ABSTRACT
The first prerequisite is that operational research (OR) should have good knowledge of the operations and activities of the company, that the OR manager should enjoy the confidence of the chief executive officer (CEO) and that he should report at director level. As most conventional OR groups are incapable of fulfilling this role, the question is: who should undertake it? Some CEOs call in external consultants to act as their strategy advisers and counsellors, who may bring their own teams of analysts and corporate planners. The make-up, the background and the aspirations of most OR analysts are not in tune with the messy and unstructured environment that prevails at the strategic decision-making level. OR analysts have tried to cope with this phenomenon by introducing goal-programming models, which have been extensively regurgitated in the literature, though their applicability in most situations is a matter of some doubt.
