Meet the board: Nick Rose – Sharp

At pro-manchester, we take great pride in being an organization driven by our valued members. Our board and committees consist entirely of member firms, and we are thrilled to introduce you to some of the exceptional individuals who contribute to making pro-manchester the remarkable organisation it is today.

1. Introduce yourself

Hello, I’m Nick, and in my role as a Sales Director at Sharp UK I help to set and implement our sales strategies. We work with more than 14,000 organisations in the UK, and we help them to ‘make technology easy’ utilising our vast portfolio of technologies and solutions.

2. Career highlight

Personally, winning the Manchester Champion Award at the 2014 MIMA’s was a huge highlight, kick-starting my long and amazing association with pro-manchester.

Professionally, creating and delivering the Sharp UK’s Sales Academy has been an incredible journey. Taking the learning from completing a master’s degree enabled me to identify some areas for improvement in the way that salespeople were recruited and onboarded. I was able to develop a graduate sales training program, incorporating an apprenticeship, that saw 7 young people join the business. We still have the full cohort with us in the business and thriving in their roles more than 12 months later.

3.Name three words that describe your personality

Tough one! I’ll go with authentic, ambitious, and positive.

4. Why did you decide that you wanted to be part of the pro-manchester board

Easy, the people. We’ve been pro-manchester members for 15 years and having also been on the future-pro committee in the past, when the opportunity to join the board came up, I jumped at the chance. Sam, Nicola, and the team are leading pro-manchester through an exciting transformation, and it’s a pleasure to be a part of that.

5. What’s the best thing about pro-manchester

Having already talked about the amazing people, it’s got to be the events program. The flagship events are the best on the Manchester calendar, as proven by the incredible MIMA 2024, which was the best yet. However, I’ve been impressed by the wide-ranging program that champions important and emerging topics such as diversity, inclusion, and mental health and wellbeing. These events are helping to create positive and long-lasting change in the Manchester business community. A recent example being the Wellbeing Lunch at the Lowry Hotel, which was a truly inspirational afternoon. Nobody does events like pro-manchester.

6. What more would you like to see from pro-manchester this year.

As a proud Stockport lad, I’d love to see the pro-manchester magic sprinkled further into the GM boroughs. I’m also aware that plans are afoot, and so watch this space!

7. What are your priorities for 2024

My priorities are always to remain happy and healthy. In business, growing our customer base in the UK is a huge priority. My role in that is to remain people-focused and to ensure that our salespeople feel motivated and inspired to work with their customers to achieve our growth targets. In the trends that we see, businesses are looking for their partners (like Sharp) to offer more value, to challenge their thinking, and to find new and creative ways to meet their needs. Standing still is not enough, and so our priority is to deliver that for them. Alongside that, keeping a smile on the face of my little boy 😊

8. What do you think are the most important things going on in Manchester at the moment?

Manchester is flying, isn’t it?! Every time I drive into the city I’m blown away by the developing skyline, and the growth that it represents. More and more people are heading to Manchester to live, work, eat etc, all of which creates opportunity for both small and large businesses in the region. As a huge football fan, surely, we’re now the undisputed football capital of the world?! Manchester City winning the treble was huge, and the recent investment in Manchester United is likely to lead to a world leading new stadium. It’ll be interesting to see how that develops over the coming months.

9. Favourite quote or saying

It’s not groundbreaking, but “treat others as you wish to be treated yourself”. Hopefully the challenges that we’ve faced globally over the last few years have helped everybody to understand the power of a good deed, and how a small act of a kindness can make such a massive impact to he recipient. We spend so long working, culture and environment are more important than ever, and that starts at the top of every organisation.

10. Favourite meeting place in Manchester

Controversially, I’m going Greater Manchester, and its a bar/coffee shop called Bask in Stockport. Opposite the train station!