The Name of the Profession

Give it a name and they'll know about it… . That's at least if we could give it a name. I'm talking about this awesome science, art, and sometimes witchcraft, that we consult on, practice, or lecture about. Yes, call it 'OPERATIONS RESEARCH' (OPERATIONAL if you come from UK), 'MANAGEMENT SCIENCE', 'DECISION SCIENCE', the hybrid 'OR/MS' (OPERATIONS RESEARCH & MANAGEMENT SCIENCE), or whatever the name you want to. At the end of the day, it'll be a 'Science of Better' (+ment!)… . INFORMS had engaged in a marketing the profession campaign during years, being one of the 'official only name' that of OR; now I've realised we start talking again about MS.

Most probably we should have never had to spend those efforts to choose a name and tried to focus on 'it' rather than 'how to name it'. In fact, as an economist in an organisation (INFORMS)  mostly ruled by engineers, I could probably be devised as an outsider… No way!. Economics is a decision science (you see?, one of the names for 'it' ). And that's why I add to my title's profile the OR-er tag. Will you do the same and help spread the word?.

PS OR-er, MS-er, DS-er… (list is long, as well).-