Today, The Herald launches an important new column examining the art and science of management decision-making.

Each week we ask one of Scotland's business leaders to recall their toughest-ever decision.

What was the decision? . . . why was it so difficult? . . . and, most importantly, how did it turn out?

In the weeks to come, our corporate leaders and entrepreneurs will be telling Stuart Paul whether they made the right decision or, with hindsight, what they would have done differently

We begin with Brian Souter, executive chairman of Stagecoach Holdings.

The toughest business decision I ever had to make was to sell part of the Stagecoach business to a potential competitor.

We had started Stagecoach Express in 1980 with a totally new idea aimed at a new market and everybody thought we were crazy.

The railways went on strike in 1981, our business went into overdrive, and the year after that we made a 25% margin - #300,000 profit on a turnover of about #1.2m.

Everybody then realised we were on to a real winner.

But by 1989 the position had changed radically.

National Express were making noises about coming into Scotland, and it was rumoured that they might also take over Citylink when it was privatised.

Also, as Stagecoach had grown, it was proving more and more difficult for me to manage.

I felt that my input would be better put to buying local bus companies that could be run to a formula and which wouldn't need such intensive management.

So I decided we should split the company and sell off the long-distance services to National Express while keeping the local services.

National thought it a good idea too. They were coming to Scotland anyway, and rather than have a three-way battle on our hands, we sold them part of our business - it gave them a brand and good foothold.

But at the meeting when we told the staff what we were doing, we were all crying.

It was a terrible time, but a decision that was absolutely necessary.

Even though we paid the staff who had worked for us since 1980 a loyalty bonus and had arranged good employment contracts for them, part of me wished we hadn't done it because of the emotional ties. After all, most of them had been with us since the company was founded and we looked upon them as friends.

Looking back, it was the end of an era and a recognition that a family business couldn't be used as a vehicle for where Stagecoach was going in the future.

There's no doubt in my mind that it was the right decision and given the same circumstances I'd do it again.

The decision itself was a purely logical one. We had decided that our future lay in becoming a very big local bus service company.