Jagler: Marcus Theatres' Rolando Rodriguez is reinventing the moviegoing experience

Young moviegoers will never know what it was like to pay $2 and sit in a movie cinema in the 20th century.

No hard-cushioned seats with uneven springs … no flickering light and noise from the film projector … no mediocre sound systems.

These days, we're living large, resting comfortably in a leather Dream Lounger recliner, surrounded by lush Dolby Atmos multidimensional sound, watching bright, high-definition digital images.

We don’t even have to go out to dinner and then go to a movie. Instead, we can have Zaffiro’s Pizza for dinner at the theater before or during the movie.

Marcus Theatres of Milwaukee has invested more than $350 million over the past five years to upgrade and modernize its cinemas and reinvent the moviegoing experience.

The division of The Marcus Corp. appointed Rolando Rodriguez as its president and chief executive officer in 2013, and he was tasked with leading the Marcus Theatres transformation. He added the title of chairman in January 2017.

Under Rodriguez's leadership, Marcus Theatres has grown to become the fourth-largest cinema circuit in the nation, owning or operating 885 screens at 68 locations in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and Ohio.

“The industry had to go through a total recapitalization,” Rodriguez said. “Food and beverage is now part of the dynamics of going to the movies. You can actually experience a meal and have a cocktail with your spouse. The best thing that they (customers) had at home, I brought to the theaters. The comfy chairs.”

However, the one aspect of moviegoing that will never change, according to Rodriguez, is the communal experience of seeing a movie with others … the sharing of laughter, sadness, suspense, terror, astonishment, anguish, enlightenment, triumph and even redemption.

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Rodriguez’s own life story is the stuff movies are made of. He arrived in the U.S. as a child with his brother and his parents after they defected from Cuba in 1960.

“We didn’t know one word of English. Our parents wanted something better for their kids,” he said.

Rodriguez says he is paying close attention to the debates surrounding the rise of Donald Trump as president and Trump’s quest to change America’s immigration laws and build a wall along its southern border.

Without passing direct judgment, Rodriguez says, “It’s an important topic that needs to be resolved.”

Resolution is obviously an important strand of Rodriguez’s DNA. For this week’s column, I asked Rodriguez to devise a listicle of the seven keys to reinventing success in a mature industry. Here it is:

1. Understand your market position. “When an industry, product or service begins to mature, it is imperative the leaders engage in honest conversation — first with themselves. Understand your market position, opportunities for reinvention, and the time and effort it’s going to take to reposition the brand. The greater the competition, the more this is relevant. Ignoring the signs will only lead to a longer reinvention journey,” he said.
2. Diversify your services and product offerings to current and future customers. “Consumer expectations for the value/price proposition are greater than ever. Understand not just your current customers, but study the trends and forecasts for future customers, and invest in products and services that will meet the needs of both. This often comes with greater risk but also a larger payback,” he said.
3. Build a diverse and dynamic team. “Talent will make or break your strategy. A culture that not only embraces diversity of experience, gender, ethnicity, race, etc., but also integrates diversity into its business practices is very simply required in today’s business environment. This, combined with talent that is committed to excellence, will outperform the competition, every day. Every organization has untapped potential within their current employee base. Learning how to tap that potential may be the differentiator between winning and losing the war for talent,” he said.
4. Make moderate, calculated decisions and implement them aggressively. “Risk-taking happens on many levels. When reinventing a mature business, analytics can be your friend or your foe. Understand the role of data and analysis — quality and quantity — based upon the context of the decision at hand. Once decisions are made, execute upon them quickly but effectively,” he said.
5. Set the bar high and remove the barriers and excuses. “Implement a ‘can do’ and ‘will do’ approach to achieving goals. Activity is not equal to results. Mature industries require both recognition of history and an acknowledgment of the changes needed for future success. Therefore, drive a culture in which the bar is set high, new ideas are encouraged and the results are not just ‘nice to achieve’ but ‘expected to achieve,’” he said
6. Don’t accept the status quo — from individuals, the organization or the industry. “Acceptance of status quo can be the nemesis of progress. Reinvention at its core requires leaders to have a level of discontent towards the status quo. Be open to questioning the why, how and what your organization does. With this thinking, reinvention becomes the fabric of the culture,” he said.
7. Bring courage to the party. “You’ll need it. Organizations don’t reinvent themselves — mature industry or not — without leadership courage. Very simply, the right decisions may not be the most popular ones. Once the vision is set, leaders bring it to life. Avoiding difficult decisions doesn’t make them easier. If you make mistakes, own them and apologize. If you reach unprecedented levels of performance, celebrate. Leaders who reinvent not only use courage but encourage the use of courage in all aspects of the organization,” he said.

Steve Jagler is the business editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. C-Level stands for high-ranking executives, typically those with “chief” in their titles. Send C-Level column ideas to him at steve.jagler@journalsentinel.com.

Rolando Rodriguez

Title: Chairman, president and CEO

Company: Marcus Theatres, Milwaukee

Expertise: Retail and entertainment

Previous experience: More than 30 years in the entertainment and retail industries. He previously was CEO of Rave Cinemas and held management positions at Walmart and AMC Theatres.

Hometown: Kansas City, Mo.

Education: Bachelor of science degree, Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla.; and a master’s degree in business administration, Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Mo.

Family: Wife, Maria; daughters, Kristina, Gina, Jessica and Claudia; and dogs, Taz and Chuy

Best advice ever received: “From my father: The fight you win is the one you never have. And the one thing no one can ever take from you is your education.”

Favorite movie: “Top Gun”

Favorite musical artists: Josh Groban and Gloria Estefan

Favorite Wisconsin restaurant: The Pfister Café, Milwaukee