WHY PROMOTE OPERATIONAL RESEARCH?

The good news:

"What's the proven benefit of operational research? For us, it's efficient: spend £1.5 million to get £400 million."

-Business unit president, £2.5 billion company

The bad news:

At the risk of sounding really stupid... I didn't even know what operational research meant. Now does that sound silly?"

-CIO, £2 billion company

There has never been a bigger opportunity for operational research to deliver premium value to the world's organizations. But if the people who need O.R. don't know what it is or understand its potential, it will remain, as a leading academic has called it, "the world's most important invisible profession." Worse still, O.R. will disappear from organisations, lose ground to other disciplines, and fall out of academic curricula.

Take Action Right Here, Right Now
The fact is, most O.R. professionals are analysts, not sales people. We need to transcend ourselves and take advantage of basic sales techniques and marketing tools. To get you started, we've put together this online toolkit. Use it to:

• Explain O.R. clearly and consistently, in language your audience understands
• Show the value O.R. can deliver with relevant success stories
• Sell O.R. with tools tailored for academics and internal/external practitioners
• Find more resources like colleagues, discussion groups, and vendors

The OR Society is also launching a powerful 'marketing the profession' campaign. But nothing can compare with the power you have to promote operational research to your clients, managers, and administrators. Use that power now.