Monday, December 26, 2005; D08
Position : President, ORC Macro, a Calverton research and consulting subsidiary of Opinion Research Corp. that has about $135 million in annual revenue and 1,200 employees.
Career highlights : Executive vice president, ORC Macro; vice president and managing director, ORC Macro; managing director, Macro International Inc., which was acquired by Opinion Research in 1999; project manager, Macro International; consultant, Macro International; founder and owner, Instructional Software Design; adjunct professor, University of Vermont and Trinity College in Burlington, Vt.
Age : 54
Education : BA, anthropology, University of Montana; MA, anthropology, McGill University; PhD, anthropology, Indiana University.
Personal : Commutes with his wife, Kathleen, between an apartment in the District and a home in Burlington, where she teaches linguistics at St. Michael's College. The couple has a son, Daus, 32, who is a gastroenterologist in Denver.
How did you get to where you are?
I think what has helped me the most to rise through the ranks and assume more responsibility in the company is that I have a very strong base in operations. I came from graduate school with a doctoral-level education in social research. . . . A graduate program in anthropology really teaches you a lot about research, how to communicate and how to write at the best level. When I joined the company, I shifted from the academic to the business world. Instead of doing one or two projects a year, you're faced with 10 or 20 projects in a year. And what makes that possible is running a large research operation. When I joined Macro is when we first started developing telephone survey research capabilities. And I was involved technically and professionally in the development of the systems. I think it's an important element of my development that I was not only an academically trained researcher but a developer of research. It was the combination of having the academic training and being involved laying the groundwork capabilities of Macro International.
I think some of the keys for my success are making big promises about the future and seeing them through, having lofty goals and constantly striving towards them, creating opportunities for myself and others by always aspiring to greater things, and being oriented to the future and looking ahead.
The biggest challenge that I faced is integrating operations and research capabilities when Macro International was acquired by Opinion Research. At that time, I was asked to lead the integration process when the companies came together. That involved integrating research operations in the United Kingdom, the United States, Mexico and the Pacific Rim. The challenge was bringing together different companies in different countries with different histories and ways of doing the same thing, which is research. And the way that I overcame that challenge has to do with being an anthropologist by helping people understand what all of their different approaches had in common. Integrating companies in different countries with their own histories and ways of doing things requires understanding cultural differences. What I learned from that experience is that you can't communicate too much. You can't underestimate the amount of time and effort that needs to be focused on communicating.
--Judith Mbuya
