Practice What You Teach

A great deal has been written in this journal and elsewhere on the practice of Management Science. The high step from theoretical quantitative techniques to real world application is appreciated by practitioners and passed over by the theoreticians. It is no longer acceptable for business academicians to present topic after topic from Operations Research texts with short single paragraph applications. The luck of data for real problems and the behavioral difficulties associated with getting management to agree on goals on objectives associated with projects are usually as great difficulties as finding an appropriate tool. This paper discusses my experiences in using real applications as a major part of a course in operations analysis in our MBA program.