Auror makes first
hire in North America
Open for Business in North America:
Welcoming Bobby Haskins
A few weeks ago, I made a massive career (and life) decision, to leave an Asset
Protection (AP) job that I love, where I worked with great people and supportive
management, to jump onboard with an exciting new entrant to the North American
market as their first US team member.
I've always been motivated by the opportunity to challenge teams and people to
think differently. This mentality is grounded in the desire to help teams and
people drive improvement from that change. Through my role in Asset Protection
Innovation at Target and my involvement with the
LPRC, I've had the opportunity
to help improve the collective AP industry, with a passion for experimenting and
learning from new capabilities.
It was in this role that I first came across
Auror, a young and ambitious
company from New Zealand helping retailers report, solve, and prevent crime
in-stores. I stumbled across them in one of the far corners of the giant
exhibitor hall of NRF Protect in DC in 2017.
While they were early in their journey and capability, what struck me was
their innovative approach to supporting retailers to combat crime and ORC in
stores. They wanted to learn about our challenges around crime in-stores and
they listened. They also like challenging the status-quo. I believe this
approach is critical in helping
Asset
Protection make step changes in this country.
We've kept in touch over the last couple of years and I've watched their
thinking evolve. Earlier in 2018, they told me they were going to rebuild their
Retail Crime Intelligence
Platform from the ground up. I asked them why, given
their existing platform was already very impressive looking and helping
retailers in Australia and New Zealand achieve unheard of levels of reduction in
losses in the market. It came down to all their learnings (they really were
listening) from discussions with major retailers in North America and the UK,
and knowing they needed to provide more flexibility, enterprise level control,
and capability. They felt it would be easier to do this by rebuilding from the
ground up. It's this boldness, long-term thinking, and belief in how they are
supporting retailers that got me excited!
Before I go any further on why I joined the Auror team, let's address the big
elephant in the room... how do you actually pronounce Auror? While using our thick
American accent to pronounce Auror it is best to think "Aura", like an aura of
mystery (exactly how we all felt about how to pronounce Auror). Hope that clears
it up for everyone!
So why did I join the Auror team?
-
In my
previous role in AP Innovation, and chairing the LPRC LP Innovation
Working Group I spent a lot of time looking at new technologies in
AP (and wider). I found many incumbent solution partners in the AP
space continue to innovate around features which can generate
incremental improvement, but very few solution partners are bold
enough to challenge the whole approach to a problem like stopping
crime in your stores. Innovating around a problem first is where I
believe the potential for step change improvement exists.
-
Retailers
continue to invest significantly in reducing external theft related
loss. But it's hard to really turn the dial. I believe there is a
lot of opportunity in this space, to help retailers reduce external
lost, and invest less to do it.
-
There is
industry appetite to collaborate around ORC. The problem has gotten
that bad. I believe technology has a significant role to play to
underpin the AP industry's efforts. I believe this is the
opportunity for Auror. To help support the industry to collaborate
effectively to combat ORC once and for all.
It's
clear I've got big aspirations for how using
Asset Protection and Loss
Prevention software can evolve their approach to combating crime and ORC
in-stores. Like all new approaches, there are some challenges that will need to
be overcome around this approach but I'm excited to meet and work with the
innovators and early adopters in the industry to help reduce crime in your
stores.
If you can't wait that long and want a sneak peak of the new platform before it
launches in April, drop me a note at bobby@auror.co or visit
auror.co/coming-in-april
Keep fighting the good fight!
Bobby
