Dangerous things, biographies. Reading Steve Jobs’ you realise he was seemingly an unpleasant, amoral bully with a brilliant customer-centric vision. By contrast, David Smith shows us in Asda Magic how an inspiring customer-centric vision got extraordinary results from ordinary folk. What looked like alchemy in turning round the so-nearly insolvent Asda was actually achieved by following just seven principles.

Smith has in fact given us a bogof: a biography of Asda and a thoughtful distillation of just what saved a business so near the rocks you wonder why Archie Norman took the challenge.

Smith looks at retail leadership from all angles. We all know that retail is based on great people in stores and in leadership. It takes your breath away to see how many leaders Asda has produced. Norman and Allan Leighton were clearly obsessed with recruiting A* people and inculcating their Asda culture. Asda became a very self-critical business, ‘never satisfied with current performance’. Perhaps we should all be paranoid.

It is a coup that in every chapter he has reflections from Asda alumni: King, Baker, DeNunzio, Mason, Bond and Cheesewright. But best of all is when David lays out his case for retail management, which involves thousands of modestly paid colleagues in a business that faced much better financed, stronger competitors.

He is bang on when he observes that few businesses are blessed with the opportunity of near-bankruptcy, and the momentum that brings in terms of a force for change. Asda underpinned its execution with ‘everyday low costs’ - thus delivering a performance culture in store was never going to be a job for consultants. Smith’s role in Asda’s renaissance is pivotal.

What paid off for Asda was a potent mixture of ‘hiring for attitude, training for skill’, relentless internal comms and a tough love belief that you had to push your talent and remove your underperformers. I know these topics are so much easier to say than do, but do we must.

Don’t be fooled by the book’s brevity. It is uplifting and right on the money when it comes to winning retail hearts and minds.

Thank goodness Steve Jobs never wanted to work in Yorkshire.