JMG gone!

[PaulLF1]

I'll do the job for free.

[PaulCP]

It has been said around Hethel, rightly or wrongly, “the only way is the JMG way”

[TBD]

So what does this mean to the roadmap for new cars in 2020?

[Beetleything]

Makes sense that a Chinese company would put their guy in charge.

He speaks their language.

The guys at Hethel better start brushing up on their Mandarin. 

[JayEmm]

I think the departure of JMG is a good thing, he may have made some accounts look nice but I heard very little positive about the guy from the people who dealt with him, and many odd decisions were taken during his tenure (Lotus Motorsport?)

I suspect and hope, knowing nothing at all about his replacement, that he may be a caretaker manager and someone there to keep things going until a suitable, passionate person can be found. 

[Likuid]

I think JMG did what was needed of him. He stabilized the ship. Personally I think this is a good thing. It makes me feel that Geely may be serious about their plans with Lotus. Installing their own guy only makes sense.

[KAS-118]

3 hours ago, Parramint said:

Gales told Autocar that he was leaving for "personal reasons" and that it was "time to move on". He departs his job today and described it as "a very emotional day", adding: "Lotus has been in my heart for 50 years."

 

’in my heart for 50 years’....what a joke, it’s been in his heart for 4 years, every time the cheque hit his account.  Thank goodness someone has closed his toy box, as told to me by a Lotus engineer a few months ago.

 

Lotus was in my heart for over 55 years and he ripped it out after five minutes......

I'm not disagreeing with what you say - but I'd be interested to hear more of why you hold that view?

In my view it was always something that was going to happen when Geeley took over - it will be interesting to see how things evolve 

[MrP_]

He kept them alive and made Lotus desirable to Geely - that was his job. It was never about long term success, that would always be another teams job. 

He may have cared about them, but that was not through a clear product strategy other than driving profit - but as said, that kept them alive until someone with cash came along

[mdavies]

Was his emergency surgery not a pretty obvious process, for any merely competent manager in any field? Stopped the financial blood loss (I understand) but at serious cost to the workforce, production numbers and not least to the enthusiast for the cars - no longer affordable for many. Prices jacked way up and for models not developed far enough to justify them. Some nice titivation perhaps, but for today's prices? My impression is that they are not moving out from the dealers very fast in the UK at least. Perhaps all that could be done in the sad previous situation, but meriting much applause?

 

Edited June 4, 2018 by mdavies
duplicate words

[Stubox]

Must be worth a special ‘Gales’ final edition model

[Suddabym]

Bring back Dany. 

I love Dany. 

Lotus was awesome when Dany was in charge.  There were girls and helicopters and country pads and cool stuff like that.

Who cares about steady ships and lightweight labs and maybe 3 future cars, maybe.  Dany had 5!  Which is more.  And therefore betterer.

And his hair was literally the best of every other automotive CEO.  Even the German ones.  You can’t buy that. 

[blindside]

V. good summary of the pros & cons from Jalopnik: https://jalopnik.com/lotus-ceo-jean-marc-gales-leaves-to-run-a-classic-car-r-1826536753

"So the bar was low for Gales, and it seems that he kept the boat afloat, although his Lotus always seemed too cash strapped to do anything truly new and revolutionary. After all, it’s basically been churning out special editions of the Elise, Exige and Evora for what seems like a millennium".

Let's hope some longer term ambition, product placement and brand building is now firmly on the cards.

[pete]

Looks like he has gone to JDClassics

[internets]

 

 

[Stuart Monument]

4 hours ago, Kimbers said:

Guys, its a reasonable decision by Geely. Many of you bemoaning JMG leaving but it is for the best.

Can you remember why JMG was taken on? If you do you know it was to "steady the ship" in terms of finances, at a time when Dany Blowhard had destroyed any credability Lotus had in terms of Finances. The Company was in a terrible state and only weeks away from Bankruptcy.

So what do you do in these times? You hire a money man. An accountant. who's sole job is to get finances under control.

But what can a "Finance biased" Head of a company not do as well as others? Passion, people, develop new ideas etc etc.

Personally I thank JMG for his steady hand on the tiller but now Lotus needs an innovatve head who can push forward with new Products, investment (rather than cost cutting), development, engineering etc.

I think this is long overdue and praise geely for knowing they need an innovator at the helm. Well done.

 

 

Couldn’t agree more. Spot on 

[scotty435]

4 hours ago, JayEmm said:

I think the departure of JMG is a good thing, he may have made some accounts look nice but I heard very little positive about the guy from the people who dealt with him, and many odd decisions were taken during his tenure (Lotus Motorsport?)

I suspect and hope, knowing nothing at all about his replacement, that he may be a caretaker manager and someone there to keep things going until a suitable, passionate person can be found. 

He did more than a few accounts look nice, the company was about to collapse when he came in and give him some credit, he as done a great job with the recourses at his disposal.

[Frickin_idiot]

2 minutes ago, scotty435 said:

He did more than a few accounts look nice, the company was about to collapse when he came in and give him some credit, he as done a great job with the recourses at his disposal.

Absolutely, and under those circumstances what more could he have done? The company is still here thanks to his stewardship imo, where would Lotus have been had Uncle Danny stayed?

I was looking forward to the new model introduction under the guise of a man with his feet firmly on the ground and someone with an association with the brand.

[PhilT]

This is all very well but where is the TEAM to take the business forward? Its high time these owner companies got their fingers out and started hiring doers instead of CEOs... Aston Martin are building a competency base - our very own Becker, Chris Goodwin from McLaren and a bloke called Newey from some F1 team or other and probably a whole host of others.

TVR have Gordon Murray...a man who says an Elan S3 is the best car he's ever driven.

Does the Lotus equivalent exist? Who is supporting Gavan Kershaw?

With Gavan we need a Rudd, a Wright, a Kimberley, an Ogilvie, a Hickman, a Philippe...above all we need a Chapman.

Lets hope Feng can do it...

[Chillidoggy]

3 hours ago, Suddabym said:

Bring back Dany. 

I love Dany. 

Lotus was awesome when Dany was in charge.  There were girls and helicopters and country pads and cool stuff like that.

Who cares about steady ships and lightweight labs and maybe 3 future cars, maybe.  Dany had 5!  Which is more.  And therefore betterer.

And his hair was literally the best of every other automotive CEO.  Even the German ones.  You can’t buy that. 

Thread winner.

[Bazza 907]

Kimbers is spot on. He did the job he was brought in to do but if you need to grow a business you need a different skill set. Personally I think a few mistakes were made on his watch which stick in my throat rather but looking at the bigger picture we should all thank him for what he achieved.

[JayEmm]

What more could he have done?

Allow the people he employed the time required to do good quality control. Cars were sitting in dealers for six months, it killed no one to spend an extra six hours on them at the factory.

See the bigger picture - eg. Realise his ridiculous cost cuttings lost valuable customers

Give dealers more than ten minutes warning that a new model was coming out

Sell an exhaust you could use on track, to fit those cars you keep telling everyone are the best on track.

Not shut Motorsport

Not shut the academy inexplicably

Have a press fleet in circulation all the time. A real one.

Take the brand to shows, even smaller ones.

Make something good of the Regent Street store they have.

Not fudge sales targets by pretending cars were "sold" just because a dealer had taken them.

Listen to his staff, passionate people who know the brand inside and out, etc...

 

Would I have wanted his job? No.

Was it a difficult job? Absolutely.

Did he do a lot which was unpopular, but necessary? No doubt.

Did he also do a lot which was quite unnecessary? Yes.

Could he have handled a lot of things better? Yes.

Was he the right man for the time? Possibly.

Do i think he was the right man for Lotus' future? No.

 

Andy Palmer gave the first 1000 DB11 owners his mobile number because he cared deeply about the quality of the products his company made. That's a bespoke English car company getting things right.

Jean Marc was a man who changed a bit of leather for a bit of carpet to save £5 on a car he charged £80,000 for.

 

Every time Lotus get a new director it seems like a bit of a gamble. I sincerely hope Geely have their finger on the pulse of Lotus like it seems they did with Volvo and LTC.

My two penneth.

[Barrykearley]

Can’t believe no ones mentions the elephant in the room.

whens the new esprit coming?

[JayEmm]

@Barrykearley that is one element of JMG's "new plan" I sincerely hope will happen.

I suspect the quoted 2020 release date is a little ambitious, but even if it takes an extra 12-24 months, and I know that I'll never be able to afford it, I am very excited to see Lotus playing in that arena again.

[scotty435]

1 hour ago, JayEmm said:

What more could he have done?

Allow the people he employed the time required to do good quality control. Cars were sitting in dealers for six months, it killed no one to spend an extra six hours on them at the factory.

See the bigger picture - eg. Realise his ridiculous cost cuttings lost valuable customers

Give dealers more than ten minutes warning that a new model was coming out

Sell an exhaust you could use on track, to fit those cars you keep telling everyone are the best on track.

Not shut Motorsport

Not shut the academy inexplicably

Have a press fleet in circulation all the time. A real one.

Take the brand to shows, even smaller ones.

Make something good of the Regent Street store they have.

Not fudge sales targets by pretending cars were "sold" just because a dealer had taken them.

Listen to his staff, passionate people who know the brand inside and out, etc...

 

Would I have wanted his job? No.

Was it a difficult job? Absolutely.

Did he do a lot which was unpopular, but necessary? No doubt.

Did he also do a lot which was quite unnecessary? Yes.

Could he have handled a lot of things better? Yes.

Was he the right man for the time? Possibly.

Do i think he was the right man for Lotus' future? No.

 

Andy Palmer gave the first 1000 DB11 owners his mobile number because he cared deeply about the quality of the products his company made. That's a bespoke English car company getting things right.

Jean Marc was a man who changed a bit of leather for a bit of carpet to save £5 on a car he charged £80,000 for.

 

Every time Lotus get a new director it seems like a bit of a gamble. I sincerely hope Geely have their finger on the pulse of Lotus like it seems they did with Volvo and LTC.

My two penneth.

He was the guy that managed to sell the company to Geely, say no more, for someone that makes a living out of the brand, you need to look what he has done and  that is put the company on a footing, what looks like a bright future. 

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

One thing no-one has mentioned. After a quiet start, JMG was regularly giving interviews to the motoring press (often with very little new information to offer!) and raising a debate or two on the internet. That at least gave some free advertising for Lotus. Will this new guy be as forthcoming to the hacks, or will it all go deathly quiet again until a new car appears? My guess is that he won't be as comfortable communicating in English, or be as familiar with the Lotus heritage and brand as JMG. Perhaps this will force Geely to hand over the marketing to a proper department and provide some decent advertising at long last. Either that or they have someone else lined up to take the helm and bring in the new models. My fear is that they might only be interested in bringing the SUV out and selling that in volume in their home market.