Morsels of wisdom from the zoo-keepers

---

Stefan Stern
"At the Royal Mail...all the signs are that morale in the company is much better than before," writes Allan Leighton, the Royal Mail's chairman, in this latest addition to the management bookshelves. His claim may well be justified.
But the fact that workers at the UK postal service are even now braced to take industrial action suggests that morale is still not all that it might be. A reminder, if the author needed one, that leadership is extremely difficult.
Sceptical, rightly, about the value of much leadership literature, Leighton has chosen to consult an impressive selection of friends and colleagues about the subject, and chuck in his own thoughts in a jaunty narrative.
His cast is first rate, and his access to A-list business leaders striking. Each interviewee had only 20 minutes to summarise their views on leadership, in accordance with Leighton's theory that it is in the first 20 minutes of a meeting that you unearth all the interesting material.
Some readers will find the tips from the top helpful; others may wonder what they can learn from business leaders with whom they may have little in common. But for a selection of conventional wisdom on business leadership, and a sense of what is being discussed in the first-class lounges of the world's airports, you could do no better than read this book.
Mr Leighton is a great simplifier. He liked to think of himself, when he was running Asda, the UK supermarket group, as the Chief Simplicity Officer. Communication with front line staff is crucial, and being led by what customers want is vital. He also favours simple, home-spun observations.
In fact, he outs himself as a fan of Forrest Gump. He quotes his hero as saying: "If you go to the zoo, always take something to feed the animals, even if the signs say 'Do not feed the animals'. It wasn't the animals that put them signs up." Leighton explains the virtues of Gumpism for managers.
"It's true," he writes. "Every day, we metaphorically decide what the 'animals' want. We don't talk to the animals enough, we don't ask the animals enough questions and we don't listen to the animals enough. We just think we know what to feed them." Perhaps it is at times like this that the "animals" vote to go on strike?
Leighton likes speed. He quotes Andy Hornby, HBOS chief executive, who tells him: "You must never leave people thinking 'Well, I need to clear that with the top guy', knowing that that could take days or weeks."
Stuart Rose, boss of Marks and Spencer, agrees: "That is the mentality you need. It is all about speed, pace, reaction time and cost to your business and cost to your profit."
Meetings waste time. "Not spending hours in back-to-back meetings leaves more time for productive work, such as looking after the customer and listening to the operators," Leighton says.
The author doesn't take everybody's advice, however. His former colleague Archie Norman says: "I don't like chauffeurs. You have lost half the battle if you turn up in a limo with a chauffeur." But Leighton refers to "my driver Don Smith, who has been with me for 15 years".
And sometimes he contradicts himself. "Execution lies in the hands of the people who really run the company "the line managers," he says at one point. But then, seeking to justify lavish top pay, he declares: "In my if [CEOs] are running a successful company then they deserve to reap the rewards."
The book contains the poignant advice of Lord Browne, BP's former boss: "When the unexpected occurs, as has happened many times in my career, you must never lose the plot." And also a strong defence of the author's new best friends, private equity: "Put simply, the advantage of taking a company private boils down to control. I can see no downside." Well, he would say that, wouldn't he?
When he came to the UK postal service, "the people were the only thing the organisation had in its favour", Leighton says.