It’s a Wonderful Time in INFORMS’ History!

Thanks to the tireless efforts of INFORMS leaders, members, volunteers and staff over the years, INFORMS is strong and the foundations have been put in place to catapult us forward. I am grateful and excited to have the opportunity to work with you and serve our community as INFORMS president this year. 

As you’ve heard before, and as you’ll continue to hear in the future, O.R. and analytics are indeed “saving lives, saving money and solving problems” – and help us make the world a better place. This simple phrase captures an incredible breadth of efforts, activities and impact in research, practice and education. In a simple way, it enables us to engage with businesses, policymakers and a range of organizations, explain how our skills and methodologies can be applied to address the issues that are keeping them awake at night, or to explore new opportunities.

As a community, and as a profession, we are making a difference that we can all be proud of. Having said that, during our interactions with those not familiar with our field, many of us may have experienced at some point or another that “INFORMS and our community and what we do have been the best kept secrets.” In a world that changes at an increasingly faster pace, it is imperative that INFORMS and each of us in our community continue to advocate for the value of our profession and our impact, as well as continue developing and creatively applying our tools, knowledge and innovative approaches to address various challenging problems and new opportunities. 

This year, as we celebrate the 25th anniversary of INFORMS, we have a golden opportunity to build on our incredible foundation to forge an even stronger future that will generate excitement and heighten our value proposition in academia, industry, government and society. As we chart our path to a new era, INFORMS has planned a comprehensive market research effort that will continue during the next several months. The quantitative and qualitative information will provide insights about the current future needs and opportunities, and serve as a catalyst for INFORMS’ growth, transformation and impact over the next five years.

Meanwhile, INFORMS continues to engage in a variety of activities aligned with its current strategic goals, including: 

Increasing practice member engagement & practice/academia connections. INFORMS is continuing to enhance the collaboration between industry and academia. For example, the Analytics Career Pathway Ad Hoc Committee is working to provide practice and academic members and groups with information on necessary skills, knowledge areas, job titles and course curriculum for analytics professionals. INFORMS helps connect academic program directors and practitioners to discuss opportunities and issues they face in preparing students for industry and in finding qualified analytics candidates. 

Promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in our community. Providing a platform for our members to engage in DEI initiatives in a variety of areas including workplace practices, teaching and research, and leveraging our capacities as individuals (practitioners, researchers, educators, students and staff), will strengthen our community for generations to come. The INFORMS Board recently approved an exciting new DEI Ambassadors Program, which will complement the efforts of the INFORMS Diversity Committee, and is well aligned with INFORMS’ values (including that of “mutual respect, fairness and appreciation for diverse perspectives”) [1, 2], Ethics Guidelines (“Inclusive of all colleagues, and rejecting discrimination and harassment in any form”) [3] and Diversity and Inclusion Statement [4]. 

Enhancing our membership base. INFORMS continues to strengthen the links between early career professionals, doctoral students and new faculty through programs such as our Early Career Professionals’ Network and the Combined Colloquia.

Recognizing that each year thousands of O.R. and analytics students graduate and begin their professional careers, later this year, INFORMS will introduce career starter dues to support the transition from student to new professional. INFORMS is also exploring various opportunities to expand our engagement with undergraduate students. Some programs are already in place such as our scholarship program for the Annual Meeting and the O.R. and Analytics Student Team Competition. Other initiatives are in the proposal stage and being reviewed by the Education Outreach Committee. If you are interested in joining the committee, please email [email protected]. We are seeking members who want to make an impact in our outreach to undergraduates! 

Attract more students and lifelong learners to the O.R. and analytics fields. With the growing number of people being drawn into studying “data science,” it may be more important than ever to highlight the types of careers in O.R. and analytics (and connections to data science) and the types of work they could do. INFORMS recently produced a new video targeted at undergraduate students [5]. Please share this with your colleagues and anyone else who can be ambassadors to the next generation of our profession.

The rapid rise of artificial intelligence as a hot public and policy topic, along with other factors, is shaping new opportunities for experienced professionals. No matter their stage or stature, INFORMS continues to enhance the opportunities for our members to learn, network and grow through programs and opportunities such as an expanded career fair, more regional and topical meetings, and mentoring and coaching. 

Broadly disseminating our members’ work to highlight their contributions. Through a steady stream of content published in digital and social media channels, INFORMS has been sharing the impact of O.R. and analytics with a variety of key audiences. Since the launch of the Resoundingly Human podcast in August 2018, there has been over 15,000 downloads of nearly 40 different episodes. In 2019, we saw a significant spike in media coverage based on INFORMS content, with more than 515 stories written across a broad range of news outlets, such as the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Inc., Barrons, Scientific American, U.S. News & World Report and many others. 

Improving the organizational effectiveness and efficiency of INFORMS. INFORMS continuously strives to improve its processes via better collection and utilization of data (O.R. and analytics!) to make informed decisions in various areas such as meetings, publications, membership, finance, technology and communications. A major step is the implementation of a new Association Management System (AMS) based on the Salesforce platform. This will improve members’ access to their accounts and information and ease conducting transactions, while providing INFORMS with the ability to manage and share relevant material and information with its members. Be on the lookout soon for information about the rollout and how it will make engaging with INFORMS easier and faster. 

Since I first developed a candidate vision statement in 2018, I have thought about the issues, needs and opportunities around the ideals of connection, collaboration, diversity and engagement, and processes as a key focus for INFORMS now and as we continue to achieve our strategic goals in the future. I look forward to exploring and sharing more about these and other important activities throughout our 25th anniversary. 

I am honored and humbled to have the opportunity to serve as the president of INFORMS. I am looking forward to working with all of you as we continue to collectively reflect on the accomplished history of INFORMS and focus on shaping its future role in supporting our community and our profession to make the world a better place. 

References

1. https://www.informs.org/About-INFORMS/Governance/Committees/Specialty/Diversity-Equity-and-Inclusion-Committee
2. https://pubsonline.informs.org/do/10.1287/orms.2019.03.06/full/
3. https://www.informs.org/About-INFORMS/Governance/INFORMS-Ethics-Guidelines
4. https://connect.informs.org/diversity/home
5. You can see the video at http://info.informs.org/students