Tutorials
The role of the tutorials is to provide a platform for a more intensive scientific exchange amongst researchers interested in a particular topic and as a meeting point for the community. Tutorials complement the depth-oriented technical sessions by providing participants with broad overviews of emerging fields. A tutorial can be scheduled for 1.5 or 3 hours.
Building Social Ingenuity – Operations Research for Enterprise Transformation
Instructor
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Greg H. Parlier
GH Parlier Consulting
United States
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Brief Bio
A West Point graduate and retired US Army Colonel, Greg is currently President, GH Parlier Consulting. A combat veteran with 5 operational deployments and service in over 20 foreign nations on 12 named operations, he was a paratroop commander in the 82nd Airborne Division for 8 years, air-ground battle staff officer, joint operations planner, and Army strategist. When he retired he was the Army's senior, most experienced Operations Research officer with assignments spanning land warfare analyses, manpower and personnel, program analysis and evaluation, and logistics. He was assistant then associate professor of Operations Research at West Point. For 12 years after retiring, he served on the research staff at the Institute for Defense Analyses where he was an advisor to several foreign governments and senior OR analyst supporting the multi-national forces command in Iraq. He is a distinguished graduate of the US Marine Corps Command and Staff College, National Defense Fellow at MIT, Army War College graduate, and recently was adjunct Professor of Operations Research at NC State University. Dr. Parlier holds advanced degrees in engineering, Operations Research, and international security, a certificate in political philosophy from Oxford, and was among the first to complete MIT Sloan's executive program in Management, Innovation, and Technology. He is past president of the Military Applications Society of INFORMS, was vice president for the Military Operations Research Society, fellow of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society, elected to the International Institute of Strategic Studies, and previously served as program co-chair for ICORES.
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Abstract
Although technology advancements continue to astonish us, we must distinguish social from scientific and technical ingenuity in order to better understand how technology, management, and policy interact in our socio-technical and enterprise systems. Management advances often lag technology advances, yet they are essential for improved policy responses needed to achieve breakthrough performances, overcome bureaucratic paralysis and political gridlock, and resolve international security dilemmas. A fundamental question is whether our capacity for social ingenuity will be adequate for solving persisting problems, averting catastrophic failures, and managing pressing 21st Century issues. Social ingenuity involves solving problems, developing rules for governance, creating flexible institutions for transitional challenges, and better understanding recent socio-cutural, demographic, economic, and geo-political developments. Will we be smart enough to bridge the growing social ingenuity gap while continuing to promote technological ingenuity?
To address the question “What can we do?”, the concept of Management Innovation as a Strategic Technology (MIST) is introduced. To fully capitalize on advances in information technology (IT) and rapidly growing “big data”, the complementary power of operations research, advanced analytics, and management innovation for dramatic performance improvement is demonstrated. A strategic “ends-ways-means” approach is presented. Enabling functional components are described: information technologies, decision support capabilities, engineering systems and dynamic strategic planning to focus organizational effort, assess performance, monitor progress, and build in flexibility for resilience. Inherent in this transformational strategy is an “engine for innovation” to accelerate and sustain continual improvement. Finally, strategic management challenges associated with transformational change are addressed: organizational design; workforce considerations including human capital investment needs; and strategic alignment for a learning organization.
Keywords: enterprise transformation, strategic analytics, management innovation, social ingenuity
Outline:
Current Conditions
Bridging the Gap – What can we do?
Information Technologies
Decision Support Systems
Operations Research
Management Science
Transformational Strategic Planning
Engineering Systems
Engines for Innovation
Analytical Architectures
What we can do!