech giants are launching their own automotive programs for smart cars (even if Apple doesn’t like to talk about it).

The CEO used the LinkedIn post to basically advertise Nissan to prospective developers, striking out at tech-minded automakers like Tesla by saying “Unlike many of our competitors, Renault-Nissan is working toward zero emissions and zero fatalities for mainstream, mass-market consumers at affordable prices. We would never focus our R&D efforts exclusively on six-figure luxury cars for niche markets; you can’t have a meaningful impact if you sell exclusively to the rich. We are the only car group globally whose mantra is “Mobility for All.””

As the weeks and months go on, we will wait and see what notable names Nissan will collect from their competitors in the job market.