How would Ghosn fix GM?

Nissan turnaround whiz Carlos Ghosn wants a chance to fix General Motors too. Here's how he might steer the ailing automotive giant.
Fortune Magazine) -- Carlos Ghosn circumnavigates the planet in his Gulfstream 550 once a month. He typically spends two weeks in Paris, ten days in Tokyo, and what's left of his time in the U.S. and the rest of the world.
But now the Nissan (Charts) and Renault CEO - the first person ever to run two companies on FORTUNE's Global 500 simultaneously - has decided he doesn't have enough places to go.
At the invitation of financier Kirk Kerkorian, Ghosn has proposed an alliance between his two auto companies and General Motors (Charts) that could put him at the helm of the troubled industry giant.
Add Detroit to the flight plan! Putting one man in charge of three companies separated by thousands of miles in an industry as complex and competitive as automobiles is a bizarre prospect and at the moment still an uncertain one.
The boards of Renault and Nissan backed Ghosn and have expressed wary interest in the proposal, under which each would buy 10% of GM's shares. But their support is conditional on GM's management and board endorsing the plan. The current forecast is for a lengthy GM study of the arrangement, with no guarantee of a favorable conclusion. Still, Kerkorian, who owns 9.9% of GM's stock, wants action. He is known to be unhappy with the pace of change under current CEO Rick Wagoner and has been prodding him to do more.
Ghosn is equally impatient. He performed a historic turnaround of Japan's Nissan after taking charge in 1999, embarked on a similar effort with France's Renault a year ago, and has reportedly been considering new strategic options for both companies.
Despite GM's gargantuan problems - it lost $10.6 billion last year - Ghosn would find the challenge of fixing it appealing, particularly if he could benefit Renault and Nissan by doing so. Even if Ghosn doesn't end up in charge at GM, it's useful to contemplate just what the world's most celebrated auto executive might change at the world's largest auto company.
Some of GM's problems, such as its huge health-care and retiree obligations, seem relatively intractable. For the others, a playbook already exists - the history of the Nissan turnaround that Ghosn has taken pains to document. Here%