Even after the alliance, Nissan had more than s11 billion in debt. It was quite literally do or die situation. It was also an extremely delicate situation. In corporate turnarounds, particularly involving alliances, success is not simply a matter of making fundamental changes to a company's organization and operations You also have to protect the company's identity and the self esteem of its people those two goals making changes and safeguarding identity - can easily come into conflict pursuing both entails a difficult and precarious balancing act That was particularly true in this case I was, after all, an outsider, non-Nissan and non-japanese I knew that if had tried simply to impose the changes from the top would have failed