Urquhart "Urko" Wood
Strategy Adviser, Strategyn Consulting
Locale: Columbus, Ohio / Strategyn USA
Biography: For the past 20 years, Urquhart "Urko" Wood has helped companies find and develop new opportunities for growth. Coming to work with Strategyn was a natural step after spending a number of years using "voice of the customer" research to help clients craft new products and services and growth strategies.
Previously, Urko was the founder of Strategy Innovations, a strategy and business development firm. He helped clients understand how customers define value and make purchase decisions and then used this information to improve business strategy, product development and strategic account management. He was also a principal consultant with S4 Consulting, a firm specializing in revenue generation through the effective management of strategic accounts. In this capacity, he helped Fortune 500 companies implement strategic account management programs, grow account share, implement new product development processes, and build personal and organizational competencies. Clients included American Electric Power, Ashland, Battelle Memorial Institute, Becton Dickinson, Cintas, Duke Energy, Microsoft, The National Fire Protection Association Nationwide, RJ Reynolds, Reynolds & Reynolds, and Schlage.
Currently, he serves on the Corporate Innovation Forum Advisory Board for the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University. He also is one of the inventor’s of Strategyn’s patented method for creating a market growth strategy.
Urko was a general management consultant with Deloitte & Touche (now Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu) and director of account management of the Small Business Group of United Healthcare of central Ohio. In the latter position, he directed the successful transition of the team from a service function to a sales function, saw retention increase 11 percent, and saved the company over $2 million per month. As national sales manager for Integra, a managed behavior health care company (now part of MHNet Behavioral Health), he helped the company grow 500 percent during his tenure.
Urko has a BA from Kenyon College, an MBA in marketing from the Wharton School, and an MA in applied psychology from the University of Santa Monica. He is a veteran of the U.S. Navy.
Personal: Divorced, no kids, one dog, three fish. My interests are guitar, tennis and prison ministry.
Surprise Factoid: I enlisted in the Navy after high school to get the GI Bill for college and business school.
Best Vacation Ever: Spending a week in early September at a fabulous resort on the coast of Nova Scotia with 29 friends and family.
Favorite Color: Blue
Last Book Read: Change By Design by Tim Brown.