Evening MBA alumni spotlight: Chris Sutton

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Kelley School Evening MBA alum Chris Sutton presents to a group of students.

Go make your own luck.

It’s an important message for students from Chris Sutton, a 2011 Kelley School of Business Evening MBA graduate and the senior vice president of marketing at Indianapolis-based hhgregg.

“Go make your opportunity,” said Sutton. “My advice to students is to figure out first what you want to do in life and where you want to live. If you spend all your energies honed in on those two things, you’ll find a job, and you’ll find a job you like. Too many times I see students get their degrees, then blast out their résumés to California, Chicago, and New York. I say to that—you’re not focused enough.”

Sutton grew up in Elkhart, Indiana, and he received his bachelor’s degree in 2000 from the Kelley School in Bloomington. After graduation, he found a job with Disney’s Home Entertainment division in Los Angeles.

His first job wasn’t an easy find. He knew he wanted to start in entertainment marketing, and he worked to secure the contacts and experiences that would eventually lead to an internship and, later, a full-time job.

As a junior marketing major, Sutton became the director of advertising for the Hometown Cinema Film Festival at IU. He met an IU alum who offered him a brand marketing internship at Disney, which he completed the summer before his senior year. Sutton returned to LA for a full-time job in brand marketing following graduation.

Is there ever a “right time?”

“I decided to go back to school for my MBA after about nine years of working in the marketing field,” said Sutton. “It was something I always wanted to do. I didn’t know when the right time would be, but I would tell people that there’s never a right time. You just have to set the goal. Tell yourself: I’m going to go get my MBA, whether it’s in a full-time program or a part-time program, like the Evening MBA Program at Kelley Indianapolis. You just have to decide: I’m going to go do this. Now is the right time.”

“I had a mentor who told me once, ‘time passes by either way, and it’s what you do with your time that can become rewarding.’ I decided in the summer of 2009 that it was the right time.”

Sutton’s decision to choose the Kelley Indianapolis for his MBA wasn’t hard, mostly because he realized he needed to be challenged.

“As I was trying to decide which MBA program to choose, I was debating between Kelley and one other school. I knew Kelley was the best school in the region, by far, but at the time, I thought I wanted to take the quickest and easiest path.

“So I called my mentor, and he said to me very simply, ‘Chris, why are you calling me with this decision? The answer is easy, and you should know what the answer is.’

"And the answer was easy. The Kelley School of Business has the best program in the region – and beyond that, far and wide. I chose IU for that reason.

At the Kelley School, you have to earn it. You have to want it. You have to put in the hard work.

Chris Sutton, Evening MBA'11

“I chose Kelley Indianapolis for that reason. I knew it would be the best for my career and the best opportunity to meet other business professionals throughout Indianapolis. I knew it wouldn’t be the easiest program, but I knew it would be worth it," said Sutton.

Decisive leadership

“When I started my MBA program with Kelley in 2009, I was working with hhgregg, and we were growing—adding 30 to 40 stores every year, essentially. The Kelley MBA gave me an appreciation of the executive decisions my leadership at hhgregg had to be making. What are some new marketing tactics and technologies that are in the marketplace? We learned how to understand financials, how to understand operations, and how to get your product from the manufacturer to the warehouse and to consumers’ homes,” said Sutton.

The Kelley network

Sutton has stayed in touch with many of his Kelley Evening MBA classmates since that time, and he says they still get together to this day. Also, Sutton often visits the Kelley School to talk to current students as a guest lecturer.

“I enjoy using my story to help students make important decisions in their careers,” he added. “Whether it is to go into marketing or another business field, I use what I’ve learned in life to help them in their decision-making.”

Because making the decision to go for it—to seize the moment–is crucial. Sutton says finding that moment and using it to build momentum is what will set you apart from others.