John Mercer

John Mercer – IFT Accredited Member 

I am a former E&Y Turnaround Entrepreneur of the Year, who has successfully leveraged the skills I learned as an Army officer coping with danger, risk, rapidly evolving threats and a lack of resources into a career as a leading international turnaround expert.

Having successfully worked with, and for, an extraordinary wide range of businesses from GM, Bombardier and Hitachi to sustainable technology companies, men’s outfitters and the heavy equipment industry, over the last 30 years I have developed a three part method that brings structure, immediate stability, capacity development, strategy and hope to the most troubled of businesses in any sector:

     a) discovering the remaining value. 

     b) identifying talent in the business to realise it, and 

     c) leading a reorganisation, including building at the lowest cost the very best management teams.

This approach has proved successful with firms of all sizes from family businesses to a division of the world’s largest manufacturer of office furniture (Steelcase). Along the way, I have built a truly global network of decision makers from government ministers to corporate CEOs and the leaders of professional services firms. 

Above all, my solutions are sustainable. I am completely uninterested in a short-term fix and would not have sustained a 30-year recovery career if I was, which is why hiring replacement, permanent CEOs to lead the companies I have turned around is, where relevant, important to me.