10 QUESTIONS WITH…


Each issue, we ask a flooring industry professional 10 Questions. This month, we chatted to Rohit Sharma, resilient sales manager, Bona.


is astounding. He is a great leader, a very good coach, and brilliant at what he does. He’s also incredibly selfless.


Q5


What’s the best advice you could give to


someone new coming into Q1


What was your first job? I grew up in Canada and aged


14 I took my first job as a newspaper carrier which I kept going for two years. After I graduated from university, I joined an internship programme with EPCOR, a utility company in Canada, and stayed for three years working in marketing as it ran through privatisation.


Q2 Q3 Q4


How did you get into the industry?


At the time, I worked for construction materials manufacturer Saint-Gobain and I was living in the USA. After immigrating to the UK, I chose to work with Bona as it’s in a similar field – just engaging with different end users.


What has been your proudest moment?


Graduating from university. It ended a challenging moment in my life and I felt rewarded at my achievement. I think it marked the end of my youth and further engrained me into adulthood with no strings attached.


If you could hire anyone to be part of your team,


who would it be and why? As a pillar of the community, the family, and the extended family, I would hire my father. He has a lot of qualities that he has instilled in me, and his level of responsibility and dedication to his craft


42 | 10 QUESTIONS Q7


If you could have a dinner party with any


three people, dead or alive, who


would you choose and why? I struggle with hypotheticals like this.


the industry? Spend less time on business development and more on relationship building because if you can learn just a little from an individual, you’ll do yourself a big favour. Building equity with key individuals, sitting with them and gaining their knowledge and learning with them is something that you won’t find in a book. The biggest goal should not be to worry about the level of sales, and instead how much skills and knowledge you can absorb from stakeholders.


Q6


What’s the first thing you’d buy if you won


the lottery? Anyone expecting a house from me will be grossly disappointed. I would remove the financial barriers for anybody who wants to learn and pay for their tuition or a student loan to ensure they receive a well-rounded education.


I am happy with the people I have dinner with now to be honest. Perhaps someone like Robin Williams and even Jim Carrey. That would be a laugh-fest I am sure, but I also admire their honesty behind their personas. I suppose I’ll have to invite my wife as well; she wouldn’t forgive me if I didn’t have her along.


Q8


What did you want to be when you were


growing up? All sorts of things, yet I honestly never considered the area I’m in now as an option. Instead, I was thinking more along the lines of a doctor or a lawyer. I actually trained to be a science teacher at university, but circumstances meant I never pursued teaching as a career.


Q9


What do you think the future holds for flooring?


The key is sustainability; an area which as a global innovator of sustainable practices, has been embedded in the Bona culture since 1919. In fact, Bona has pioneered some of the most important environmental innovation in the flooring industry. Moving forward, the green curve is going to continue to be a big thing for the industry – achieving more with less impact on the environment.


Q10


Louise Walters, Commercial Director at


Designer Contracts, asked: How important is accessing sustainable


floorcoverings to your customer? It’s a tier one quality in our industry. People are much more conscious about the impact that our choices make on the planet. There has been exponential change and every year the eco-friendly aspects of our products and solutions are of greater importance to customers; interestingly this can mean different things to different customers.


www.bona.com/en-gb/facility-solutions


www.bona.com/en-gb/ facility-solutions


Check out next month’s issue to see what Rohit asked our next industry professional.


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