Vincent Barabba Explained

Vincent Barabba
Birth Date:	6 September 1934
Birth Place:	Chicago, Illinois
Education:	California State University, Northridge University of California, Los Angeles
President:	Richard Nixon Gerald Ford
President2:	Jimmy Carter
Office:	14th Director of the United States Census Bureau
Term:	1973–1976
Term2:	1979–1981 (Acting)
Preceded:	George Hay Brown
Succeeded:	Manuel D. Plotkin
Preceded2:	Manuel D. Plotkin
Succeeded2:	Bruce Chapman

Vincent Barabba (born September 6, 1934) is an American market researcher, author, former head of the United States Census Bureau, and the chairman and co-founder of Market Insight Corporation. He is known for his work in the field of market research and opinion polling.

Biography

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Barabba was awarded a bachelor's degree in marketing in 1962 from California State University, Northridge and, in 1964, an MBA in marketing from the University of California, Los Angeles.^[1] He was also awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws in 2012 by California State University, Northridge.^[2]

Beginning as political campaign survey researcher in the 1964 California Republican primary between Nelson Rockefeller and Barry Goldwater, Barabba moved on to become a business market researcher (eventually Director of Market Intelligence) for Xerox Corp. and Eastman Kodak. He co-founded and was chairman of Market Insight Corporation,^[3] Until 2003 he was General Manager of Corporate Strategy and Knowledge Development at General Motors, where he conceived and devised OnStar and MyProductAdvisor.

He is a Past President of the American Statistical Association, and served twice as head of the US Census Bureau (the only to be appointed by a President of a different political party)^{[2] [4]} and currently serves as a Commissioner of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission.^[5] He is chairman of The State of The USA, a nonprofit corporation providing quality information to the American public on societal, economic, and environmental conditions.^[6]

Awards

In recognition of his private and public sector performance, Barabba was awarded:

• Fellow of the American Statistical Association, 1976^[7]
• Lifetime Member of the American Statistical Association, 2013^[8]
• Induction into the Market Research Council's Hall of Fame ^[9]
• The American Marketing Association’s Parlin Award for leadership (1996) in the application of science to marketing research ^[10]
• The MIT/General Motors Buck Weaver Award for individuals who have contributed significantly to the advancement of theory and practice in marketing science ^[6]
• The System Dynamics Society’s Applications Award for the best “real world” application of system dynamics ^[11]
• The American Marketing Association’s Explor Award granted to organizations that have demonstrated the most innovative uses of technology in applications that advance research
• The Certificate of Distinguished Service for Contribution to the Federal Statistical System from the US Office of Management and Budget

Publications

Barabba has authored or co-authored numerous books and articles, including:

• 1968 “Political Campaign Management: Myth and Reality” The Ethics of Controversy: Politics and Protest. Proceedings of the First Annual Symposium on Issues in Public Communication, held at the University of Kansas June 27–28
• 1983 (With Mason, R.O. and Mitroff, I.I.) “Federal Statistics in a Complex Environment: The Case of the 1980 Federal Census,” The American Statistician, Volume 37, No. 3, Washington, DC: The American Statistical Association
• 1985 “Steel Axes for Stone Age Men” in: Buzzell, R., Marketing in an Electronic Age, 75th Anniversary Harvard Business School Research Colloquium, Boston: Harvard Business School Press
• 1991 (With Zaltman, G.) Hearing the Voice of the Market: Competitive Advantage through Creative Use of Market Information, Boston: Harvard Business School Press
• 1994 “Never Say the Model Says. The Role of Models in Managerial Decision Making” in Wallace, W. Ethics in Modeling, New York: Pergamon Press
• 1998 “Revisiting Plato’s Cave: Business Design in an Age of Uncertainty,” in Tapscott, D. et al., eds., Blue Print for the Digital Economy, New York: McGraw-Hill
• 2002 (With Huber, C., Cooke, F., Pudar, N., Smith, J., and Paich, M.) “A Multi-Method Approach for Creating New Business Models: The General Motors OnStar Project”, Interfaces, 32 (1), pp. 20–34
• 2002 (With Pourdehnad J. and Ackoff, R.) “Above and Beyond Knowledge Management” in Chun, W. C. and Bontis, N. (eds) The Strategic Management of Intellectual Capital and Organization Knowledge, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 359–369
• 2004, Surviving Transformation, New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 170–171
• 2011, The Decision Loom: a design for interactive decision-making in organizations

Notes and References

1. Web site: Vincent P. Barabba, GM General Manager, Corporate Strategy and Knowledge Development. https://web.archive.org/web/20190223074551/http://www.acasa.upenn.edu/barabba.htm. 2019-02-23. acasa.upenn.edu.
2. Web site: Vincent P. Barabba CSU. 2021-09-10. www.calstate.edu. en-US.
3. Web site: About Vincent Barabba. Triarchy Press.
4. Web site: Directors 1965 - 1976 - History - U.S. Census Bureau. Census History Staff. US Census Bureau. www.census.gov.
5. Web site: Background on Commission | California Citizens Redistricting Commission.
6. Web site: The State of the USA | About | Staff and Leadership. www.stateoftheusa.org.
7. Historical Sketch of the ASA Section on Statistical Graphics. Perry D.. Haaland. February 24, 1990. The American Statistician. 44. 2. 96–98. JSTOR. 10.2307/2684138. 2684138 .
8. Web site: Recognizing the ASA's Lifetime Members | Amstat News. February 1, 2013.
9. Web site: MRC Hall of Fame – Market Research Council.
10. Web site: Charles Coolidge Parlin Marketing Research Award.
11. Web site: System Dynamics Applications Award. January 15, 2021. System Dynamics Society.