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Spencer Marquis focuses on building leadership experience post college

Learn Spencer Marquis' secret to developing stronger leadership skills.

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Spencer Marquis grew up attending PMMI meetings with his grandfather, Ted Marquis Sr., who founded Marq Enterprises, a Yakama, Wash.-based secondary packaging equipment manufacturer. Instead of working for the family business after studying engineering at the University of Idaho, Marquis worked at Omega Design Corp. to learn the packaging industry through a different lens. After one year of working for Omega, Marquis came back to Marq Enterprises to focus on building and leading the family business as a mechanical engineer.

PP-OEM: What drove you to work for a different company out of college?
Omega President Glen Siegele and my dad knew each other through PMMI, and after I graduated college, Siegele offered me a temporary position. My plan was always to come work for the family business, but I wanted to get some experience outside of Marq Enterprises and see how another company worked. That’s where the Omega venture came in. Moving to a whole new environment where I didn’t know any of the employees, was quite the experience for me. Some of the procedures we have here at Marq may be working for us, but that doesn’t mean they are the best procedures out there. After my time at Omega Design Corp., I was able to bring in some new ideas to Marq, and it definitely benefited us. My experience at Omega also helped me become a better communicator and coordinator.

PP-OEM: How did you keep developing those interpersonal skills when you got back to Marq?
I just finished PMMI’s Leadership Development Program two months ago with my brother, and that was an eye-opening experience. Working at a family-owned business, you are used to the ways things go, and you just accept that. But through this class, I was able to step back, look at what our next action was going to be as a company, and why we were going to do that. Then I learned how to look at the people involved in that action and break the situation down to a personal level, get feedback, and successfully set forth in the direction we wanted to go with the support of the people involved. The class teaches you how to deal and interact with people who have different behavioral styles. It was a really good start for me, and I hope to be able to effectively manage and communicate with my employer, coworkers, and customers from here on out.

PP-OEM: Aside from taking on more leadership roles, what’s next for you at Marq?
Marq aims to make it easier for end users to fix and keep up with their equipment. The company released two new machines within the past two years, and as a mechanical engineer, I am tasked with trying to keep the machines simple enough that end-user operators don’t have to have a lot of expertise to troubleshoot the machine or perform changeovers. Most of our machines are already to a point where, with a little bit of experience, operators can run and troubleshoot them. We are trying to improve that accessibility even more so that a mom and pop shop could get one of our case sealers at an inexpensive price, it will do everything they need, and they can still troubleshoot it.

PP-OEM: Since you recently graduated college, do you have any advice for those entering the industry?
The packaging industry is so diverse, and it has many options for all kinds of engineers. I know some people who have been able to move around the country and travel because of their engineering jobs in the packaging industry. I also know others who didn’t get an engineering degree who were able to learn from their employer and learn to do 3D modeling at which point they were able to design the equipment efficiently and effectively. It doesn’t necessarily take the degree to get into this field.

PP-OEM: When you and your fellow engineering students were looking for jobs, did you notice anything unique about the way companies recruited employees? How does Marq handle recruitment?  
At Marq, we were having difficulties finding design and mechanical engineers that had the skill set we needed. We would bring people in and they would stay for eight or nine months and leave. Recently, we have turned that around by hiring students during their last two summers of college, and letting them work part time. Then, we bring them in as a part of the team after they graduate and have those two summers worth of experience under their belt.

To learn more about PMMI’s Leadership Development Program, visit: www.pmmi.org/ELN

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