Andrew Mercer is the founder Chairman and former CEO of Footdown. He founded Footdown in 2000, shortly after returning from the US where he sold to Oracle Corporation the software company, One Meaning, that he founded in the UK in the late 1980s. In 2004 he also founded the renewable energy company, 2OC, with fellow entrepreneur and environmentalist Michael Edge, a member of the Bath Fifteen Group since its formation in late 2003.

Meeting Michael in 2003 had a huge influence on Andrew’s transformation into a low carbon entrepreneur and consolidated a conversion that began with Andrew’s earlier decision to build a carbon neutral home.

In moving into the world of renewable energy, and building 2OC, Andrew took many of the values, insights and passions that have contributed to Footdown’s success.  In particular his:

• Belief in the power of teams to achieve much more than individuals working independently can do.
• Recognition that the best people in an organisation are always volunteers and should be valued and treated accordingly.
• Determination to apply the best in class thinking to all aspects of leadership and organisational behaviour.

In 2007 2OC entered into a joint venture with National Grid that became Blue-NG.  In forming Blue-NG, and growing the team to more than thirty members, Andrew has stayed close to the principles of leadership embraced by Footdown and has used the developing Insight product to set the purpose and direction of both businesses and to align and motivate the team members. (Click here for a piece written by one of Andrew’s Blue-NG team members about their use of Insight.)

Andrew qualified as a chartered accountant in 1978 and is a competitive sailor.

What two or three things should you be doing right now to help the organisation you lead to maximise its chances of success in these troubled times? Article by Andrew Mercer, Footdown founder. It took me many years…More

In my quest to improve my skills as an entrepreneur and leader, I’ve read lots of management books over the years. In most cases they’ve utterly failed to make any lasting impression on me; most are badly written, boring, smug, impractical, self-contradictory, too vague, too complicated or just plain wrong. The exceptions, in my opinion, are the books I’ve selected for you.

Merc’s blog – Day 3 of his adventure to the Yorkshire Dales. A beautiful hike up Pen-y-ghen, only to return to tomorrow’s forecast…

Merc’s blog – Day 1 of his adventure to the Yorkshire Dales. Merc explains a little about the reason for his escapade and remembering what it means to lug camera equipment on a hike…

I was tempted to describe my own experiences of using Insight as a leadership tool, first within Blue-NG and now at 2OC, but thought that it would be so much more informative to hear it from one…More

After I was forced to sell One Meaning, the story of which is told elsewhere, I vowed never to be in that position again and to try, wherever possible, to help other leaders avoid the pain and trauma of this experience.

And why I went on to found Footdown One fine day in California I sat in the offices of one of the leading venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, awaiting the arrival of the two key investors in…More