Get to know your Manufacturing Growth Manager | Manufacturing Growth Programme

Our Specialist Manufacturing Growth Managers (MGM) provide free advice and support to businesses across the country, get to know yours even more….

This month – Marcus Pearson, MGM for Greater Lincolnshire region.

What is favorite past time or hobby?

Outside of work, I can usually be found on the golf course, in the gym or out walking my dog.

What are you most passionate about?

Being the best husband and father that I can be.

What is your proudest achievement?

Personally – still being married to the person I fell in love with over 30 years ago, and our 2 children. Professionally – being the top performing Growth Manager on the Growth Accelerator/Business Growth Service programme.

What gets you out of your bed in a morning?

Usually the family dog needing his early morning walk!

What was your dream job when you were younger?

To play for Manchester United – although to be fair they weren’t very good in the 1970’s so it didn’t seem like such an unachievable dream.

If you could choose, what would you like your legacy to look like once you retire?

I haven’t even thought about retiring yet – but probably something along the lines of being thought of as somebody who tried to do his best to get the right results for the businesses that he worked with and who was always happy to help his colleagues whenever needed.

What’s one thing you have implemented in your role that you would encourage other colleagues to embrace and implement?

Just a couple of general principles that I’ve picked up through my working life, 1) it’s nice to be important…but it’s more important to be nice and when working in a sales related role 2) see the world through your customers eyes. Their perception is reality and so do everything possible to leave them in a better position than when you first met them (whether or not they buy from you or not!)

How do you think the manufacturing community can collectively continue to engage and interest young people in manufacturing careers?

Manufacturing and engineering specifically are getting a lot of focus around the “exciting” areas of Artificial Intelligence, Virtual reality and mechanization etc, but the opportunities are not limited by these high tech applications. I would like to see the manufacturing community given greater opportunity to work with local schools and colleges to develop employment pathways for students who perhaps do not have the greatest academic levels (for whatever reason) but who want to learn and develop skills that can be put to use in the real world and more importantly build viable career paths without the needs to progress into further education or university.

What are the main barriers to growth that you encounter with manufacturers?

Commonplace themes include lack of detailed strategy, limited structures to support business development and sales, additionally recruiting staff can be a real problem – both due to lack of relevant skills or more frequently lack of available resource that is actively looking to either change employer or start work.

What is your view on the future of the manufacturing industry?

I think that the future for manufacturing in the UK should be seen as positive – regardless of the implications of Brexit – there will always be a need for us to have manufacturing capability in the UK. I do think that with the challenges of skills and the labour market, let alone the financial challenges that many SME’s face, the biggest focus for the manufacturing industry should be on improving and maximising productivity which in turn will create stronger, more sustainable and profitable businesses capable of investing for their continued success and being able to reward their workforce accordingly.

To contact Marcus directly call 07790 358 517 or click here to read more.