More B******t:Telegraph talk: Allan Leighton reveals all

[Stormproof]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.j ... iew125.xml

Viewpoint
By Mike Southon
Last Updated: 12:15am BST 25/09/2007



Making life fun may just be the way to deliver success at Royal Mail

"Sometimes doing the right thing is the hard thing. Leadership isn't a popularity contest." Tough words indeed and you have to sympathise. I'm talking to Allan Leighton, chairman of Royal Mail.

Telegraph talk: Allan Leighton reveals all
He's certainly taken on a classic leadership challenge, judging by the current industrial action and widespread public concerns over Post Office closures.

He has just written a book on leadership*, a compendium of advice from Allan and some of his chums, including Rupert Murdoch, Sir Philip Green and James Dyson. "I've read lots of books on management and leadership and found more and more of them are being written by people who've never managed or lead anything. You think "that's difficult" when actually in my experience it's all common sense," he says.

He's also a great believer in simplicity: "I've always felt if you can't say anything in 20 minutes then the chances of anybody being able to get it is impossible."

Allan Leighton is clearly not a fan of the academic approach to business, given his 18-year apprenticeship at US food group Mars. He was first attracted to the job by the promise of a car and a belief in his ability to sell Mars Bars. They sent him around the world, changing his job every three years.

Then ASDA came knocking and the rest, as they say, is history. One successful turnaround and sale to Wal-Mart later he turned plural, ending up on the board of eight companies, including what was then Consignia.

One of his first actions was to change the name back to the Royal Mail, for the most traditional of reasons: "I am very patriotic and proud to be British and here is something that has been around for 200 years. Not many things have 'Royal' attached; it's part of the country. Every day one of our people walks down somebody's path and puts a letter through the door - there is a great deal of heritage."

"So I did it for three or four months and just sort of fell in love with it, which seems odd as we were in middle of a national strike. The business was financially in a very bad shape. The whole market was about to be opened up to competition and the business was regulated. It could have gone seriously wrong, but I thought well, here is another thing to turn around."

"There is a lot of change and change is difficult for people to stomach sometimes. But the whole leadership thing is about doing the right thing and you can't kid yourself.

"We are trying to create something that is really sustainable in five years' time. I keep saying to people that I am not bothered about where we are in five minutes or five weeks or five months, but where we are in five years because that's what my job is, to create something that's sustainable over time. And unless we change, we will be much more challenged than we are today."

What really struck me about talking to Allan Leighton was his clear sense of purpose. He tells me: "You have to be very focused; whenever I talk about focus, I use the word 'unrelenting'.

You have to be a very good listener; it is very important to understand how people think about things, even if they think differently to you. And the third thing is very important, to keep everything very simple. If you just do those three things, then life is a breeze for everybody."

His conversation also always came back to his people: choosing the right team, communicating his instructions clearly, and then making sure they are engaged in the process by making the whole experience fun.

He is clearly interesting to work for and happy to try almost anything, on the understanding that if 50pc of the ideas work, then this represents success. He appears to genuinely support a no-blame culture. If stuff doesn't work, no problem, he'll try something else.

And like all successful business leaders, Allan is clearly very driven, with strong instincts for what will work - instincts that you hone the hard way, from the school of hard knocks, not from an academic journal.

He's undoubtedly fun to work for - go online and listen for his story about the sumo wrestling suits. I'm sure he is also a hard task-master, but generous in his praise when things finally work out.

* On Leadership - Practical Wisdom from the People That Know", Random House Business Books

[Carla]

Fun to work for now that is bullshit and as for him to say he listen god that even more and bigger bullshit keep taking the tablets allan when you wake up the world will come crashing down more B*******T :lfo

[Stormproof]

You have to be a very good listener

making the whole experience fun.

If stuff doesn't work, no problem, he'll try something else.

He's undoubtedly fun to work for

[Carla]

Does anyone have a spare hearing aid for big AL and dozier crozier maybe they might just be able to hear us this is mork calling orson come in orson nanu nanu

[frankie]

[axeman]

so he'd worked here a little over a week (in total) and decided to change the name ............good move now he has worked for us a few months (intotal) he wishes to impose this little lot well big al :lfo :lfo and the same to your sidekick :cfo :cfo

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.j ... iew125.xml

Highlight contentious parts in Red,

Making life fun may just be the way to deliver success at Royal Mail

"Sometimes doing the right thing is the hard thing. Leadership isn't a popularity contest." Tough words indeed and you have to sympathise. I'm talking to Allan Leighton, chairman of Royal Mail.

He's certainly taken on a classic leadership challenge, judging by the current industrial action and widespread public concerns over Post Office closures.

He has just written a book on leadership*, a compendium of advice from Allan and some of his chums, including Rupert Murdoch, Sir Philip Green and James Dyson. "I've read lots of books on management and leadership and found more and more of them are being written by people who've never managed or lead anything. You think "that's difficult" when actually in my experience it's all common sense," he says.

He's also a great believer in simplicity: "I've always felt if you can't say anything in 20 minutes then the chances of anybody being able to get it is impossible."

Allan Leighton is clearly not a fan of the academic approach to business, given his 18-year apprenticeship at US food group Mars. He was first attracted to the job by the promise of a car and a belief in his ability to sell Mars Bars. They sent him around the world, changing his job every three years.

Then ASDA came knocking and the rest, as they say, is history. One successful turnaround and sale to Wal-Mart later he turned plural, ending up on the board of eight companies, including what was then Consignia.

One of his first actions was to change the name back to the Royal Mail, for the most traditional of reasons: "I am very patriotic and proud to be British and here is something that has been around for 200 years. Not many things have 'Royal' attached; it's part of the country. Every day one of our people walks down somebody's path and puts a letter through the door - there is a great deal of heritage."

"So I did it for three or four months and just sort of fell in love with it, which seems odd as we were in middle of a national strike. The business was financially in a very bad shape. The whole market was about to be opened up to competition and the business was regulated. It could have gone seriously wrong, but I thought well, here is another thing to turn around."

"There is a lot of change and change is difficult for people to stomach sometimes. But the whole leadership thing is about doing the right thing and you can't kid yourself.

"We are trying to create something that is really sustainable in five years' time. I keep saying to people that I am not bothered about where we are in five minutes or five weeks or five months, but where we are in five years because that's what my job is, to create something that's sustainable over time. And unless we change, we will be much more challenged than we are today."

What really struck me about talking to Allan Leighton was his clear sense of purpose. He tells me: "You have to be very focused; whenever I talk about focus, I use the word 'unrelenting'.

You have to be a very good listener; it is very important to understand how people think about things, even if they think differently to you. And the third thing is very important, to keep everything very simple. If you just do those three things, then life is a breeze for everybody."

His conversation also always came back to his people: choosing the right team, communicating his instructions clearly, and then making sure they are engaged in the process by making the whole experience fun.

He is clearly interesting to work for and happy to try almost anything, on the understanding that if 50pc of the ideas work, then this represents success. He appears to genuinely support a no-blame culture. If stuff doesn't work, no problem, he'll try something else.

And like all successful business leaders, Allan is clearly very driven, with strong instincts for what will work - instincts that you hone the hard way, from the school of hard knocks, not from an academic journal.

He's undoubtedly fun to work for - go online and listen for his story about the sumo wrestling suits. I'm sure he is also a hard task-master, but generous in his praise when things finally work out.

1. Royal Mail has been round in various form since either 1516 or 1654 depending on how you define it both definitions are longer than 200 years.

[frankie]

[norbet colon]

Christ! He doesn't half talk a good job doesn't he ? Endless self promotion - The Emperor's new clothes !

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Sure Frankie here is time line of UKs Postal Service:

1516: Royal Mail established by Henry VIII under Master of the Posts. Sir Brian Tuke was the first person to hole this position.

1635: Royal Mail service made available to the public by Charles I.

1654: Oliver Cromwell grants monopoly in England to "Office of Postage".

1657: Fixed postal rates introduced.

1660: General Post Office (GPO) officially established by Charles II.

1661: First use of date stamp. First Postmaster General appointed.

1784: First mail coach (between Bristol and London).

1793: First uniformed delivery staff. Post Office Investigation Branch formed, the oldest recognised criminal investigations authority in the world.

1830: First mail train (on Liverpool and Manchester Railway).

1840: First adhesive stamp (the Penny Black).

1852: First Post Office pillar box erected in Jersey.

1853: First post boxes erected in mainland Britain.

1857: First wall boxes installed Shrewsbury and Market Drayton

1870: Post Office begins telegraph service.

1870: Post Office Act banned sending of `indecent or obscene` literature

1880: First use of bicycles to deliver mail.

1881: Postal order introduced.

1883: Parcel post begins.

1894: First picture postcards.

1912: Post Office opens national telephone service.

1919: First international air mail service.

1968: Two-class postal system introduced. National Giro bank opens.

1969: General Post Office changes from government department to nationalised industry.

1974: Postcodes extended over all UK.

1981: Telecommunications services split out as British Telecom. Remainder renamed as "Post Office".

1986: Separated businesses of delivering letters, delivering parcels and operating post offices.

1990: Girobank sold to the Alliance & Leicester Building Society.

1990: Royal Mail Parcels re-branded as Parcelforce.

2004: Reduction of deliveries to once daily. Travelling post office ("Mail Trains") end. SmartStamp is introduced.

2005: Mail Trains re-introduced on some lines.

2006: Royal Mail loses its monopoly when the regulator, PostComm, opens up the Postal Market 3 years ahead of the rest of Europe.[2] Also introduces Pricing in Proportion (PiP) for first and second class inland mail.

2006: On-line postage allows Royal Mail customers to pay for postage on the web, without the need to buy traditional stamps.

2007: Royal Mail Group PLC becomes Royal Mail Group Ltd in a slight change of legal status.

[manc_daddy]

Why does alan leighton sit on the board of tnt and has shares in our biggest competitor?

[somerset]

Why does alan leighton sit on the board of tnt and has shares in our biggest competitor?

I keep reading stuff like this but can someone prove it please?Also a list of the other companies him and his wife have on board? I would love to shove that at the DOM when we have a wtl

[POSTMAN]

Topics merged.

[somerset]

Why does alan leighton sit on the board of tnt and has shares in our biggest competitor?

I keep reading stuff like this but can someone prove it please?Also a list of the other companies him and his wife have on board? I would love to shove that at the DOM when we have a wtl

Still no answer Surely someone must know?

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Why does alan leighton sit on the board of tnt and has shares in our biggest competitor?

I keep reading stuff like this but can someone prove it please?Also a list of the other companies him and his wife have on board? I would love to shove that at the DOM when we have a wtl

http://www.speakers.co.uk/csaWeb/speaker,1884

Allan Leighton
Entrepreneurial Businessman




Allan Leighton is a highly successful entrepreneurial businessman.

He is currently Chairman of Royal Mail Group, Bhs Ltd and Race for Opportunity. He is also Deputy Chairman of Selfridges & Co; BskyB Group plc and George Weston Ltd.

"Half the risk is in the execution." Allan Leighton

In detail

Allan's career stared in 1974 as a salesman for Mars Confectionery. He worked his way up through the company before leaving in 1991. He then joined Pedigree Petfoods, where he was Sales Director until his appointment in 1992 to Asda Stores Ltd. He began his career in Asda as Group Marketing Director and was appointed Chief Executive in September 1996. In November 1999 when the American company Wal-Mart bought Asda, Allan became the President and CEO of Wal-Mart Europe. In November 2000 he left Asda and developed a new work ethic - 'Going Plural' - working full time, but not in any one company.

What he offers you

As a keynote business speaker Allan shares his remarkable experiences with corporations, speaking on subjects such as leadership, customer service and change.

How he presents

An inspiring and professional speaker Allan wows audiences with his unrelenting leadership style.

Languages

He presents in English.

Still looking for TNT connection