![]() We got to focus more on the way problems interacted and their solutions interacted, than we did on the problems taken separately. We also found the solution to one problem depended very critically on how other problems were being treated at the same time. We found first that the problems that we were solving tended to generate additional problems, they were better problems, and usually more problems were created by our solutions than the problems that we solved. We came to the conclusion that Operations Research was limited for several reasons. It was one of the key tools used by allied forces in the war. Operational research attempts to provide an objective and quantitative basis for the solution of managerial and administrative problems. ![]() So at the end of the war for the first time it began to be employed outside the military, and that's where we played a major role. One was Radar, one was Sonar and the other was Operational Research. In fact there was a book written in which the success of the allies was attributed to three technological developments. The field of Operations Research, or Operational Research as it was called in England, was developed in connection with efforts to manage WW2 more efficiently. And that started a flow of publications that enlarged on the field through the late forties, the fifties into the early sixties and then some fundamental changes began to occur. We were trying to develop the field so that it was teachable as a graduate degree program and it led, within a few years to our producing our first textbook on the subject, called "An Introduction to Operations Research". But I was a partner with West Churchman in establishing the first academic programme in operations research, at Case Institute of Technology, where we gave a degree in the topic and conducted research for private and public organisations. I did not coin the term "operational research" as a matter of fact it was coined here in Britain during the war. The second world war had a big effect on Ackoff's early career. I still teach there, but primarily in the Continuing Education programmes. And then the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School, where I spent almost 25 until I retired from there in 1986. My first full time teaching job was at Wayne University in Detroit, where I spent four years, and then moved to Case Institute of Technology where I spent thirteen. Then World War II intervened very early in my graduate work, and when I returned I was in a hurry to get finished with my degree, so I spent full time in the philosophy of science, and I was hooked. When I graduated in architecture I had a fellowship to continue graduate work in the field, but the philosophy department surprised me by offering me an instructorship in the department. At the end of those five years I was permitted to take some electives for the first time and I chose the electives in the philosophy of science, and that became a major interest to me. I started college in architecture and engaged in that field for five years and received a degree in it.
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