The author and professor of leadership studies at Essex University says leadership needs to be valued as a skill distinct from, and complementary to, management.

Professor John Adair tells BBC News Online: "We need centres dedicated to teaching leadership"

In commercial-speak, managers are people who optimise the established way a company is already run. They make things happen efficiently.

In an economy where competition is largely dictated by cost, the most highly prized management skill is often the ability to wield a hatchet - rationalise and cut costs.

Leadership as a science

Leaders, however, says Professor Adair, are the innovators, the people whose flair lies in being able to visualise the direction a business might take to remain competitive, or to increase its competitiveness.

The notion of leadership as a science is not a new one - particularly in the United States, where more than 250 centres nationwide are dedicated to its study.

Where the professor's convictions stray into the controversial is his belief that anyone can become a leader. He strongly advocates that classes in leadership skills can turn anyone into a corporate visionary.

Professor John Adair warns that the UK must start to train leaders

His colleagues in the world of business theory are not entirely convinced. There is also a strong school of thought that leadership is innate - that leadership qualities can be recognised and encouraged, but not imparted.

But Mr Adair says this line of thinking will lead to companies in the UK being left by the wayside in the surge for prime positions in the global marketplace.

He told BBC News Online: "It's like swimming, everyone can learn to swim. Not everyone becomes an Olympic swimmer, but everyone has the ability to increase their leadership potential.

"Britain has been at the fore of leadership training - I did work with the armed forces 30 years ago that is still effective and applicable now.

"But compared to the energy and resources the United States puts into training its leaders, we look like primary school children."

Although in Mr Adair's estimation, 90% of US energies are largely ineffective, he said their commitment to training had to be applauded.

He said that key to being a leader were the abilities to provide a vision for a company, to inspire colleagues to follow the vision, and to have the energy and stamina to see the vision through.

He said: "We are not teaching people how to do these things. We are teaching people to be good managers instead."

The professor has written numerous books on the subject

Mr Adair, a former lecturer in military history and advisor on leadership training at Sandhurst, said it had been proved in military circles that leadership could be learned.

And if leadership is not taken seriously and taught, he warned, the UK would have a myriad of perfectly functioning business units, devoid of the creativity needed to make them compete globally.

He said: "We live in the shadow of the Thatcherite model of business, of downsizing and cost cutting. That needs to change."

The Insititute of Directors - where Mr Adair addressed a dinner on Tuesday - said it agreed that UK companies would benefit from enhanced leadership training, and had itself launched a scheme to encourage professional directorship.

But Andrew Kakabadse, professor of international management development at Cranfield University, says the UK has as many fine leaders as the rest of the world.

A proponent of the leaders-are-born school of thinking, Prof Kakabadse said: "Most businesses need good management first and foremost. Most compete in price, therefore you need someone in charge who knows how to keep costs low."

The professor has also compiled "possibly the world's largest" database of leaders, and says that the UK is neither poorer nor richer in leaders than the rest of the developed world.

"We have many fine examples of great business leaders," he said, saying that often the "creative" elements within commerce did not step out into the limelight.

He cited Johnson and Johnson's foray away from the safe ground of talcum powder and baby shampoo into contact lenses as an example.

And he said Vickers' decision to sell Rolls-Royce and invest more heavily in marine engineering displayed top-notch leadership.

He said: "Leadership means dealing with change - sitting down and discussing how to take a business through a period of change, and it is absolutely right that you need the right man or woman for that job.