Addressing delegates at the CIPD Conference and Exhibition in Manchester Central yesterday morning in his opening keynote speech, Leahy, who left the retail giant in March this year and is now a part-time adviser at private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice, said: “The key ingredients [to good management] are trust and confidence. We can have collective intelligence, but this will only work if we trust each other.”
Leahy outlined his management lessons: find the truth; set audacious goals; vision, values and culture; the steering wheel (how company strategy is clearly communicated to what staff do each day); people, processes and systems; data is priceless; competition is good if it is structured; and leadership.
But he challenged delegates by saying: “HR [professionals] have not been brilliant at understanding that a job role does not exist in isolation... But if you pay close attention to the detail of the organisation, you won’t have to bother line managers for information.”
Taking questions from the audience, Leahy said he believed the Government did have a role in raising the standards of leadership in business, but he added: “Of course the Government has a role... but the interesting thing about people is they love being led. When they receive good leaders, they respond to it.”
Closing, he added: “Simplicity in business allows you to take risks – then you can allow your people to get on and be creative and be innovative. People want an interesting job, to be treated with respect, have the opportunity to get on in their career and have a boss that’s some help.”
And what does Leahy, who took Tesco to become the second biggest private sector employer in the UK, think his biggest ever mistake has been?
“I never answer that question,” he said. “Life and business is about making mistakes in order to find success... Be safe in the knowledge I have made loads.”
