1 What makes for a good BACS/OR consultant?

Amey, British Energy, British Gas, Babcock Rosyth, Coopers & Lybrand, General Accident, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Scottish & Newcastle Scottish Nuclear Ltd, Shell UK Exploration, ScottishPower, Turner Diesel, Weir Pumps, Yarrow Shipbuilders, Scottish Govt, Northern Ireland Govt, Inland Revenue Northern Ireland Housing Executive, Valuation and Land Agency, Civil Service College, Scottish Police College, Greater Glasgow Health Board, Fife Fire and Rescue Service Dumfries & Galloway Constabulary, Tayside Constabulary Strathclyde Police,Belfast City Council, Edinburgh City Council Fife Council, Glasgow City Council, Shelter Scotland Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland, Lothian & Borders Police Scottish Drugs Enforcement Agency European Union, World Bank, Polish Ministry of Education Department for Local and Regional Development, Namibia Prime Minister’s Office, Brunei, Oman College of Banking, Dubai Electricity & Water Authority

3 Knowledge and understanding Skills Attitude

4 Knowledge and understanding #1 Technical (MS/OR) Wider knowledge base: - Strategy - Marketing - Finance - HR - Change management

5 Knowledge and understanding #2 Understanding - the client’s business - the client’s culture - the client’s problem - the client versus the user - your role: what it is and what it isn’t

6 Knowledge and understanding #3 Understanding your own business: - what business are you in - the competition - the marketplace - your competitive advantage - business mechanics (costing, financial mgt, legal etc)

7 Knowledge and understanding Skills Attitude

8 Skills Selling Presentation skills Proposal writing Negotiation Managing client expectations Interviewing Report writing Multi tasking Time management Project management Financial management Leadership Team working People skills Networking Marketing CPD

9 Knowledge and understanding Skills Attitude

10 Attitudes A serious customer focus Invest time After sales Look to add value Be prepared to turn work down Be prepared to admit you got it wrong Don’t assume you know as much as the client Don’t assume the client knows as much as you

11 A good OR consultant? A combined clone of Sherlock Holmes + Sigmund Freud + Richard Branson

12 Professionalism & ethics You also need to ensure you (and your team) adopt a professional attitude You also need to consider ethical views & behaviour

13 What’s the difference? Professionalism – doing things right Ethics – doing the right things

Professionalism Attitude Taking an interest Manners & behaviour Time keeping Communication Etc

15 Situations I’m vegetarian and don’t believe killing animals to eat is right. My consultancy company has been approached by a large fishfarm company keen to use MS/OR to boost profitability and I’ll have to lea the team. Should I bid for the work? A local authority has asked me to do some modelling analysis to help them decide which schools to close because of demographics and changing housing patterns. The Education Director has asked me to my report to her private address and not to her official address at the council. What should I do? I’m about to do some lucrative work in the Middle East. I suspect that the client will want to pay me in cash. What should I do? We’re in the middle of a large project for Diageo, the drinks company involving the supply chain for scotch whisky. The member of my team who has the necessary software modelling skills is a devout Muslim. What should I do? I’ve spent a lot of time analysing performance data for an organisation. The data was supplied by one of their analysts who now tells me that he sent the wrong data file. There’s no way I can complete the analysis on time. What should I do?

16 Ethics As an analyst/modeller you may end up in situations where there are ethical/moral issues to be considered. These need to be handled professionally As the technical “expert” there are also ethical issues about BACS/OR practice Many companies will have codes of conduct

17 Principles An analyst/consultant should be open and objective An analyst/consultant should take a broad and neutral view and consider the wider public interest not simply that of the client Ensure the model/techniques are the most appropriate for the situation Ensure the model/techniques are transparent and verified/validated Ensure that assumptions are realistic and transparent Ensure that data is verified and accurate and reliable Ensure that modelling limitations are transparent