February 2000 Return of the Lone Ranger The life and times of an isolated practitioner By G. Jack Theurer Editor's note: The term "Lone Ranger" first rode into the consciousness of the OR/MS community in the early 1990s when then-TIMS President Paul Gray used it to describe isolated practitioners of operations research and the management sciences ("Lasso the Lone Ranger," OR/MS Today, October 1992). Over the last decade, Lone Rangers have become important constituents of the profession, perhaps even a "silent majority" — the thousands of individuals armed with an OR/MS education and skill set working on myriad problems throughout corporate America. They go by names like "systems analyst" or "consultant"; they may not even consider themselves operations researchers or management scientists; but they do operations research and management science. OR/MS Today asked G. Jack Theurer, an isolated practitioner of OR/MS and an active member of INFORMS for most of the last 20 years, to share his experiences and observations as a Lone Ranger. OR/MS Today first interviewed Theurer on this subject five years ago ("The Lone Ranger," OR/MS Today, April 1995). This is an update . The story is personal, but it speaks directly to the profession's silent majority, wherever they are. In Search of the Lost Lone Rangers What is an isolated practitioner of OR/MS and where are they hiding? Based on the consensus of opinion at a session sponsored by CPMS (then the College on the Practice of Management Science) and the Management Science Roundtable in San Francisco in 1992, there are two breeds of isolated practitioners: 1. the self-employed, and 2. those who practice OR/MS in isolation within a large organization (in contrast to when OR was practiced in business and industry mainly in large groups). How many of us are there? Who knows? Probably a lot, but you won't find many of them in INFORMS. INFORMS has a smattering representation of isolated practitioners who work for large companies. However, there are an unknown number of self-employed isolated practitioners of OR/MS who are not affiliated with INFORMS. I encounter them all the time, but not at INFORMS meetings. Why don't they join INFORMS and attend meetings? For most self-employed isolated practitioners, the bottom line is economics. Conference fees, airfare, lodging and other expenses come right out of their own pocket. On top of that, when they're attending a professional meeting, they're losing a substantial number of billable hours. Finally, practitioners generally need to network with other practitioners, not academics. They have little or no incentive to present a paper or write for a journal. A notable exception is Interfaces, the practice-oriented INFORMS journal that also includes papers from the annual Franz Edelman competition. Ironically, the 1992 session mentioned above has developed into a popular series of sessions known as Isolated Practitioner Workshops. The workshops have been held at every INFORMS meeting since San Francisco, a total of 15. Clearly, there are plenty of Lone Rangers out in the wilderness, if you know where to look and how to attract them. — G. Jack Theurer How does one become a "Lone Ranger," an isolated practitioner of OR/MS? Is it a career choice? Well, sort of. In my own case it was a deliberate choice assisted by circumstances. After being an isolated practitioner in a large company for several years, I joined a small management science group at American Express Company (AMEX) in New York City. I was drawn not by the company, but by the opportunity to work for a specific individual I had hoped to learn something from. It turned out to be a very good choice, but for more reasons than I intended. I considered becoming a Lone Ranger of OR/MS from the first day that I joined AMEX, but I needed more experience and a mentor. Corporate America is filled with brilliant men and women who have a lot to teach, not just the business, but the politics as well. In that respect, the time I spent at American Express was an excellent experience. After seven years, however, I knew it was time to move on. I received high marks for learning the business, but my poor political skills eventually did me in. Any employee who stays with a large company for several years (in my case, almost seven) is bound to witness many reorganizations and staff changes. Sooner or later you inevitably find yourself no longer working for the person who hired you. In the corporate environment, personalities can become more important to success and advancement than core skills. At the time I was already active in the New York Metro Chapter of TIMS. In May 1987, the chapter held an all-day seminar on "Management Science Consulting: The Usual and the Unusual." John D. C. Little delivered the opening talk entitled "Making Management Science Consulting Useful and Usable." Two months later, inspired by Little and the other speakers at the seminar, I incorporated my company, G. Theurer Associates Inc., in the state of New York, but it would be almost a year later before I actually struck out on my own. Great Expectations My expectations for a career as an independent consultant were characterized by optimism, coupled with fear. I decided to take the safe route. My plan was to get a project first and then resign from my job as manager of Operations Research at AMEX. Six months later, still no project in sight, my friend and fellow New York Metro Chapter colleague, Paul Gurwitz, advised me to "bite the bullet," resign and pursue the matter full time as he had done. What a terrifying thought! With life at AMEX getting unhappier, though, I did exactly that.On the evening of my last day at AMEX, I rode home to my apartment in Manhattan in a taxi with the last of my belongings. Riding uptown I had a feeling of immense freedom as well as fear of the unknown. The (illusory) security of a permanent job was gone. I was in free fall. At the same time the possibilities ahead seemed limitless. I had no project, no income and no idea of when or where my next project would come from. I estimated that my cash flow would last me six to eight months. Would I succeed? Would I end up on welfare? That was in April 1988. The spring TIMS/ORSA meeting in Washington, D.C., was coming up in a few weeks. I needed a good boost and that was it. As always, the meeting was an inspiration. It would be four months before I landed my first project, which lasted several months. Ironically, the project found me. And that's how it is. It helps to remember that while you are looking for a project, the project is also looking for you. So you just have to make yourself visible. I was fortunate that one of my previous employers gave me formal sales training. All of the analysts at that company received sales training because we had so much client contact. For much of my tenure at American Express, I worked in an internal consulting group that charged out for its services to cover its budget. (At times things looked grim). The sales skills that I learned at these two companies turned out to be very valuable in the years to come. Ironically, I estimate that the correlation between my marketing efforts and projects received appears to be approximately zero. The phone always seems to ring from a place where I have not been marketing. I've learned from the experience; I don't market my services anymore. Just Show Up So why did I say that the sales skills that I learned have been very valuable? Where does the work come from? Networking; in my case, passive networking. The sales skills have given me confidence and trust in myself. For the Lone Ranger that is a huge asset. I learned how to network. The truth is, there is nothing to do to network. Woody Allen had it right when he said that 50 percent of success is showing up. Remember, the work is looking for you, but it has to know where to find you. When I left AMEX, I sat down and put together a list of everyone I knew. I was surprised to see how large a networking base I already had. And I hadn't done anything yet! My first task was to simply let those who knew me know about my services. I never expect business from any particular contact. But I know that the collective group of contacts will call with a project sooner or later. And they'll call when they're ready. It doesn't help to pester them, but it is necessary to keep putting my name in front of them in a variety of ways (lunch, pass on an article, send a Christmas card, etc.). That's what I call passive networking. Over the years I've asked myself many times if I want to keep working as an OR/MS Lone Ranger, or if I should build an organization and open offices in Manhattan or maybe even take a real job again. I currently have an office in my Manhattan apartment and have dreamed of having a nice office with staff in one of the classic buildings in New York (Empire State, Chrysler, Flatiron, Woolworth, etc.). Well, the choice of which way to go on this is a very personal one and hinges in part on just how entrepreneurial one is. When on several occasions the workload got to be more than I could handle, I subcontracted the work out to other isolated practitioners whom I already personally knew in New York. I never actually took on employees though. Good ones are hard to find in this age of a technology-skill shortage and it's hard for me to compete with the big corporations on benefits and name recognition. In the end I find that I actually like the Lone Ranger role and have no plans for now to change. My current plans are to use my experience to raise my consulting practice to a higher level (with higher fees of course!). Looking back on my experience of the past 12 years, I have no regrets. Quite frankly, I'm still astonished that I was able to make a living out of this. The life of the Lone Ranger is not for everyone, though. Be prepared for a life close to the elements. (It can be breathtaking.). Projects can get canceled at any time, sometimes before they even start. You don't know if you will be earning income two months from now. Those are some of the rules. Learn them and be willing to play by them. Otherwise, find a corporate job. As a Lone Ranger, you need to work in such a way that the client will want to call you again. Call-back business and referrals are my lifeline. I treat my clients far better than I ever treated my employers. Also, with job mobility the way it is, you don't know if your hard-earned contacts will still be with the company six months from now. Networking never stops, even with your current client companies. You're always looking for work, even when you've got it up to your ears. Consider the following case study. At the time of this writing I have a client company for whom I have been working on and off for the past four years. Six months ago the vice president who hired me (a contact from a previous consulting job) left the company. During the time that I consulted with this firm, I was instrumental in building the modeling and analysis department from a staff of three to an organization of 30, and establishing the methods and procedures for doing direct marketing modeling. The incoming vice president decided to eliminate all consultants and work with in-house staff only. Since I had no other active clients at the time, I was soon to be "between assignments" (for the first time in several years). The managers in the department spoke on my behalf and recommended that I be retained to help map the direction for the company to expand its statistical modeling activities to include newly acquired businesses. I'm still consulting for this company, but the example shows how fast the winds can change. Never stop networking. Levels of Consulting There are different levels of OR/MS consulting. I classify them into three functions: Management consulting, an advisory role requiring a high level of management consulting skills, Large-project consulting, a team-leadership role requiring project management skills. Individual problem solving, a technical-oriented role requiring strong quantitative problem-solving skills. Regardless of the function, companies have three reasons for hiring you: They need outside expertise. They have the expertise in-house, but are overextended and simply need more of it. They have the expertise in-house, but the person hiring the consultant doesn't want to use it (for political reasons) and brings in his own independent expertise. Whatever the reason for hiring you, they usually wait too long and then call in a semi-panic. You wouldn't believe some of the deadlines that have been quoted to me over the years. They bring true meaning to the term "We need it yesterday." It's important that you state at the outset what you believe to be realistic. If you don't get hired because of it then be glad. When I first started out in my own business, people asked me what I would specialize in. My colleagues in TIMS recommended that I do so. That was a tough decision. Throughout my career I had worked in many areas of OR/MS practice: optimization, project management, scheduling, statistical analysis and modeling, forecasting. To me, specializing meant NOT doing everything else. Besides, I was certain that if I chose to specialize in "A" then surely the first work offer would come from "B." Would I accept it or reject it? For better or worse I decided not to specialize and instead to offer my services as an OR/MS generalist. To this day I have no idea if that was a good decision or not. As things shook out, I earned my living over the years doing mostly statistical modeling, analysis and project management. In the beginning I also accepted some straight programming assignments to fill out the slow periods. Many people think that you have a lot of freedom when you're self-employed. Well, yes and no. You have a certain amount of flexibility. For example, I currently work four days per week by choice — until the next client turns the screws on me with deadlines. I don't have to ask anyone for permission or funding to go to an INFORMS national meeting. I pay for it myself, and I've been to every one of the last 15 meetings. At the same time, as I indicated earlier, I treat my clients well because I want them to call me again. And they have, but that decreases some of the imagined freedom that self-employed people have. It's satisfying to just do good business. Assessing the Demand An important question to ask when assessing whether the job of Lone Ranger of OR/MS is right for someone is, What is the demand for the OR/MS consultant? In a nutshell the market for consulting services is constantly changing, but it has been very strong for as long as I've been in the business. I judge the market by how much my phone rings. Remember, I don't market anymore. The last few months of 1999 were an aberration, though. Suddenly my phone stopped ringing. This is what it's like being close to the elements. I'm not sure what this means. Some say companies temporarily diverted budgets to address the Y2K bug. We'll know soon enough. One must be careful not to become engaged full time with a single client for too long. It's bad business. Your network will dry up. I do sense one thing, though. OR/MS consulting is in a state of transition. I doubt that the market for OR/MS consulting will be the same 10 years from now that it is today. Which way it's heading I can't say yet. Amid all of this uncertainty I find plenty of security in being self-employed; a lot more than I did when I was employed at large companies. I first joined the work force in the 1960s. In those days security was having a good job with a big company. Today it is being self-employed and having a large clientele. I have mentioned INFORMS a number of times. What role does it play, or can it play, in the life of an OR/MS isolated practitioner? My own experience is probably unusual, because I know of only a handful of self-employed isolated practitioners who are active in INFORMS. This is unfortunate — for the individuals who are not members as well as the Institute. I don't get much business from my contacts at INFORMS, but that's not central to my participation in INFORMS. I joined ORSA almost 10 years before I became independent, and I became an officer of the New York Metro Chapter of TIMS not long after that. As a practitioner, my local chapter and CPMS, the Practice Section of INFORMS, have always been my most valued associations with the Institute. It's where I have received much of my professional inspiration. It's where I meet my friends and colleagues once a month or so. And it's where I attended a seminar on management science consulting that gave me the final inspiration to go the independent route. So You Want to be a Lone Ranger? Five things you should keep in mind before you take the leap: Get some solid corporate experience before going out on your own. As an isolated practitioner you're exactly that, a practitioner. Corporations will be your clients so learn how they work, the problems, the operations, the politics. Don't go the Lone Ranger route straight from college. How much corporate experience is enough? I'd recommend five to 10 years. If you're the type who likes cradle-to-grave security, then forget it. If you like the challenge of being close to the elements and have a lot of trust in yourself, then it may be an unmatched opportunity. Always work in a way the client will want to call you back. Without the call-back business and referrals it's a lot rougher. And learn the art of networking because you will want to know where your hard-earned contacts go when they leave your current client firm. Don't be an isolated isolated practitioner. Join a professional society and become active. Being a Lone Ranger need not be an end in itself. It can be an excellent stepping stone toward building an organization if that is your inclination. — G. Jack Theurer Table of Contents OR/MS Today Home Page OR/MS Today copyright © 2000 by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. 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