Incoming ProSource President Focused on Growing Retail's Talent Base

New ProSource President Jim Pearse feels like he’s “returning to his roots,” the 30-year consumer tech retail veteran told Consumer Electronics Daily Friday. Pearse, who most recently was president of Wireless Advocates and also had stints at Sears and Ultimate Electronics, is on a transition path to succeed CEO David Workman. Pearse declined to nail down a date when Workman, “a legend in the industry,” will hand over the reins, saying the two have been “good friends” for many years and are working closely together during the transition. In his first two months, Pearse has been getting up to speed on the custom side of the business to focus on “delivering value to vendors,” while Workman focuses on the larger dealers. The group’s overarching challenge is dealers’ persistent pain point -- finding, training and retaining skilled technicians, he said. "Finding people has always been a problem" for the industry, Pearse said. There's more emphasis on it now because of the growth of the custom electronics market: "You can't grow without people." ProSource is expanding ProSource University to provide hands-on training through three-day classes. “No question there’s demand for it,” Pearse said, and the group continues to add classes, he said. On whether his wireless industry experience will have an application at ProSource, Pearse said wireless is a different model based on heavy foot traffic but there could be partnerships in the future. He said the custom home automation business has moved more mainstream in the past 10 years with more affordable control systems from Control4 and Savant and more robust integration: “It’s not as intimidating and complicated.”