Operations Research Management Science Today - President's Desk

<BODY bgcolor="#ffffff" link="cc0000" vlink="cc0000" text="#000000"> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=4 border=0><br>   <table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width=480><tr valign=top> <td width=10><img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 hspace=4 border=0></td> <td width=470> <FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=2><B><I><A HREF="../../ORMS.shtml" TARGET="_top">OR/MS Today</A> - December 2003</I></B></font><BR> <hr size="1"> <img src="cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=4 border=0><br> <font face="times new roman, times"> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=4 border=0><br> <FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=2><B>President's Desk</B></FONT><br> <IMG SRC="../barbluehook.gif" WIDTH="468" HEIGHT="4"><br> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=8 border=0><br> <FONT SIZE="+2"><B>Operations Research:<BR> The Science of Better</B></FONT><BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=6 border=0><br> <FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=2><B>By Thomas Cook<BR> <I>INFORMS President<BR> <A HREF="mailto:tom.cook@calebtech.com">tom.cook@calebtech.com</A></I></B></FONT><br> <hr size="1"> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=12 border=0><br>    <IMG SRC="../art/cook.jpg" WIDTH="122" HEIGHT="178" HSPACE="3" VSPACE="0" ALIGN="Left" ALT="INFORMS President, Thomas Cook">It's hard to believe that the year is almost over. I chaired my last board meeting in Atlanta and this is my last President's Desk Column. It has been a very good year for INFORMS, thanks to hundreds of our members that volunteer to help the Society and to our excellent professional staff. We broke records at both our spring and fall meetings, our journals continue to be of the highest quality and very successful, and our financial situation has never been better. <P>As many of you know, my focus this year has been to motivate support for and develop a multiyear campaign to better market our profession. I think an effective marketing campaign is absolutely necessary if our profession is to grow and prosper, and I think it is a major responsibility of any professional society to promote its profession and communicate its value proposition to key target audiences. <P>What has been accomplished? With the help of a very effective ad hoc Marketing Steering Committee, our external marketing firm, PJA, and the support of the INFORMS Board, we have launched a multiyear campaign that, if managed well, should greatly benefit our profession and every member of INFORMS. <P>At its October meeting, the INFORMS Board voted unanimously to approve the funding for the Marketing of the Profession Initiative for 2004. At a keynote session in Atlanta, the Marketing Steering Committee presented the rationale for the program, some of the creative content and laid out the planned deliverables for 2004. In short, "Operations Research: The Science of Better" was launched and we received a significant amount of feedback and many ideas for the future. Since the meeting in Atlanta, we have received dozens of ideas and heard from many members who want to volunteer to help with the campaign. <P>Although a lot has been accomplished, we must recognize that we are just beginning. We have left the research and planning stage and now it is time to start executing the plan. Let me briefly describe our objectives for 2004. The first objective is to execute the plan approved by the INFORMS Board by developing: <UL> <LI> a Champion's Kit to arm INFORMS members with the tools and support they need to promote the profession; <LI> an e-marketing campaign to start to educate consumers of OR; <LI> a Press and Analyst Tour to reach media thought leaders; and <LI> an Executive Guide to educate decision-makers about the Science of Better and to motivate them to use operations research in the organizations. </UL> For more on the marketing campaign, see Pete Horner's <A HREF="frmarketing.html" TARGET="_top">article on page 20</A>. <P>The second objective for 2004 is to create a plan for measuring the effectiveness of our marketing campaign. We simply cannot fund an initiative like this one without having quantifiable evidence that it is having its intended effect. Developing the right metrics and putting the right processes in place is critical to the long-term success of this effort. <P>The third objective is to put in place an organizational structure for managing the ongoing marketing campaign. Roles need to be defined, committees structured and Board responsibility assigned. This marketing campaign is a major effort and it requires effective management. <P>As noted earlier, many people have come forward since the Atlanta meeting with ideas to better market our profession. Integrating these ideas and other ideas as we go forward is another key objective for 2004. <P>Finally, as with all communication campaigns like the Science of Better Campaign, more funding is better than less funding. As I mentioned, the funding for 2004 has been approved in the INFORMS operating budget. It is the consensus of the Marketing Steering Committee that if we had a larger budget we could "move the needle" faster and have a higher probability of success. Consequently, trying to find alternative and supplementary funding sources is an important objective for 2004. <P>As you can see, we have an aggressive plan and a lot to accomplish over the next year, and we can't do it with our small, dedicated committee that has gotten us to this point. We need to institutionalize this effort and get many more people involved if we are going to be successful. If you are interested in marketing the profession, please send us an e-mail at <A HREF="mailto:scienceofbetter@informs.org">scienceofbetter@informs.org</A>. <P>It's been a privilege to serve as INFORMS' president this year. Thank you for your support. <BR>  <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=5 border=0><br>  <img src="../../barblue.gif" width=468 height=1 border=0 alt=" "><br> <img src="../../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=8 border=0><br> <CENTER><script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script></CENTER><br> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=8 border=0><br> <LI> <A HREF="tocfr.html" Target="_top"><I>Table of Contents</A><br> <LI> <A HREF="../../../ORMS.shtml" TARGET="_top"><I>OR/MS Today</I> Home Page</A><br>  <img src="../../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=8 border=0><br> <img src="../../barblue.gif" width=468 height=1 border=0 alt=" "><br> <b><i>OR/MS Today</i></b> copyright © 2003 by <A HREF="http://www.informs.org/" target="_new">the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences</a>. All rights reserved.<br> <img src="../../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=3 border=0><br> <img src="../../bargrey.gif" width=468 height=1 border=0 alt=" "><br> <b>Lionheart Publishing, Inc.</b><br> 506 Roswell Rd., Suite 220, Marietta, GA 30060 USA<br> Phone: 770-431-0867 | Fax: 770-432-6969<br> E-mail: <a href="mailto:lpi@lionhrtpub.com">lpi@lionhrtpub.com</a><br> URL: <A HREF="http://www.lionhrtpub.com" target="_top">http://www.lionhrtpub.com</A><br> <img src="../../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=3 border=0><br> <img src="../../bargrey.gif" width=468 height=1 border=0 alt=" "><br> Web Site © Copyright 2003 by Lionheart Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. </td></tr></table> <img src="../../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=2 border=0><br> </BODY>