Shaping the Future

OR practitioners are constantly developing new theories and methods to solve complex problems in a wide range of industries. OR professionals can use powerful tools to make better decisions about the future.

Photo by Rachael Ren on Unsplash

A Futurist is someone who studies and predicts the future. Futurists use a variety of methods, including trend analysis, scenario planning, and expert judgment, to forecast future trends and events.

• Futurists can help OR practitioners to think outside the box and to consider new and innovative solutions to problems.
• Futurists can help OR practitioners to identify and assess future risks and opportunities.
• Futurists can help OR practitioners to communicate their findings to decision-makers in a clear and concise way.

OR practitioners can use forecasting from futurists to inform their decision-making. For example, an OR practitioner who is designing a supply chain network can use forecasts of future demand and transportation costs to make better decisions about where to locate warehouses and distribution centers.

Futurists can also use OR to improve their forecasting methods. For example, a futurist can use OR to develop models that predict the…