introduction

I, Dr. David Steuart Mercer, of 2 Marshworth, Tinker’s Bridge, Milton Keynes, MK6 3DA, do hereby testify that I originally joined the Open University Business School (OUBS), then called the Open Business School (OBS), on 1 April 1988 at the age of 57 years. Although I then came from being employed as Account Director at Mentor (the software/computer based training subsidiary of the Provident Financial Group), I had previously left IBM, after a decade and a half there, to find a new role where I could ‘give something back to the community’. At that time, in addition to my desire to continue my existing research into economics (started while I was an OU undergraduate), I was especially attracted by OU’s enviable reputation for its high standards - both in the quality of its education and the ethical treatment of staff and students - which I had personally experienced as a recent OU (Social Science) graduate. The next five years, I worked – under Andrew Thomson - in the small (30 strong) group of very dedicated staff who produced its phenomenally successful MBA. With a few exceptions (such as David Asch) we all worked and played together, almost as a family. It was one of the most productive and happiest periods of my life.

2. Prior to 1998, as my summary CV (below) showed, I had spent a quarter of a century developing a successful career in senior professional and management positions across a range of leading multinationals. Latterly I had spent 15 years in IBM, culminating in my receiving its prestigious ‘Exceptional Achievement’ award; given to only a small number of IBMers around the world. This wide range of hands-on management experience was, in those days, considered important for the balance of OUBS teaching. Indeed, unknown to me, my last line manager at IBM, Mike Day who was then a member of the OUBS external advisory board, advised the then OUBS Dean, Andrew Thomson, on my application; in the process highly recommending my candidature on the basis of my record at IBM.

DAVID MERCER - CV - SUMMARY

In terms of the qualities sought of the candidates for the post [of Professor of Marketing], this CV includes descriptions of the significant contributions I have made in the eight main areas highlighted in the advertisement:

1. RESEARCH - in terms of my research record, as well as being a member of the small group of researchers which enabled the OUBS to achieve a 3A rating in the last RAE, the most accessible evidence comes from my more than 60 academic publications, many of which have been in international journals. These have been the main output from more than a decade of research in marketing (15 papers) and especially - by the Futures Observatory team I now lead - long-range marketing and corporate planning (40 papers). Having achieved stable results for global trends, the most recent work undertaken has focused on e-commerce, and in particular the economics of C2C networks. Externally funded by a number of multinationals and supported by the EC, its output (based on input from more than 5,000 organisations) is internationally recognised by the wider community not just that of academics; and has led to my being an expert advisor to the European Commission, the UK DTI and UNESCO. The next round of futures research, into the new economic theories demanded by the emerging information/communications society, will be a joint venture with the Finance group within OUBS and the Economics group within OU Social Sciences faculty.

2. TEACHING - I have successfully taught a range of OUBS courses - at all levels, from Certificate to Masters, and across a number of countries. Not least, however, was my work - for more than a decade - as the course team chair in both development and maintenance of the B885 MBA (elective). This course was rated highly by the last HEFCE teaching quality assessment and was studied by more than 5,000 students over its nine years in presentation. Even nearing the end of its life it still received the highest overall student ratings of any OUBS course. I am also the originator of the MA (Marketing) programme, the first of the named masters programmes to be launched, and I am chair of the Course Team for its B851 (Future Marketing) course, which covers the leading-edge (post-modern and e-commerce) developments in marketing, due to launch in November 2001.

3. MANAGEMENT- in the context of this requirement the most recent evidence comes from my almost continuous management, for more than a decade, of OUBS academic course teams; as well as running the team of internal and external contributors to the Futures Observatory project. Both of these roles also demanded considerable project management skills, with budgets of up to £½ million. In the wider context, however, I was the first head of the OUBS Centre for Policy & Strategy as well as director of its prestigious (hybrid, distance and face-to-face, taught) Presidential project in Ethiopia; which was a major contributor to the Queen's Award for Export Achievement, and where I was also an advisor to the President. In my earlier career, as a senior manager reporting to the boards of several multinationals, I managed teams of managers, and staff, along with seven figure budgets.

4. WRITING - my skills here are best evidenced by the success of my 5 academic textbooks and 10 trade-press books, with a total of something over 50,000 copies sold, along with the literally dozens of separate units I have written for OUBS courses.

5. MULTIMEDIA TEACHING - my B885 course, just ending, led the OUBS use of computer conferencing for the best part of a decade and my new course (B851), the latter part of which focuses on e-commerce marketing, uses the full range of multi-media support.

6. CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS IN EDUCATION- my awareness of the present trends may be best evidenced by my reports on future developments across education in general, and management education in particular, which were commissioned by, and recently published by, the DTI in the UK and the EC in Europe.

7. INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE - as the employment section of my CV will demonstrate, during the first three decades of my career I was employed in a wide range of roles, up to general management level but also with experience in a range of functional specialisms - including operations management, training, corporate strategy and especially those concerned with marketing. This experience was gained across the wide range of sectors, from bodies in the public sector (as an elected councillor in local government to advisor to the President of Ethiopia) to multinationals in pharmaceuticals, retail, advertising, household goods, industrial goods and - for fifteen years - IBM. As an academic with OUBS, my most recent consultancy experience - during the past couple of years - has included Norwich Union, Heinz, Johnson & Johnson and 3M; as well as a range of organisations in the public sector.

8. PUBLIC PRESENTATION - I have presented my OUBS work, typically as an extension of the Futures Observatory work which was designed to influence such key audiences, to a range of large national and international audiences. These have included UNESCO and the European Commission, internationally, as well as the DTI, in the UK. Similarly, the extension of my work (supported by the OU Public Relations department) also led to in-depth coverage by almost all the UK broadsheets along with several dozen interviews on television and radio around the world.