Events, News, & Ideas
Aurora’s Perspectives on SCIP’s 25th Annual ConferenceWritten by System Administrator on Mon, 04/05/2010 - 8:06am.
The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.”
Frequently Asked Questions About the New Management Structure at Aurora WDCWritten by Arik Johnson on Wed, 03/03/2010 - 4:00pm.
On Monday, March 1st, 2010 we welcomed the dawn of a new era at Aurora WDC. Derek Johnson, Aurora's Chief Operating Officer and Director of Research for the past seven years, was promoted to Chief Executive Officer while I stepped into the new role of Chairman, after having served as CEO myself since founding the company in our hometown of Chetek, Wisconsin in 1995.
Derek and I began planning for him to take the management reins of the company in the latter half of 2009 and timed the official hand off to coincide with Derek's seventh anniversary at the firm. Derek joined Aurora on March 1st, 2003 after beginning his career in the investment management business, where he earned both an executive MBA and the Chartered Financial Analyst designation among his other credentials. In fact, I had been actively recruiting Derek for several years before he finally agreed to come to Aurora. Derek's strengths in business and as a manager were so complimentary to my own it furnished us the opportunity to grow the company in new ways that I could never have managed alone.
As some of you may know, Derek and I are brothers and, right behind his eminent professional qualifications in my calculus of recruiting him, our relationship of deep mutual trust and admiration which began in childhood meant we might be able to accomplish things others could only dream of. Growing up as tight-knit brothers in a rural Midwestern community, Derek and I came to rely on one another's advice and friendship long before we ever took an interest in one another's career. We helped each other through our parents' passing and our closest friends became one another's over the years.
What this all meant for me was, there was nobody else in the world as qualified for the job as Derek was when we discussed his coming aboard in 2003 to take over my original role of running the research business of the company as I turned my attention toward expanding into new lines of business. Around the same time, my wife Tina and I started having children and Derek was once again called upon to step to the plate and take over day-to-day management, not only of research, but of company operations as a whole in my absence. This was the start of another critical transition for Aurora as the crucible of running all of the internal operations for the company (which, by then, had grown substantially from its one-man origins) became only the latest challenge Derek tackled.
Today, Derek's ready to lead Aurora into its next 15 years and we believe the benefits to the company, its people, business partners and, most importantly, to Aurora's clients, will bring a new level of passion, intellectual engagement and creativity to Aurora's offerings. Another happy, if ironic, side-effect is that Derek and I will also have the chance to work more closely together, which has been another goal of ours for a while now.
In response to some of the more frequently asked questions we've been hearing over the past few weeks in notifying and seeking advice from Aurora's “extended family” about the change, we thought it would be helpful to write a short FAQ to guide you as well. It's also been helpful for us to define the benefits for Aurora's team, for our many valued clients and friends and for one another more explicitly; but if you have additional questions that you don't see on our list, please reach out anytime to Derek or me and we'll be happy to answer them for you.
On behalf of everyone at Aurora WDC, we thank you once again for your trust and confidence these past 15 years and we look forward to celebrating with you in person at the SCIP 2010 conference next week in Washington DC or whenever we're able to see each other again in person.
Best wishes,
Arik Johnson
Founder & Chairman
What are the benefits of this change to Aurora's clients?
Most important to everyone at Aurora is how this change will affect our clients and their expectations of Aurora's ability to help satisfy their intelligence needs. Indeed, as the pace of change accelerates in every industry, the uncertainties that accompany strategy, operations, market and product decision-making also increase.
It's never really been a matter of having the right tools to anticipate disruptions to your company's status quo - we actually have that figured out pretty well - it's more a matter of leadership to confront the hard realities of the marketplace while engaging the workforce in making the tough decisions that determine the fate of organizational sustainability.
Aurora WDC will be better able to assist with client needs in our chosen service categories – or recommend referrals to similarly vetted partners when there are better options available – as a result of the managerial structure we've now put in place. But we will also be able to improve our service offering internationally in a more disciplined and organized fashion now that distinctions between Aurora's core research business and other lines of business are less of a factor at the management level.
How will Derek's role change?
While Derek will continue to oversee the operations of the core research business, reseach has become a more integral part of Aurora's complimentary lines of business so that program development can be pursued on a more integrated basis to meet more of our clients' needs. The role of COO has also been eliminated and all line of business managers will now report directly to Derek including the continuation of Aurora's various research vice presidents. This will enable Derek to look holistically at the complete enterprise for opportunities to add value to customer relationships and eliminate duplication redundancies in Aurora's various lines of business operations.
As regards developing new capabilities, Derek can also listen more directly to current clients who might have needs beyond Aurora's core research business alone and could involve intelligence needs in other areas, such as monitoring, systems consulting, program development, or training. Derek will also have more intimate relationships with Aurora's complimentary service partners around the world beyond industry, subject-matter and regional experts in the research business alone.
Derek will also be able to offer innovative program management techniques - such as Portfolio - which he has been developing while running the research business to assist client intelligence managers in finding the "efficient frontier" where ROI of their collective activities is greatest for their unique characteristics and enterprise. Portfolio as an intelligence asset management system means that those intelligence deliverables or "assets" which may once have been considered necessary but over time may have failed to prove an ROI can be reduced or eliminated while other methods which are producing a greater return on investment can be build up or increased. If you'd like to learn more about Portfolio or any of Aurora's integrated capabilities, please contact Derek directly to discuss how Aurora can help your enterprise reduce risk and exploit every opportunity to grow.
How will Arik's role change?
While Arik will remain available to work directly with Aurora's clients as requested, his focus will shift more toward topics of long-range planning, corporate identity, competency acquisition, partner relationships and the launch of Aurora's new R&D lab based in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Arik will also be engaged in developing new channels for thought leadership and intelligence community development within and beyond Aurora's current client base.
Aurora has always been disciplined in never letting our reach exceed our grasp by offering clients only those services which could be considered the very best available anywhere in the world. For all other client needs, we are diligent in screening partner firms to complement Aurora's own services or for Aurora to refer such work requests with confidence that similar high standards of client satisfaction will be met. This discipline of organizational design has become even more important as Aurora deliberately constrains its scope of services to core areas of value while stepping up recruitment of more global partners of all kinds that clients can turn to for help and which compliment our in-house capabilities.
However, there continues to be a seemingly infinite array of intelligence problems our clients face for which we have no current solution nor can we offer confident suggestions where they can turn for help. In recognition that many of these problems will require both expertise in existing methods (so as not to "reinvent the wheel") as well as creativity in the design of new solutions, Aurora has opened a new R&D lab to work directly with clients to pursue solutions together for eventual release through other organizations who might benefit from them. Though not strictly philanthropic in philosophy, the new focus on driving fresh ideas and breakthrough innovations in intelligence methodology, doctrine and theory will require new models for open collaboration among partners in the intelligence field. Without such a collaborative approach, the kinds of problems we expect to confront might never find a single sponsor to fund their resolution. And while Aurora and its clients and partners will work together toward solutions, we fully expect the side-effects of these endeavors to offer insights for Aurora's other lines of business as well as lessons for the field at large.
To support the firm's launch of this new R&D initiative, Aurora recently opened new offices near its headquarters in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin at 770 Technology Way – appropriately, perhaps, in the same building to serve as the original corporate headquarters of Cray Research, Inc., the world's first high-performance supercomputing company. Aurora's expansion in Chippewa Falls began when the company moved its headquarters to the city in 2002. So, if and when your organization is facing seemingly insoluble intelligence problems, please contact Arik directly to discuss potential research approaches.
And, finally, what are the benefits to Aurora WDC?
In a word: ambidexterity.
History has shown how difficult – even impossible – it can be for a single manager to think simultaneously about maximizing operational performance, customer satisfaction and financial results, while also looking several years down the road at where customer needs, technology and business methods are headed. And, even when s/he does, success all too often breeds complacency.
“It is a classic conundrum for business titans: How much money and attention should be focused on a new, but growing, operation that is far less profitable than the core business?”
~ Prof. Clayton Christensen, The Innovator's Dilemma
Aurora is not immune to this paradox and we believe that in order to separate near-term objectives of continuous improvement in current operations, services and capabilities while also planning long-range to be where our customers' (and non-customers') needs will be in years to come, Aurora must also to separate these two perspectives into the offices of CEO and Chairman. Aside from the tenets of good governance dictating a separation of management interests from those representing shareholders among the board, we look forward to a more collectively ambidextrous point of view in every decision Aurora makes and everything Aurora does, for our clients as well as the company we love.
Aurora WDC Names Derek Johnson CEOWritten by Arik Johnson on Mon, 03/01/2010 - 2:58pm.
Chippewa Falls, WI - March 1, 2010 - Aurora WDC, a longtime leader in global competitive and market intelligence, announced today that Derek Johnson has been named Chief Executive Officer while founder Arik Johnson has become Chairman of the fast-growing professional services firm.
"Derek's guidance as Director of Research and COO has been critical in building Aurora's presence as a trusted advisor to top managers. I'm thrilled to announce Derek's new leadership of the firm to our clients and partners around the world," said Arik. "When Derek joined the firm seven years ago I knew our clients would benefit from the discipline, focus and managerial excellence he brings to every project he's involved with and that has enabled Aurora to grow at a sustainable pace. This change will also enable us to work more closely together across lines of business."
"While I will continue to be deeply engaged with all of Aurora's research teams and their day-to-day operations, I am proud to have added several key, senior people to our research team over the past few years," Derek said. "Aurora's gifted research managers are the main reason I've had the flexibility to work on developing new capabilities for our clients and feel confident accepting this new responsibility. I look forward to working shoulder-to-shoulder with clients and Aurora's team alike just as I have always done, while also having a stronger role in guiding the overall strategy of Aurora as a company and the value more integrated solutions can provide clients in the future."
Meanwhile, in his first initiative as chairman, Arik is launching Aurora's new R&D lab focused on solving the most persistent, widespread intelligence problems with new and novel methods to reduce risk and exploit growth opportunities.
The company will be celebrating its 15th Anniversary at a special event to be held the evening of Thursday March 11th in Washington DC at the 2010 Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals 25th Annual International Conference.
About Aurora WDC:
Founded in 1995, Aurora offers clients of every kind global primary research, competitive and market analysis, monitoring and training services, software and systems consulting, counter-intelligence, integrated program development and a network of third-party solution partners to intelligence teams and their clients worldwide. For more information visit www.AuroraWDC.com or call 800-924-4249.
Media Contact:
Zach Steltenpohl
Aurora WDC
715-340-6607
10 Random Things I'm Looking Forward to at SCIP 2010 in Washington DCWritten by Arik Johnson on Wed, 02/10/2010 - 8:03pm.
10 Random Things I'm Looking Forward to at SCIP 2010 in Washington DC
Conferences are kind of expensive these days... and in more ways than one - aside from the registration fee, there's the opportunity cost of missing what you'd normally be doing back at the office, fighting the airlines to get your baggage back and avoid getting saddled with a middle seat, time away from family and friends, overpriced and underwhelming hotel room service, et cetera. Speaking of hotels, for a second, if you haven't booked your room yet, considering all the snow the Capitol has been getting lately and how many events I've heard are being pushed back a month, that's probably motivation enough to recommend you get your room booked pronto or risk crashing in Baltimore! But I digress...
Point is, while in-person conferences have produced for me some of the most rewarding relationships and experiences of my professional life, I take it pretty seriously when I decide to attend, present or sponsor an event so I can plan ahead to get the most out of it... and you should too.
So it is with the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals 2010 Annual Conference & Exhibition in Washington DC coming up March 9-12. Whenever I've gone to SCIP meetings in the past (more than a dozen now), I've made a list of the things I most want to get out of my investment of time, energy and treasure to take back and put to work for my company and career.
About 30 days before SCIP 2009 in Chicago last year I made my regular Top Ten List of those 10 high-priority "things" (sessions, people, sights, experiences, restaurants, whatever) that I was most looking forward to bringing back from my annual trek to our flagship competitive intelligence meeting. At the time, the "25 Random Things About Me" tag-challenge was going around Facebook so I thought it might be fun to share my list online - you can find it here. Honestly, I was a little worried 25 things might be a bit TOO challenging, however, so I settled on only 10 as the challenge for fellow conference-goers to review and consider sharing their own.
This week as I prepared my 2010 agenda of can't-miss highlights, I decided to repeat the challenge listing my top 10 in reverse-order, countdown-style from this year's agenda below. Once again, I found many more than 10 that I didn't want to miss; in fact, I quit counting when I reached 25! However, in the interests of brevity, I'll list just my top 10 here with a link to my blog where you can see the rest. Enjoy and please share your own list if you're planning to join me at the meeting. You'll be glad you did.
10 Random Things I'm Looking Forward to at SCIP 2010
10.) I wouldn't be doing my job very well if I didn't mention that Aurora WDC will be highlighting updates to practically our entire range of professional services and we're excited to share all of that news with our valued clients. Stop by booth #121 in the exhibit hall to learn about the latest upgrades to Aurora's real-time monitoring, program planning, primary field research, systems consulting and counter-intelligence services.
9.) Bridging the Gap Between CI and MR with Anca Costea from Covidien & Nanette Bulger from Philips Healthcare - a perennial problem amid incredible opportunity... when done right.
8.) Integrating Web 2.0 Tools in Your Intelligence Process with Phil Britton from Best Buy - a hot topic delivered by top staff at a well-known company to show us the way.
7.) The Savvy Stakeholder: CI-Driven Decision-Making moderated by Scott Leeb from Prudential Retirement & panelists Patrick Sweeney, Samuel Arbel & Craig McHenry - a couple of good friends join with a couple of new ones to show us how to make CI more effective for internal clients.
6.) Creating and Using Dynamic Topic Maps to Visualize Your Business Environment with Jesper Martell & Daniel Thomasson from Aurora software partner Comintelli - the best taxonomy technologists in the world show how to make visualization more effective.
5.) Thursday Keynote - Business Models are Changing... and so Must CI with Ravi Parmeswar from Citigroup - a call to action for CI professionals to consider new methods to support changing intelligence needs, perspective from a top client in a hyper-turbulent industry.
4.) Ask the Experts Discussion on Competitive Strategy in the New Economy moderated by Tim Kindler from Eastman Kodak & joined by panelists Daniel Pascheles from Merck & Lloyd Babbitt from W.W. Grainger - my good friend Tim leads an expert discussion among a diverse panel of the savviest CI leaders.
3.) Say It and Sit Down: The 20/20 Communication Technique with Judith Leavitt from Rockwell Collins - though she may need more 6:40 to do it, my good friend Judy introduces the CI community to the breakthrough Japanese presentation phenomenon of Pecha Kucha.
2.) Perception Mapping and Contradiction Resolution of Voice of the Customer with our good friend and world-class innovation & TRIZ expert David Conley from Intel.
1.) And the number one thing I'm looking forward to lands Thursday night (March 11th) - after you've had a chance to grab dinner, all SCIP 2010 conference-goers are invited to join us back at the Marriott to celebrate Aurora WDC's 15th Anniversary Party, starting at 8:30 PM and running until around 11:30. Entertainment for the evening will be Atlanta's own Void Where Prohibited, cash bar will be available and news on what we've got planned to kick off Aurora's next 15 years.
And here's a link to the full post on AuroraWDC.com/blog where you can see the other 15 things I came up with. If this sounds like your kind of conference, as it is mine, learn more or register at:
http://scip.cms-plus.com/files/SCIP2010.pdf
I hope to see you there,
Arik Johnson
Founder & Chairman
The Other 15 Things I'm Looking Forward to at SCIP 2010
- Interview with an In-House Corporate Strategist - Nigel Brown & Mark Little from Covance
- Best Practices for Acquiring CI from a Legal Perspective - Robert Milligan & Michael Wexler from Seyfarth Shaw LLP
- Friday Awards Breakfast
- Using Patent Intelligence to Benchmark Against Competitors - Ric Snead from Thomson Reuters
- Town Hall Meeting on CI Transitions: Public, Private, Consulting moderated by my good friend and former SCIP President Joe Goldberg from AKPD Message & Media
- Thursday Power Lunch: Networking Roundtables Hosted by Industry Leaders
- Global Counterfeit Issues and CI Strategies - Murali Parthasarathy from Learning-Organized & Branimir Brankov from Merck
- The Impact of Real Time News on the CI and MI Functions - Mike Piispanen from Thomson Reuters
- Fireside Chat on Insights from the C-Suite - Scott Leeb's Fireside Chat with Prudential Retirement CMO James Cornell
- From Product to Service: Analyzing a New Business Model - Michael Sperger from SAP
- Using Competitive Insights to Help Develop and Implement Corporate Strategy - Dale Fehringer from Inkwell Productions & Melanie Wing from Whirlpool
- Polishing a Diamond: Making Good CI Products Great! - Dan Mulligan & Louise Killeen from Mercyhurst
- How to Secure CEO Buy-In to Your CI Program: Case Study & Global Best Practices - Victor Knip from GIA & Michel Bernaiche from Dunkin’ Brands
- Wednesday Keynote - Creative Destruction: The Prospects for Strong and Sustained U.S. Economic Growth - Paul Thomas from Intel
- And, of course, morning workouts with Aurora Sports and anyone who cares to join us - we've got running and walking routes laid out or hit the gym for a light weights workout. Send me an email if you want the Team Aurora schedule to join in the fun.
You know, now that I'm finished writing all that out, I've thought of a few more - I always enjoy the Fellows dinner as one of the sub-communities at SCIP, but there are other interest group events like the Women's Leadership Council or International Committee get-togethers to look up. Assuming you don't already have plans for every meal with people you're meeting, you can join evening dine-arounds for dinner. Then, there's the Solutions Wheel SCIP brought over from Frost & Sullivan's conference, kind of like speed-dating, it's a great way to meet lots of people in the know. Speaking of whom, among the rest of the exhibitors in the exhibit hall there are a bunch of great ones to be sure and talk to including Digimind and Traction Software, both best-of-breed software partners of Aurora's. Then of course there's the…
Well… I think you get my point - hopefully this has given you a taste of what you might expect to experience at SCIP 2010 next month - and, I hope you'll look me up too if you're there.
See you in DC!
- Arik
The RECONNAISSANCE Report for Wednesday 3 February 2010 - Celebrating Aurora WDC's 15th AnniversaryWritten by Arik Johnson on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 5:10pm.
On the 3rd day of February way back in 1995, I had the privilege of filing articles of incorporation for Aurora Worldwide Development Corporation, which is today known by a shorter name: Aurora WDC. While I wasn't necessarily sure Aurora would go on to become a leader in competitive intelligence, I was determined that, whichever direction market demand carried us, the firm would never let its reach exceed its grasp and always strive to do the very best work of its kind in hope of delighting clients with value that exceeded their expectations.
All throughout the month of February we'll be celebrating Aurora WDC's 15th Anniversary and we'd love to have you be part of it. We're sharing a few memories, making some announcements, distributing lots of new ideas and hosting events at the very cutting edge of intelligence best practices... all with the goal of making your work more effective and valuable to the enterprise you serve.
There's something new every business day and to make receiving updates more convenient for you in real-time, you can select your preferred social network for updates from the list below. If you prefer, simply continue to receive the email version of the newsletter once each week with a digest of what we've been up to or visit www.AuroraWDC.com/blog to find updates on the Web. Whichever method you prefer, we're looking forward to sharing the deep experience and expertise of our people and partners with you - and hopefully we'll learn something from you in the bargain.
Follow Aurora on Twitter @AuroraWDC
Fan Aurora on Facebook
Connect with Aurora on LinkedIn
Please join me all month long in celebrating this milestone with us and in thanking our clients, partners, friends and dedicated personnel for 15 years of intelligence excellence.
To everyone who's been a part of what Aurora has become over the years, your passion humbles me... but you've also made me very, very proud - here's to 15 more! (At least...)
Cheers!
Founder & Chairman
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