On the nature of OR: taking stock
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#2002 Operational Research Society Ltd. All rights reserved. 0160-5682/02 $15.00 www.palgrave-journals.com/jors
On the nature of OR: taking stock RJ Ormerod* Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK This paper argues that OR, having reached its maturity, must now play to its strengths. In strategic terms this means competing in those areas where OR’s core competences can be brought to bear. Using a competence model it is suggested that OR’s core products are (i) the development and implementation of the quantitative, algorithmic ‘smart bits’ and (ii) the ‘helpful ways’ of managing intervention processes. These core products are supported and sustained by three core competences labelled process, analytic, and context. Individuals and small groups of practitioners develop ‘strands of practice’ and larger groups ‘webs of practice’ on the basis of their core competences. It is argued that this is giving rise to the emergence of three archetypes of OR service, namely the OR technical consultancy, the OR process consultancy, and the full service OR consultancy. Both the technical and process consulting are built around ‘strands of practice’ of individuals and find their natural home in small service providers. The full service OR consulting practice, in the past located in internal OR groups, will in the future be located within the large management consultancies, which are capable of managing ‘webs of practice’. The implications for the worlds of OR practice and academia are examined. Journal of the Operational Research Society (2002) 53, 475–491. DOI: 10.1057=palgrave=jors=2601343 Keywords: practice of OR; OR groups; consulting; core competences
Introduction In May 1996 a symposium was held at Bowness in the English Lake District titled ‘The Foundation, Development and Current Practice of OR.’ The event was stimulated by the Success and Survival of Operational Research groups (SSOR) study1 conducted at the University of Lancaster and funded by the UK OR Society. The papers and discussion at the seminar have been published in a special edition of the Journal of the Operational Research Society.2 Two of the papers, by Ormerod3 and Daellenbach and Read,4 and the final discussion5 were concerned about the future of OR. The purpose of this paper is to take that debate forward to explore the future of OR in the UK in particular. It is hoped, however, that the issues raised and the argument developed find resonance elsewhere in the world. Contrary to the predictions of the Report of the Commission of OR6 that OR practice would remain largely in specialist in-house OR groups, both the papers on the future of OR at the seminar3,4 argue that OR will in the future be mainly located within external consultants, specialist suppliers and dispersed within organisations. Indeed, the SSOR study based on 1990–1995 data showed clear evidence of both the decline in the number of internal OR groups (except in Government) and the growth of those located in external consultancy firms. In future we need to think of ourselv
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