Media reviews

Fly high but stay grounded - Management Today June 2007

Leighton's lessons from a portfolio career spanning Mars, Asda, Royal Mail and many other firms are a great resource for leaders in the making, says Paul Walsh (Chief Executive of Diageo)

Allan Leighton is one of the most innovative and successful business leaders of the current generation. His career has had three distinctive phases. First, he rose from management trainee to become group marketing director of Mars. Then he spent nearly a decade working with Sir Archie Norman, leading the transformation of Asda from a 'basket Case' (his words), into a business that became a by-word for turnaround, and a must-have acquisition for Wal-Mart. In recent years, he has established the concept of 'going plural' working with lastminute.com, BSkyB and Royal Mail.

This is rich experience and it shapes his thinking to form the bedrock of his book On Leadership. This is a series of highly personal reflections on what it is to be a leader in today's business world. Interwoven are the thoughts of many of today's other business leaders. These include former Asda Colleagues - such as Richard Baker, Andy Hornby and Justin King - who have gone on to lead other major retail organisations, and others like Sir Philip Green, Rupert Murdoch and Adam Crozier, with whom Leighton has worked in his more recent varied career.

Not suprisingly, the book majors on the aspects of leadership that most informed the challenges its author has faced. So, from Asda and Royal Mail, there is much on business turnaround. From lastminute.com and Dyson there is a masterclass on being a successful entrepreneur. And, from a variety of sources, there's sound advice on topics as varied as 'Talking to the Media', 'Talking to the Moneymen' and 'Business vs Politics'.

There are some outstandingly good stories. Some are funny, some piquant and almost all very pungently illustrate the points Leighton is seeking to make. One of the best comes early on. The young Leighton is in his first assignment on the Mars graduate programme. He is sent as production manager on the Maltesers line with the single piece of advice to 'listen to what the chargehand tells you'. The first job is to sweep up the Maltesers that have fallen from the line. After three hours sweeping up the little chocolate balls as they roll around the floor, Leighton is dispirited and his watching colleagues bemused. Eventually the chargehand puts him out of his misery. He tells him he must tread on the Maltesers before he tries to sweep them up. It is an object lesson in understanding that those closest to the work usually know the best way to undertake it, a theme to which the book returns again and again. Leadership is based on getting as close as possible to those doing the work. It's vital to 'stay grounded', to discover what's going on before moving decisively to action. As Leighton reminds us, 'the weakness of some leaders is that they are more advocates than enquirers'.

Yet he also makes clear that it is absolutely vital to create excellent two-way communication. It's crucial to talk with your colleagues rather than present to them, as demonstrated by a chilling account of his first presentation to the Mars brothers. Above all, Leighton seeks to demystify the leadership process, but also to underline that it requires24x7 attention to detail.

The book will be of most immediate use to those seeking to lead for the first time or starting a business from scratch. It is powerful on the character of successful enterprises, and it is very clear that Leighton regards entrepreneurs such as Clive Jacobs, Martha Lane Fox and Sir James Dyson as the real heroes of today's business world.

If it has a weakness, it is that On Leadership addresses the concerns of those seeking to lead in large organisations mostly from the perspective of the people at the top and then, predominantly, from the retail sector. The voices of those who offer great leadership across different levels in big businesses are heard only at second hand. I'm sure Leighton wouldn't argue that these unsung champions are any less important than their more famous senior colleagues, but the book's form tends to elevate the insights of more celebrated contributors.

But this is a minor gripe. On Leadership is immensely readable. It will provide a welcome resource for those wanting to tell others stories about leadership and for those who want to relate their own experience to the collected wisdom of many of today's brightest business leaders. They will find much about which to be optimistic, and a lot of realism.

They might also want to reflect on the words of Tesco's Sir Terry Leahy, arguably an even more successful retailer than Leighton himself: 'Most businesses rise and all businesses fall. As long as you are aware of that, you can concentrate on making the gap between the rise and the fall as long as possible.'

Practical Wisdom - World Business June 2007

The saviour of the Royal Mail says it is what you learn after you know everything that counts

There comes a time in any long and illustrious business career when a leader strikes on the notion of enshrining their lessons of leadership in print; what is so compelling about Allan Leighton's book On Leadership is that you believe he might actually have something to teach. History would certainly seem to report this view - Leighton was appointed by Tony Blair back in 2002 to turn around the Royal Mail, which was haemorrhaging money and reputation on the back of staff discontent and poor management. Today Royal Mail is enjoying a renaissance that few believed possible.

Leighton is on the board of a number of companies and is respected for his forthright, no-nonsense approach: here we meet the author in all his glory - the maverick with a conscience. He takes us on a breakneck tour of the hot topics of business in 2007 - communication, how to be entrepreneurial, the brand, day-to-day fire fighting, plus the relationship of leaders with the media, with politicians and with private equity. To illustrate these topics, each chapter is shot through with interviews and soundbites from the 60 leaders Leighton has interviewed. There are top journalists and financiers, and a roll-call of well-known names from Rupert Murdoch of News Corporation to Charles Dunstone of Carphone Warehouse; from Gulam Noon at Noon Foods to Martin Sorrell of WPP. Henry Kravis of KKR tells us: "Leading by fear is a disaster", while Sir Philip Green's leadership lessons include: "absolute focus" and "don't complicate things".

These are not searching interviews - Leighton believes the first 20minutes of any meeting are the most fruitful, so he has talked to each leader for just 20mins on what it takes to be a great business leader. This works because the contributors of the book are, by and large, impressive and interesting, and the book barrels along at such pace, with such enthusiasm, that we are breathlessly carried along.

It also works because the various talking heads are extremely frank with Leighton, which can make for some uncomfortable reading. The experience of Clive Jacobs of Holiday Autos, who appeared in a fly-on-the-wall documentary and came to be known as "the most loathsome man on television", is a salutary reminder of the care needed when dealing with the media. "I was poisoned by it ," says Jacobs, "and my people were upset because they were very proud of the place where they worked. Given my time again, I would never agree to it."

When the comments deviate from personal anecdotes and examples to general leadership speak, it feels a bit incidental and is quickly forgotten. The book soars when the big leadership lessons are matched by the colour of the anecdotes, and invariably this happens when Leighton is telling us his own stories - he isn't afraid to highlight his own mistakes and then draw the lessons from them, which makes him enormously likeable. There is a story about his early days at Mars, spent on the Maltesers production line in Slough. His job is to sweep up the stray Maltesers that fall off the conveyer belt. He spends three hours chasing the little balls of chocolate around the floor with his broom (watched by curious co-workers) until finally the foreman intervenes - step on the maltesers before sweeping them up. I thought the story summed up beautifully the importance of communication.

On Leadership is a profoundly hopeful read - informed by the palpable joy that Leighton feels in inspiring and leading others. He admits that a "recurrent if not obsessive theme" throughout the book is the building of relationships. Each leader emphasises the need to listen and learn from those around you at every step of your career. As we say in my business, follow your biological set up: two ears and one mouth means listen twice as much as you talk.

This is not the book for the young executive who wants a paint-by-numbers guide to becoming Allan Leighton, but it brings home the power of instinct and guts - a valuable reminder in today's increasingly regulated world. Leighton writes that "customer service comes from the heart not from a text book". I think this book tells us that leadership is the same - it is what you learn after everything that counts.