Comments from the Radio 4 interview with Allan Leighton
1 We intend to have a new board.
2. We have to make it clear how bad it is
3. We cannot hold on to all the business
4. I find it difficult to understand how an £8 billion monopoly business loses £300-400 million a year.
5. In the last five years, the management has made the wrong investments in the wrong places. Management has been bad; it hasn’t looked after its customers or its people. The greatest strength is that they see their customers every day.
6. I don’t pay people for failure.
7. I do not believe in big payoffs
8. It takes at least three years to turn around a business.
9. Consignia has several levels of management, it’s like walking through treacle. They are major units that I would call “business prevention squads”.
10. 80% of time is being spent with the post office
11. I am a professional manager, working with nine companies and chairman of four or five.
12. I am creating a complete new management team and am looking for the appropriate Chief Executive.
13. Parcelforce has more or less lost £100 million every year for the last ten years. Half of the revenue has to come out including the appropriate work levels.
14. There is no need for Consignia to be privatised. Government and Consignia will check the rural 3,000 post offices. There are at least 3,000 urban post offices that have to go. There are far too many and we are trying to build a structure would at least be one mile for 90+% of the population.
15. The £14 9.00 am delivery decision was made well down in the organisation (Gillian Wilmot!?). If we are wrong, we have to admit it quickly.
16. I am not sure I agree with the split of first and second post.
17. 90% next for 27p is good value.
18. On second class, i.e. direct marketing, we lost £250 million a year.
19. There will be three more years of losses, mainly because of the cost of redundancy.
20. Part of the problem is that within Consignia, there are 18 different businesses spending most of their time billing each other.
21. Turning the business round is about every day doing the little things better.
