Preparing for the future: The opportunities and limitations for INFORMS on the Pacific Rim

Based on an address given at the April 1995 INFORMS meeting in Los Angeles, this paper's purpose is to suggest the opportunities that the Pacific Rim will bring to OR/MS and INFORMS. It first looks at the two important needs in the profession: to improve the scope of its communications with the public and to expand the context in which OR/MS work is done. After describing some of the radically unfamiliar and different conditions affecting enterprises on the Pacific Rim and suggesting their important challenges, the paper describes some influences acting to inhibit the free growth of the profession and its contributions to society. It closes by suggesting how meeting the challenges of the Pacific Rim cannot only help solve the problems this new context poses, but also help prepare the profession for its larger international future.