> Skip to content
  • Published: 1 May 2012
  • ISBN: 9781847940544
  • Imprint: Random House Business
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $19.99

Tough Calls

Making the right decisions in challenging times




Allan Leighton speaks to top business leaders to show you how to make the right decision every time.

We all make decisions every day. Most of them are pretty straightforward, but every so often there are some really tough calls. In business the choices that executives are sometimes faced with can make the difference between acclaimed success and ongoing prosperity, and failure and financial disaster.

In Tough Calls, leading businessman Allan Leighton focuses on specific decisions he has made in the course of his career - at ASDA, Royal Mail and elsewhere - and describes the thought processes behind them. He also talks to many others in the know, from Sir Stuart Rose and Sir Terry Leahy to Adam Crozier at ITV and Stephen Hester at RBS. Taking into account facts that were known to them at the time, as well as other interrelated factors and potentially high-risk consequences, this line-up of top executives outline their approaches to breaking down often highly complex problems into achievable solutions.

All Allan Leighton's royalties from this book will be donated to Breast Cancer Care (Registered charity: England and Wales 1017658, Scotland SC038104)

  • Published: 1 May 2012
  • ISBN: 9781847940544
  • Imprint: Random House Business
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $19.99

About the author

Allan Leighton

Allan Leighton made his name at supermarket group ASDA, transforming it from a £500 million company to one sold to US giant Wal-Mart for £6.2 billion in 1999. In 2002 he was personally appointed by the Prime Minister to turn around the loss-making Royal Mail, and he achieved that task in only four years, bringing about a revival in the Royal Mail's fortunes that few experts felt to be possible. He has sat on the board of many leading companies, including Lastminute.com and BSkyB, and is widely regarded as one of the UK's top business leaders. He lives in West Yorkshire.

Also by Allan Leighton

See all

Praise for Tough Calls

Admirable stuff… I have no doubt Tough Calls will follow Leighton's On Leadership onto the bestseller charts. It deserves to … We need leaders of Leighton's simple, direct, analytical and visionary stamp to see our great corporations through. Tough Calls is a topical read indeed

Tim Waterstone, Management Today

Tough Calls should be compulsory reading for anyone aspiring to the boardroom. But, equally, it is a useful guide for leaders and decision-makers in many walks of life, from voluntary organizations to community councils

The Herald

There are many enjoyable moments in Allan Leighton’s latest book, Tough Calls

Independent

An engaging, very readable collection of business anecdotes from such luminaries as Sir Terry Leahy and Archie Norman

Business XL

Unlike many other authors in this field, [Allan Leighton] doesn’t try to bamboozle you with jargon or fancy theories; he tells it like it is

Asian Trader

Easy to read and very useful … Leighton’s literary walkabout generates excellent views, hypotheses and anecdotes, followed by sound conclusions

Cambridge Business