In an ideal world there are no failures, there are no disappointments, there are no problems to overcome. But we know there is no ideal world. We have to take the rough with the smooth, the ups with the downs and the good with the bad. In order to succeed, you have to have tasted defeat. The Actor and Director Lee Strasberg once said: "You learn the most by your failures." Strasberg, considered 'the father of method acting in America' certainly knew what it was to take the good with the bad - he was born, the youngest of three sons, in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Ukraine) to Jewish parents, but his father emigrated to New York in search of a better life for his family, and eventually sent for, first, his oldest son and daughter, then saved enough money to bring over his wife and two youngest sons. The young Strasberg was very close to his oldest brother Zalmon, but tragedy struck when he became a victim of the 1918 influenza epidemic and young Lee literally went to pieces. He rose out of this and became involved with the theatre and from thence, his star went into the ascendance as he slowly turned his life around. Ok, you may ask why I, a mere journalist with a more than passing interest in motorsports, especially F1, should be talking about a man who left this world way back in 1982. It's simply because there are people in the world today who have lost much, suffered a lot and then risen like the proverbial Phoenix to become admired and, indeed, revered in their chosen fields. Just like Lee Strasberg. Strasberg also wrote 'At the studio, we do not sit around and feed each other's egos.' And this admission is one of the reasons I have been drawn to watching the progress of Dany Bahar, CEO of Lotus Group, who has, like Strasberg, risen from a humble background to be greatly admired and perhaps even revered in the world of motorsports' marketing today. The young - in relative terms anyway as he is not yet 40 - Bahar has run a parallel course to Strasberg. Born in Turkey and into a humble background, he grew up in Switzerland when his parents moved there in search of a better life. He's tasted success and suffered the odd disappointment but such experiences have just driven him further and better. He once said to me: "You need to experience failure in order to succeed. You learn very little when everything is going perfectly." To an outside observer, it may seem as if Bahar has done little else but have a charmed life: that everything he has touched, has turned to gold. But this hasn't always been the case as he has risen from virtually nowhere to become a respected and admired player in his chosen field of marketing. Along the way, he has gathered a mixed-bag of critics and supporters. Of the latter, Stefano Domenicali, head of Ferrari's F1 team was quoted in a recent Sunday national newspaper as saying "Dany is an entrepreneur - and he's got what he wants." The latter part of that statement referring to the fact that Bahar has been given a near carte-blanche in terms of support and funding to revive the ailing Lotus brand and return it to its former glory. Bahar - whose pedigree of success stories includes launching Red Bull as an iconic product onto the world stage and turning the fortunes of Ferrari's marketing concepts into 'must have' merchandise and F1 acclaim - has worked through the ranks from literally nowhere to somewhere. Whatever he turns his hand to, he vehemently believes and protects his 'baby'. Lotus just happens to be his current baby and he is determined to prove to the world that the brand has the ingredients to make it big again - there's heritage, expertise and cult following a-plenty associated with the brand. And Bahar has the vision to make it big again. He's proven that he has the mettle to argue the toss - to persuade Proton, the marque's owners that their investment in Lotus is both viable and necessary. He's courted controversy along the way though, since he took over the helm at Group Lotus some 21 months ago and he knows there are observers waiting for his bubble to burst. But he is philosophical: "You see a person's true colours, strengths and weaknesses when things don't go to plan and that's sometimes when people perform the best," he told me recently. He was referring of course, to the fact that he's changed the original blueprint for the revival of Group Lotus - the concept of launching five cars in less than five years - and has concentrated his efforts away from what was to be his new launch model, the new-look Elan, and concentrated instead on giving the sporty Evora priority on the production line. "I learn from nearly everything I do and I'm striving to do better," he told me. And that stretches right back to his grass roots when, like Strasberg, he was determined to fight hard to make not a name for himself, but a name for the product he was handling at the time. To date at Group Lotus, Bahar has pulled from his past to create a future which will embrace the brand and turn it back to the glories of its past. Since the gifted engineer, Colin Chapman introduced the Lotus brand in 1952, there has not been such a passion for the brand. That's not saying that previous incumbents of the MD desk at Lotus have not been dedicated - it's just the fact that Bahar possesses that certain something which does not allow the ego to go to his head... he'd rather allow others to take the kudos while he waits in the wings and plans his next manoeuvre for the revival of an iconic brand. It's like a scene from a play which gut feeling tells you, will have a happy ending...
Related Articles -
dany bahar, lee strasberg, group lotus, success, failure, motorsports,
|