Olle Högberg

Models and Executive Decision Makers

Many of the problems faced by analysts could be avoided if OR research had focused more on problem formulation, communication, model building and implementation and less on solution techniques for artificially constrained problems. Recently more effort has been devoted to these largely neglected aspects of OR modeling. A paper by Geoffrion (1987) focuses on these problems and problems of much wider scope related to the possibility of developing general purpose modeling systems integrated with corporate data bases. Of particular concern to Geoffrion are problems of low productivity and poor managerial acceptance of OR models. One reason for low productivity according to Geoffrion is that at least three representations are needed for each model: a “natural” representation, a mathematical representation, and a computer executable representation. Geoffrion wants to replace all these representations by a single representation serving the purpose of all other types.