Meritas International and Consulting

Christopher Johnson moves onto his third career and talks about the rebirth of his interim consultancy, mentoring and coaching company. Christopher is a Business Mentor on the Suffolk Chamber of Commerce b2b mentoring programme, Trustee for Suffolk MIND and is a member of the Suffolk Institute of Directors Committee and Sponsorship Officer.

So why the third career?

Well, my entire career has been healthcare related and the first large part of it was working with blue chip FTSE 100 companies such as AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline and Wolters Kluwer Health in the pharmaceuticals sector. This took me all over the world and I had the fantastic opportunity to live and work in some very diverse cultures such as Japan and North Africa in a variety of director and local Board level positions.

The second career was in hospital management when, on returning to the UK in 2007, I became the hospital director of Nuffield Health Ipswich Hospital.

The third career is what I am doing now. Actually it was born in 2005 and has been on ice for a number of years.

What is it?

In 2005 after the completion of a contract in Tokyo my Czech wife and I decided to move to Prague to establish our Company -  Meritas International which specialises in consulting, interim work, coaching, mentoring and counselling. I now have the opportunity to resurrect this company in the UK, based in Suffolk.

Tell us about your experiences

Once we started on this venture we had no idea about the type of work we would be undertaking and there were a number of expected projects and a few surprises.  One of the first assignments was to work with the BCC in Prague, restructuring the Executive Team and establishing their mission and goals. This was rapidly followed by an approach from a family owned Polish Pharmaceuticals Company based in Warsaw who needed some strategic direction and rationalising of their R&D effort. This resulted in me commuting on a weekly basis from Prague to Warsaw on the overnight train in the depths of the worst winter central Europe had had for two decades at temperatures around -30 degrees Celsius.  I had a number of other assignments such as preparing a UK launch plan for a diet food (known as neutraceuticals in the trade) for the largest food company in the Czech Republic and setting up an out-sourcing conference in Prague.

What were the surprises?

Well, the most interesting one was being hired as Managing Consultant for a Czech Charity whose mission was to construct a 17th Century Living Townlet in Moravia! This Townlet would offer a wealth of tourist activities, historical information, accommodation and sports facilities and my task was to put a plan together to raise funding for this project soon after the Czech Republic’s entry into the European Union in 2005. Although these were all enjoyable and fulfilling assignments, my real passion and value offering is to generate real, operational solutions to strategic issues in the healthcare environment and at this time, with the changes in healthcare delivery from both the NHS and private sectors, these skills are in demand.

As well as consulting what else does Meritas do?

Over the past years I have been establishing the coaching and mentoring client base and am looking to expand this service in Suffolk and beyond. So far clients include two directors of small Suffolk companies. I also built a business plan for a client to purchase a hotel/pub in North Suffolk and am creating a funding plan for a start-up furniture business, and a clothing company. I am business mentor for two organisations via the Chambers b2b mentoring programme and am a Princes Trust mentor for young business entrepreneurs.

Visit Christopher’s’ blogs and Meritas Website

Christopher is a regular contributor to two blogs.

The first focuses on mentoring and coaching topics.

http://meritas-businessmentor.blogspot.com

The second focuses on healthcare issues and topics.

http://meritas-interimconsulting.blogspot.com

If you wish to learn more about Christopher’s’ work, or about the company please visit;

www.meritas-international.com

If you wish to discuss any consulting or interim needs with Christopher you can email him on;

christopher@meritas-international.com

or contact by phone on 07788 203143 or 01787 242136