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With apologies to playwright John Osborne for using the title of his 1956 play as inspiration for this perspective on aspects of life, I wonder what allows people to get angry? Certainly, when the press release for the opening in London of Look Back in Anger called the author - i.e. Osborne - 'an angry young man', it became a phrase, which was to represent a new movement in 1950's British theatre. We all have a certain anger bubbling up in us - but to look back on something with such a level of emotion is not really a pleasant trait. There is certainly a lot of high emotion going on around Hethel - the famous home of Group Lotus - at the moment where, as you know, there is uncertainty about the future of the iconic car manufacturer. Just when everything was going so well for the renaissance of one of Britain's greatest marques, Proton, Group Lotus's Malaysian mother company got sold off to a large industrial conglomerate and suddenly there is huge speculation from all facets of the press. Rumours abounded that the Chinese were interested in buying. But probably that's arisen as supposition from those who are clutching at straws to produce a good story. The fact is, there has been a lot of liaison between Group Lotus and the Chinese in recent months, backed by the fact that a special China edition of the Evora GTE was launched just a few days ago at the Beijing International Motor Show. With only 118 cars being produced of the specially adapted GTE to make it suitable for Chinese roads, this limited edition shows the great potential of China as a market for Group Lotus. Indeed, when I was talking recently with Dany Bahar, CEO of Group Lotus, he told me that China is a potentially a strong market for sports car brands in general and the country is a vital part of Lotus's five-year revival plan. Bahar was in Beijing for the motor show and stood alongside Lichen Zhang the president and chief executive of Lotus China when the announcement of the new GTE was made and a prototype displayed. The car went down very well with the Chinese elite - as did the Evora IPS. In wider terms, more than half of Lotus's orders are actually coming from Asia and there has been strong demand for the regular Evora GTE since it was launched at last year's Frankfurt motor show. However, the Beijing show happened at a time when Bahar might well have wanted to crawl under a huge stone to escape all the rumour-mongering going on around him as the future for Hethel hangs in the air. One might query if Bahar's perhaps doing some 'looking back in anger' as he deliberates whether his move from Ferrari to Lotus was indeed a good one...? He's taken his fair share of bad press since he joined Group Lotus - the motoring media have had their knives out for him, for sure. The two main reasons for this have been because Dany Bahar comes from a highly successful marketing background and not an engineering one and of course it's his age - he's still the youngest CEO in the UK's automobile industry. So, theoretically, it's envy at the root of his unforgiving media comments. But he rises above it all and keeps his usual cool - which was very apparent in Beijing. Definitely a brave man. With the instability in his professional life, the fact he's fighting to keep Group Lotus in Hethel and the obvious concern about funding during this current crisis where Group Lotus is wallowing in a wilderness of nowhere, he could be forgiven for wondering if he made the right move. He could be forgiven if he looks back in anger at the way he has been treated by the media, the way he has had to fight a long fight since January for the Group Lotus name, the way he has had to keep the current shareholders happy, not to mention his dedicated 1,200 staff in Hethel. On top of it all, he's been well aware that the current situation is now raising its head in the UK parliament with even the British Prime Minister himself discussing the future of the Hethel plant with his Malaysian counterpart during a Far Eastern tour just days ago. But Bahar is made of sterner things! We were discussing emotions in business not that long ago and I actually asked him if he has felt despondency since the surprise sell-off of Proton at the beginning of this year. He looked me in the eye and said: "I'm not a bitter person - life's too short. If something doesn't work out the way I want it then, once I'm past the frustration, I try and learn from it." It's funny how his words came back to me this week as I was writing this. Dany Bahar is not looking back in anger - he's worked tirelessly, clocked up hundreds of miles and kept the public image of Group Lotus in the spotlight while the deliberations have been going on behind the scenes with regards to what's happening with Colin Chapman's 'baby'. "I get more angry with myself if I allow someone to take advantage or, if I find myself making the same mistake twice - but I think that's very natural," Bahar went on to say. And he's made no 'mistake' in this current situation which, hopefully, will be resolved very soon. Bahar also told me that he's pretty good at taking a step back from a situation and thinking rationally... "...and then I move on," he confided, with his customary boyish smile. That he's totally committed to Hethel and in securing a future for the firm and its workers, there is no doubt. He's spent many a sleepless night pondering and running various scenarios through his mind and countless hours talking to people at the highest level. Where lesser men may have thrown down the gauntlet by now, he's still fighting from the front. And, of course, he's had a few 'good time' moments too - watching his two, star, F1 drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean in a double podium joy in Bahrain on April 22 was certainly one of them. The pride that surged through Dany Bahar's veins as the Lotus name returned to Formula One for the first time in years was undeniable. Indeed, who knows what might happen when the European leg of the Barcelona Grand Prix hits the road on May 13? That apart and again with respect to Osborne the playwright, he may have been an angry young man, but Bahar isn't looking back yet - he has too much on his plate to even consider such emotions!
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