Rupert Merson
Adjunct Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship
MA (Oxford) FCA FCIPD FRSA
Rupert Merson is a leading authority on owner-managed, entrepreneurial and family businesses and the problems they confront as they seek to grow. He has worked as a consultant and facilitator for clients on a broad range of issues including formation, governance, strategy, ownership, remuneration, succession, turnaround and organisation development.
As an advisor, Rupert was a partner in BDO Stoy Hayward in London from 1993 to 2009. He now leads his own firm of advisers. He has completed assignments for businesses in the UK, US, South East Asia, South America, Africa and the Middle East and worked extensively with entrepreneurs, family businesses and professional partnerships. Rupert Merson is also an experienced non-executive director and board chairman.
As Adjunct Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, Rupert currently teaches a range of MBA electives on owner management, entrepreneurship, family business and corporate turnaround, and frequently teaches on executive education programmes on strategy and organisational development. Rupert was awarded the Best Teacher Award by the MBA class of 2015 at LBS. In the same year he was also awarded the prize for the best elective at INSEAD. In 2018 Rupert was awarded the Best Teacher Award by the MBA class for a second time.
Rupert has published a series of books on key management roles in the growing business, has co-authored a book on family businesses and writes frequently in the national press on related topics. His most recent book, Growing a Business: Strategies for Leaders and Entrepreneurs, was published by The Economist in 2015. He has spoken at conferences in Europe, America and Australasia.
He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, the Royal Society for the Encouragements of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. A first-class honours graduate and university prize-winner from Oxford University, he also holds a certificate in general management from Harvard Business School. In his spare time Rupert is a musician, conducting a choir and playing the organ, piano and harpsichord.
- rmerson@london.edu
- +44 (0)20 7000 8199
- Rupert Merson CV
MBA
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Managing the Growing Business
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New Venture Development
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Managing Corporate Turnaround
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Entrepreneurship in Emerging Markets
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Family Business: A guide for Owners, Managers and Advisers
Executive Education
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Taught on various LBS executive programmes for a range of organisations including YPO, CNT Brasilia, Sanofi, Nabarro, KPC, ADCO, IBM, PwC.
- Entrepreneurship
- Financing early stage businesses
- Management of growth and change brought by growth
- Managing turnaround
- Management of owner-managed businesses, including family-owned businesses and professional practices and governance.
- Business as an art rather than a science
2016
Growing a business: strategies for leaders and entrepreneurs
Merson R
Profile books in association with the Economist, 2016
Teaching portfolio
Our teaching offering is updated annually. Faculty and programme material are subject to change.
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Masters Degrees electives
Optional courses providing a deep dive into specialist areas.
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Entrepreneurship in Emerging Markets
Equip yourself to deal effectively with the issues you are likely to face in entrepreneurial ventures in emerging markets. Subjects covered include managing in times of rapid demographic and socio-economic change, innovating in emerging markets, managing in ethically corrupt environments, dealing with multinationals, building winning businesses in resource constrained environments, understanding consumers in emerging markets and what to do when the family calls and asks you to come home and save the family business. -
Family Business: A Guide for Owners, Managers and Advisors
Family firms make up around 70% of businesses worldwide and account for a substantial proportion of GDP. Many of the world's leading corporations originated as family firms, and retain cultural distinctiveness as a result. In some parts of the world, such as South Asia and the Far East, family firms occupy the commanding heights of the economy. Yet they are neglected in the management literature, and often treated as if they were a relic of the past. However, as the current financial crisis is illustrating, with their long time scales, adaptive cultures, and vision-led leadership many are much better fitted to survive the downturn in good shape than many PLCs. PROGRAMMES WITH THIS ELECTIVE
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Managing Corporate Turnarounds
Explore the management issues that arise when a financially-distressed firm needs a radical change to ensure its survival. PROGRAMMES WITH THIS ELECTIVE
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New Venture Development
Get an overview of the process and challenges associated with starting an entirely new business, the skills required to prepare a persuasive business plan, approach prospective investors and launch your venture. Gain a clear understanding of how to assess an entrepreneurial opportunity, the resources needed to start a new business and the costs and challenges involved. Give an entrepreneurial bias to your career using this course as a springboard. A number of graduates who have taken the New Venture Development course and gone on to set up their own business or pursued careers in venture capital. PROGRAMMES WITH THIS ELECTIVE
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Entrepreneurship in Emerging Markets
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Executive Education
Short programmes offering academic excellence, global focus and exceptional diversity of perspective.
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Market Driving Strategies
"Market Driving Strategies examines how enterprising companies can cultivate successful market driving innovations that deliver a leap in value to their customers"
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Market Driving Strategies