Question

A large part of working as an Operations Research Consultant for American Airlines is working with business units that depend on our technical skills.

a) Describe your experience working with a non-technicalclient where you applied an Operations Research technique to solve a problem.

b) How did you effectively communicate your solutions?

Answer 1

a) Our team was working with a manufacturing firm, to research about the root causes behind their high attrition rate. We did the research and developed a presentation for the same. There were some technical terms used in the presentation like retention, infant attrition, etc. After listening us for 3 slides, the management team of the company requested us to develop a simpler presentation as many in their panel were from non-technical background and did not have idea about such terms. Though the terms used were quite common and not very technical, we had to rework on the presentation to make it simpler.

b) After understanding the requirements of the company, we developed a simpler presentation. Minimal technical terms were used. Every technical term had a pop-up to explain their meaning and relevance to the problem. The slides were kept crisp and quite simple. Use of animations and videos were done to make the impact more long-lasting in the mind of the audiences. The presentation was quite a successful one. In my views, Keeping it simple is the mantra for success in anything and everything.