Business in the 1990s: Emerging opportunities for the OR practitioner
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EDITORIAL
Business in the 1990s: Emerging opportunities for the OR practitioner The business world is undergoing rapid change as we
enter the last decade of the 20th Centuiy.
power and consumer demand were rising strongly, and for the next decade the challenge for most firms was that
their implications and the opportunities for OR in
development in the practical application of OR, and much
PAUL THORNTON assesses the changes and outlines some of
of maximizing output.
This was a period of rapid
of the work done made direct use of what are now
practice.
regarded as classical OR techniques - linear
Business in the 1990s
programming, stock control, queueing theory, etc. There was an excellent fit between the pressing needs of most
organizations for greater efficiency, better use of
The current debate about alternative futures for OR centres around two themes:
resources, higher productivity, etc., and the benefits
extending OR's clientele to include, for example, community groups as well as business enterprises
which OR could deliver.
reappralsing the role of the OR practitioner in adding value for clients, and the methodology and toolset to fulfil that role.
This decade was very much the heyday of the corporate planner. As competition intensified,
1965-1975
and government; and
companies turned to new markets, diversification, vertical
integration and international expansion.
Most organizations were still managed centrally, with large head-office staffs, and their response to the growing complexity of business management was to develop
This debate is not fuelled by any immediate crisis in OR practice: indeed, many OR groups are experiencing greater demand than ever before. But there is a widelyheld view that much more needs to be done to ensure that OR realises its full potential, that it contributes to the
improved systems for planning and control. Although the use of classical OR techniques waned during this period,
major decisions, and that it does not become
OR was still very much at the centre of things, valued
increasingly for the ability to harness management
marginalized.
information and computer technology in the service of business planning. OR was involved more with the planning process than with the content of individual decisions. This time-frame also saw very rapid
A comprehensive review of the current situation and its economic, social and educational dimensions is quite outside the scope of this article. However, it is clear that, however effectively we extend our client base (and I fully support the Society's efforts on this), the health of OR in practice will for the next several years be determined by its success within the business community (the more so under the present administration, since the private sector will be expected increasingly to fund activities within the educational and voluntary sectors).
development in the numbers and standing of the business schools, and the rise of the MBA.
1975-1 985 Following the oil crises and the deterioration of
business pe
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