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Shaping The Future of Retail feat. Ramon Marquez ’25 and Taylin Luzcando
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Retail executive Ramon Marquez can point to virtually every store in a shopping mall and explain how he helped that brand grow.
With a passion for retail dating back to his childhood, he’s built a career as a leader in merchandising, product management and retail operations for major retailers like JCPenney, Abercrombie & Fitch, Old Navy, and is now shaping the future of Kmart and Sears.
As a newly minted MBA graduate, Ramon gained not only a degree from Rice, but also a meaningful board appointment with Panama-based company, Effluz. After working with Effluz on his Global Field Experience, Ramon remained close with the company, which was founded by Taylin Luzcando and specializes in premature baby clothing and accessories.
Ramon and Taylin join co-host Brian Jackson ’21 to chat about Ramon’s career journey from his grandfather’s general store in Mexico to the C-suite of some of the biggest global retailers, as well as why he decided to pursue an MBA at Rice and how he’s made an impact at Effluz. Founder Taylin also shares the personal origins of Effluz and why entrepreneurs should jump at the chance to partner with Rice’s Global Field Experience program.
Episode Guide:
01:41 Ramon's Early Career and Rise in Retail
06:05 Leadership and Adaptability in Retail
07:41 Pursuing an MBA at Rice Business
10:52 Joining the Board of a Panamanian Startup
13:34 Insights on Retail and Future Plans
21:03 Personal Life and Community Involvement
26:10 Meet Taylin Luzcando, founder of Effluz
31:11 Taylin’s Experience with Rice’s Global Field Experience Program
Owl Have You Know is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.
Episode Quotes:
How one class changed Ramon’s path
19:14: [Ramon Marquez] Towards the end of the MBA... and one of the very last classes I took was Life of Meaning. It’s an entrepreneurship lab. And what that class does is that it takes a look at where you want to be and how you fill the gap. And we did a lot of frameworks that helped me map out what is next. So, there were a lot of great things that came out of it. One was that I really didn’t have a plan in writing or a roadmap to where I want to land. In the class, part of the frameworks will get you back to, like, what are you passionate about? What is it that you wanted to do when you were a kid? What are the things that you don’t want to be left undone? And it helped me realize that, you know, there’s an entrepreneurial side of me that I have never explored.Why Ramon says passion for your job matter
14:37: [Ramon Marquez] I encourage everyone, whatever you do, position yourself in a place where you love it, that you’re so intrigued and so inquisitive and so passionate. And a lot of people come to me and say, you know, “How do you get your job?” And I say, “Well, you have to be interested and passionate about retail. If you’re not, don’t get my job, because then it’s too much pressure. It’s too hectic. It’s too fast. It’s too vulnerable. It’s too difficult right now. Retail is really difficult.” But if you think about the fact that, you know, merchants have been around for thousands of years and commerce has existed from the beginning of time, retail’s not going to go away. It’s just the way that we will get to know what it’s like. And for that, I don’t have the answer, in case you were wondering.
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