CEO Marc Ellis of Thanks Again LLC: Rewards for travel and shopping

Marc Ellis, CEO of Thanks Again, LLC
Marc Ellis, CEO of Thanks Again, LLC

If you travel frequently and find yourself shopping at airports then you need the services of Thanks Again LLC. Rolling out spoke with CEO Marc Ellis about Thanks Again LLC and how his company can help your money grow when traveling.


Please tell us about Thanks Again LLC.


Thanks Again is the leading loyalty and consumer engagement platform for the global airport, shopping mall, retail developer and transportation systems industries. Thanks Again enables consumers to earn more of their favorite rewards when they complete transactions at any participating businesses; and for our business partners, we drive more revenue, loyalty and offer improved insights into their most valued customers.

Please describe your role as CEO.


My role is to clearly communicate and implement the company strategy and to efficiently allocate the resources of the firm.

What is the mission of your organization?

Thanks Again’s mission is to help consolidate the highly fragmented global loyalty industry, while driving more relevant value to our members and business partners

How do you approach business challenges?

I approach challenges by first clearly understanding the challenge. I review its origin, who or what the challenge affects, and finally I analyze reasonable solutions. I think [the] key to my management philosophy is that I expect challenges daily, and I view challenges through the lens of opportunity.

How do you evaluate talent you are hiring and what are the skills that you are looking for in this market place?  

I evaluate talent by reviewing the relevancy, value and recency of the candidate’s skill set. Once we have made the decision to create a new position, we have a clear understanding how this new addition to the team will add value and what specific skills are necessary for this person or persons to be successful. I give priority to recent examples of the requisite skill set as I know the market, technology and relationships all change so quickly in this economy.

What are the top 3 benefits to being a member of your organization?

 Autonomy – We are a very entrepreneurial company and we encourage alternative thinking to solving business challenges. I believe our management philosophy helps develop the capacity of our managers to successfully manage unique aspects typically associated with most high growth or technology firms.

Association – given the fact that Thanks Again is literally building our solutions from the ground up and has already established a very strong brand in several large industries, those associated with our story are seen as strong potential managers for future growth concepts.

Pay Off Potential – every team member is an equity owner of the firm and any potential increases in our enterprise value will directly benefit all of our employees.

How do you utilize technology to give yourself business advantages?

 Technology and technology partnerships are critical to our success. We are a technology enabled marketing services firm; we leverage technology to run our loyalty platform. Our most critical technology decisions have to been to date build versus outsource decisions. We have outsourced when we felt the risk or a cost to build technologies was too great; we build solutions when we place a premium on control and timing.

What technological advances have you used to communicate with your membership?

 We use several leading edge technologies including very sophisticated database technology, mobile applications, GPS, cloud storage and processing, mobile interaction and data file transmission technologies.

What are the 2 key factors for business successes?

 Competitive Advantage – define and defend your firm’s advantage. You must frequently understand and quantify why you are different and why you matter in your chosen marketplace.

Limit Priorities – define what you must do well and do it. Particularly with high growth firms (average 50+ percent growth Y-O-Y), you are presented with many strategic opportunities and I have found it’s very important to know when an opportunity pulls you away from your key priorities.

 Cash is King – cash is precious and limited; treat it as your most valuable resource.

Name your 3 Favorite business books for insight and inspiration? 

The Hard Things About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

The Mobile Wave by Michael Saylor

Six Disciplines Execution Revolution by Gary Harpst

If you were giving a speech to 500 workers at a retraining seminar about skill sets needed in the future to remain relevant, what would be the title of your  speech?

Find a Problem and Solve it!

Describe your leadership style?

 My team has said I’m a visionary and a salesman who hopes you can see what I see but who ultimately knows you will catch on later … I’m a big picture leader, I paint the vision and then I build the infrastructure to achieve the vision.

Visit http://thanksagain.com/ to learn more,

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