Spotlight on Leadership: Bobby Haskins

Who is Bobby Haskins?

Bobby joined Auror, the Retail Crime Intelligence platform, as Director of Market Development - North America & Retail Asset Protection about a year ago. Before Auror he held a variety of roles across asset protection and store operations. His most recent role was leading Assets Protection (AP) Innovation at Target Corporation, where he’s seen first hand how new technology can empower asset protection and stores teams. We hand over to Bobby to give his thoughts on his experience with Auror so far. 

What success have you seen with stopping crime with Auror so far?

One of the most common challenges facing the Loss Prevention (LP) industry in North America is how to effectively work together to stop crime. Prolific offenders move quickly, they work together, and share intelligence on how to defeat specific retailers in near real-time. They move from store to store causing thousands of dollars in loss in a matter of hours because they know they have anonymity due to the silos of our industry.
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Retailers in New Zealand and Australia have made a fundamental change in how they address their crime challenges and they are seeing some amazing results. What have they done differently?

These retailers have gone from addressing crime in single player mode to multi-player, they have a connected industry working together with no delays caused by information silos. It’s part of the reason why retailers are seeing a 20% to 50% reduction in total shrink. We've termed this category shift as Retail Crime Intelligence, which focuses on connecting all your technologies and data sources into a single intelligence hub, enabling your LP/AP and store teams to manage investigations, collaborate with each other, and external partners all in one platform.
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Expectation prior vs experience since joining Auror?

Having worked with some of the Auror team for a few years before joining, I had high hopes and expectations. It’s been awesome to work with a team that comes to work everyday with the mission of enabling retailers to stop crime, for good. I’m also fortunate that I get the opportunity to engage with AP professionals across the industry about how we can leverage different technologies to create an industry-wide, connected ecosystem to help stop crime.  Plus, the trips to our  New Zealand office, particularly Waiheke (AKA wine island) are an added bonus! 

Any learnings coming from retail to the solution partner side of AP?

I remember a moment a few months into my time at Auror, I was chatting with a contact in the industry and they asked me how it was going on the “dark side”. It was a funny exchange but for me my transition to the solution partner side hasn’t been that dramatic. While on the retailer side I was focused on new technology and solutions that could benefit Target, now I have the opportunity to focus on solutions that have the potential to benefit the entire industry. It’s never been about the “dark side” or “light side” for me, it’s about relationships and how you can leverage those relationships to elevate the collective. 
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Just how bad are retailers constrained by technology?

The technology currently available to the loss prevention industry is unlike anything we have seen in the past. Advances in computer vision that identifies point of sale non-scan events, like Everseen, to facial recognition for advanced identification of prolific offenders, like FaceFirst, retailers have the ability to deploy best-of-breed solutions that solve specific elements of their loss challenges. The current technology solutions available provide different critical data points or intelligence on those people causing a majority of your loss. But each of these technologies alone won’t stop crime, for good. Gone are the days of settling for a “one-stop shop” solution that isn’t best for solving all of your challenges.

That’s the current challenge facing retailers, how do you select the right technology, deploy, and integrate them into a user friendly ecosystem for all users in your organization. 
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Most impactful moment since joining Auror?

There isn’t one impactful moment that jumps out but instead, it’s a collection of small moments that have made a major impact on me personally. As we pilot/rollout with new retail partners, I hear directly from the store teams about how much easier Auror is making their roles, they feel more empowered, and have a platform that helps them keep their stores safe. Quotes from store teams like this one make my day;

“Now with Auror, it’s that quick entry, connecting those dots, and putting those pieces together, which has made catching repeat offenders easier than ever”.

This solidifies for me that Retail Crime Intelligence is the new standard, and that we are doing something which is making a positive difference.
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Any final thoughts for the retail community? 

We’ve talked with a bunch of retailers, and in this environment of decriminalized retail theft everyone is facing similar challenges around trying to prevent crime in their stores. There isn’t one single technology that will solve the problem, as you build your security ecosystem it’s critical to ensure the foundation of that ecosystem is based on high-quality intelligence that can empower all users. A retail crime intelligence foundation will leverage your existing technologies to empower your people and partners with a solution for today, and prepare you for tomorrow’s challenges.