To charge or not to charge?

Discussions on the success or failure of OR practice tend to focus on specific case studies which often highlight major dilemmas that face OR professionals: model robustness, simplicity vs complexity, optimising vs satisficing, conflict between criteria, who is the ‘client’?, and so on. But above all, the following issues predominate: Should OR be concerned with tactical or strategic problems? Where should it be placed in the organisational structure and who should it report to? These issues inevitably raise the question of accountability, coupled with that of charging for OR services. It is this issue in particular, whether to charge or not to charge for OR services, that the paper seeks to explore.