Pam Schlenvogt credits her position as director of credit card services and business development for the Marcus Corp. to her Cardinal Stritch University MBA.
Schlenvogt has spent 18 years with Marcus, and prior to completing her MBA managed marketing functions for Marcus’ restaurant division. Within two weeks of completing her graduate degree, she was offered her current position.
While her employer helped financially with the cost of the degree, Schlenvogt said she was determined to advance her education even without outside help.
“Marcus provided tuition reimbursement,” she said. “But I would have gotten my MBA anyway. But it is nice to know the company supports my education. This assistance is available at the bachelor’s level as well. They see this as an investment in their employees. Steve Marcus and (the late) Ben Marcus always believed their employees are their No. 1 asset. Ben used to say he could go to the bank and get money, but he couldn’t go to the bank and get good employees.”
As it turns out, even as Marcus Corp. was helping Schlenvogt pay for her degree, the company was planning the initiatives she would take over after graduation.
“This program was developing behind the scenes without my knowing it,” Schlenvogt said. “All the work was done by Bruce Olson — president of the theater division — with a consultant before I knew the program existed. Then, when they did the proformas and the ROIs, they realized it was a program they wanted to pursue — and that was when I was offered the position.”
Apart from the hands-on and classroom learning that came with the degree, Schlenvogt said that completion of an MBA says something about a person’s ability to get things done.
“To be able to go school full-time, work full-time and have family full-time — that shows the ability to prioritize,” Schlenvogt said.
Schlenvogt graduated with her MBA in 1998. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Stritch. Apart from her position at Marcus, Schlenvogt is also teaching at Stritch, Keller Graduate School of Management and Marian College.
In her position, Schlenvogt develops and manages credit cards and corporate travel management products, including the Marcus Rewards MasterCard and the Baymont Rewards MasterCard.
Dollars charged on the cards earn points that can be redeemed for premiums, including Marcus Theater tickets, tickets to Wisconsin Dells attractions and stays at Marcus hotels. Charges at a Bonus Partner location, like a Marcus hotel or theater, earn twice as many points as other purchases.
Now that the programs are up and running, Schlenvogt is kept busy recruiting and working with new strategic partners, and manages the advertising campaigns to support the programs.
Schlenvogt is also responsible for Marcus’ Corporate Travel Program, which assists corporations in tracking and managing the expenses of their traveling executives. The program should soon benefit from a major upgrade in technology, according to Schlenvogt.
“We are finalizing a deal with Wells Fargo for a Purchasing Card Program — which is essentially a corporate credit card program,” Schlenvogt said. “Wells Fargo issues credit cards for the corporation and the statement from Wells Fargo interfaces with our general ledger. We are trying to eliminate the paper shuffling of expense reports.”
Dollars, sense
Schlenvogt said her role with the company involves a lot of serious financial planning, but includes other business disciplines as well.
“A lot of it is financial management — but there is also major marketing, strategic planning and partnership marketing,” she said.
Her role can be divided as well between planning the various programs and managing them once they are off the ground.
“I like them both,” Schlenvogt said of her dual role in creating and managing projects. “Managing is not as difficult as putting it together. Putting together a program is a very, very huge undertaking — involving operations, IT, human resources — all are players and impacted by the program. The capital investment is large as well. It takes easily a year and a half to two years to put together a very effective program. Once they are implemented, then it is fun. You get to design relationships with partners, design marketing programs — it is far more task-oriented.”
Schlenvogt said her coursework helped her gain skills that help her every day. The competencies she gained could be divided into a few basic categories, including financial management, marketing, time management and prioritizing.
Other traits are less tangible and harder to define, she said.
“You need to develop flexibility,” Schlenvogt said. “There are so many things that can happen where you have to realign your priorities. And interpersonal skills are critical. During our studies, we are dependent on our study groups. You use what you learn there in managing other people. You need to be able to manage conflict. You have to look at someone and tell them both good and bad. If it is my decision to be in upper management, I have to able to address performance issues, support people in decisions I wouldn’t have made and come up with ways to make situations that aren’t positive into positive situations.”
Flexibility key
In choosing Stritch for her MBA, Schlenvogt was motivated more by scheduling concerns than loyalty to her alma mater.
“I looked at UWM, Marquette and Stritch,” Schlenvogt said. “I selected Stritch because the core curriculum was strong — but what I liked about Stritch the most was that the schedule fit into my personal schedule and lifestyle. I didn’t care how much time it took outside the course. But I didn’t have the time to go to school three nights a week or all day Saturday or Sunday. Four hours a week is not asking too much as far as classroom time.”
Schlenvogt said the content of Stritch classes was “at the same level as at Marquette. The strength of the classes and the credibility were equal to other universities in town. When it seemed all else was equal, I went after the schedule that best fit my lifestyle.”
Even with the most advantageous class schedule, though, Schlenvogt said working MBA students need to make sacrifices.
“They have to realize up front that something has to give,” she said. “More often than not it is personal time — your favorite TV program or that one night you spend time out with friends. In their whole day, they need to manage time so they have productive quiet time where they can truly concentrate on their homework and projects. Quality productive time means you get more done in less time. Your papers should be focused on issues your company is involved in — that way you can leverage your work time. I normally didn’t study until the kids were in bed — I never opened a book in front of the kids. They only knew I was in school because I was at class one night a week.”
Using that method, Schlenvogt got through the MBA program in two years. Apart from the boost that her MBA has given her career, Schlenvogt seems to value her learning experiences as an end in themselves.
“We learn so much from each other and each other’s experiences,” Schlenvogt said. “I can take a book home and read it. But it is the environment where we learn from each other and research and analyze a project and report back — and the insight the instructors provide — that’s value.”
MBA not for everyone but …
While Schlenvogt said that MBAs are not for everyone, she does think they are appropriate for those who want to advance within a management structure.
“It really depends on how far you want to go in management,” she said. “If you are not interested in senior management or would prefer to stay in a line or entry-level management, that’s different. Not everyone enjoys the fast-paced job of upper management and making the necessary decisions.”
While an MBA is a natural for those within a large corporation, entrepreneurs or those in smaller organizations can also benefit, according to Schlenvogt.
“Even an entrepreneur should get an MBA,” she said. “After all, they have to understand financial statements, ratios and accounting — and be able to write business plans. I certainly wouldn’t want to put all my trust in an accountant.”
Having an MBA makes you more competitive in the job market, according to Schlenvogt, and for higher-end positions, an undergraduate degree just may not cut it anymore.
“There are still more bachelor’s than master’s degrees out there,” she said. “But people are realizing that master’s are becoming more important. Bachelor’s degrees are a minimum. If you want to advance, a master’s degree will help you. Employment ads used to say ‘master’s preferred.’ Now they say ‘MBA required.’ If you get an MBA and you have great work experience, it is a package that becomes very competitive.”
Schlenvogt acknowledges that the MBA is not the only game in town — and some professionals may benefit from other graduate degrees.
“There are some good investment offerings, some human resources product offerings — people going to school to make themselves more valuable are doing the right thing,” she said. “The point is that lifeline learning is going to help. Some people need nothing more than a certificate, and that’s fine.”
But in an industry where, according to Schlenvogt, bachelor’s degrees and even high school diplomas are the norm for upper managers, Schlenvogt says her degree is invaluable.
“I was glad for my education when we put together the projections for how long would it be before a program would break even, have positive cashflow — and how long before there would be a return on the investment,” Schlenvogt said. “These things are important for a publicly-held company. With what I learned in financial management classes, we were able to come up with a good, educated projection. Bruce Olson and his experience came into play. But it sure helped me make myself a stronger person on the team. The more experience I get analyzing financial statements, the more flexible I become. Hopefully, it has given the people I work with more comfort when they ask me to take on a project of that level.”
August 31, 2001 Small Business Times, Milwaukee
