A rare moment of repose for Allan Leighton

Whatever the appeal of time at his new home in Amersham, or leisure pursuits including running, football and morris dancing, for Allan Leighton the only option was b.

Mr Leighton last October added the role of acting chief executive at Wilson Connolly to a portfolio which includes chairmanship of the struggling builder, plus directorships at firms including BSkyB, Scottish Power and vacuum cleaner maker Dyson.

He is chairman of store group Bhs and Lastminute.com and deputy chairman of the firm that owns Leeds United.

On Monday, he agreed to stand in as chairman at Consignia, the struggling postal services firm where he was already a non-executive director.

As if this wasn't enough, he also runs a website, Going Plural, which offers help to those wishing to emulate Mr Leighton's rise from shopkeeper's son to one of Britain's most noted, besides prevalent, businesspeople.

Leightonisms

Among the 10 most popular questions to the site are "what's the key to success", "I feel my career is stagnating" and "how do I raise money for a dot.com start-up"?

Chairmanships

Bhs Canons Group Lastminute.com Leeds United (deputy) Wilson Connolly Race for Opportunity (a Business in the Community campaign)

Answers: "Hard work and learning", in essence, to all.

Visitors preferring more esoteric, less sleeves-rolled-up, views on business may prefer to dwell on the site's home page, which drops weekly pearls of Leighton wisdom such as "great minds think" and "if your words don't stick, you haven't spoken".

Previous maxims have included "follow your bliss", "listen to the river" and "always search for the jewel in the toad's head".

(If Rupert Murdoch-controlled BSkyB wants to up its ratings, perhaps it should televise its board meetings.)

Another Leightonism goes: "In all the parks and cities there are no statues of committees", which is noteworthy not just for its questionable grip on art history, but that it would appear to contradict the very essence of his business beliefs.

For the reason Mr Leighton has time to run up to five miles five times a week, obsess over Leeds United and, on occasion, indulge in ritual folkdance is that he comes as a five-in-one package.

Five-in-one

His (business) team includes Don, his driver, Christine, who organises his diary, and Gwyn Burr, a marketing expert, whose brief appointment at Bhs is reported to have prompted a split between Mr Leighton and colleague Terry Green.

Directorships

BSkyB Consignia Dyson George Weston Scottish Power

There is also Rebecca, who spearheads the colleague involvement for which Mr Leighton has indeed become famed.

On Going-plural.com, Mr Leighton says: "Remember, you learn more from the people you work with, than from the company you work for."

At Asda, where Mr Leighton made his name, he introduced "huddles", meetings where staff would get together to discuss daily issues.

The approach helped transform Asda, under Mr Leighton's leadership, from an enterprise with a stock market capitalisation of �500m to one sold to US giant Wal-Mart for �6.2bn.

Mr Leighton himself earned �80m from the sell-off, and a place on the Wal-Mart board.

Preaching the message

Then, a year ago, he left the ranks of the cruelly-dubbed "Wal-Martians" to spread his message afar, adding the Lastminute, Dyson and Bhs posts to his portfolio within a month.

Always search for the jewel in the toad's head

Going Plural advice

But has it worked? Talking City heads have voiced complaints that even though Mr Leighton's posts are largely non-executive, he is "spreading himself too thinly".

Indeed, the National Association of Pension Funds told BBC News Online of growing concerns among institutions of the number of directorships some executives are taking.

But with the companies in Mr Leighton's directorship portfolio showing mixed performance it is difficult to decipher a definite trend.

Midas touch?

Perhaps Wilson Connolly's or Consignia's future performance will reveal if he still has the Midas touch.

If he fails to turn the building firm around, Mr Leighton would not be the first businessman to find his executive tombstone raised by a venture into the building and property sectors.

But with his tried and tested business methods behind it, there must be a decent chance that Wilson Connolly will huddle through.

At Consignia, Mr Leighton has a less hands-on role but the pressure in the public eye to balance competing needs of shareholders, business partners, staff and the public will be just as intense.