01732 759725 50 AND FINALLY Steve Pearce, Group Head of Marketing, Kyocera Document Solutions UK | Annodata | MCL 60 seconds with… What’s currently having the greatest impact on your business? Kyocera is really living and breathing our ESG and CSR responsibilities, and our staff and customers are clearly in favour. We are already a carbon neutral operation in the UK and have plans to widen this offering to customers in the very near future. This has had a huge positive impact on our business and aligns to the buyers in the channel and end-users alike, as they seek to reduce their footprint. This focus on ‘doing the right thing’ runs deeper here as it’s really helped us recruit the best talent in the industry, an industry that is struggling to fill roles. What would make your day job easier? More time, simple. I am very lucky to have the most talented team around me, for which I am incredibly grateful. So, more time in my day to listen, share and strategise would be so useful. In a world of pinging technology, I love to go offline with my notebook and four-colour Bic pen and mind map my thoughts, create content and think creatively. What’s the best bit of business advice you’ve been given? This advice was given to me by someone that has mentored me since my early twenties, he asked me where I saw myself at forty? “Head of Marketing,” I responded. He replied: “To be a great marketer Steve, you need to understand sales. To understand sales, you have to experience being a salesperson.” I took this advice and spent over eight years in a sales role. He was right, it has made me an empathetic marketing lead, that understands sales is a professional vocation, it’s incredibly difficult at points but ultimately rewarding. I can now deliver the sales enablement tools that I would have loved when on the frontline. If you had had a crystal ball, would you have done anything differently? Fortunately, I have no regrets in my professional or personal life. I am a firm believer that we are shaped by our decisions and actions. Have I made bad choices? Hell yeah, but I have also made some great ones too. If I was pushed to answer this, then maybe I would have taken a year out whilst I had the chance between studies. Describe your most embarrassing moment. I fainted on an event stand once, coming round to the customers I was once talking to now fanning me with the brochures I had just handed them. What was your first job? My first job was a pot washer for a very busy pub in Twickenham, you can imagine what it was like on a rugby day. What would be your dream job? A professional golfer I think, not on tour as I am a home bird, but as a local golf course pro. I like the idea of teaching, spending time meeting new customers and then 18 holes after work – sounds perfect. Fine dining and good wine, or curry and a pint? Allow me to be very precise on this one. A cold pint of Dishoom India Pale Ale and their chilli chicken curry. If you haven’t tried their curry, I suggest you do the next time you visit London Favourite holiday destination? Champagne region. Such a beautiful part of France that delivers so much romantic charm and history. How do you like to spend your spare time? I have three children, so I don’t get much spare time, their clubs and activities require constant Dad taxi services. But when I do, my wife and I love to use our National Trust passes by taking the kids on lots of long walks around Hampshire. Money’s not an issue, what’s your perfect car… and where would you like to drive it? 1965 Aston Martin DB5 in silver (converted to electric of course) driving through the vineyards of Epernay with my wife Aimee. Steve Pearce
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