Corporate planning and operations research: Do they go together?

Corporate planners in 59 U.S. commercial banks responded to a questionnaire on the use of operations research methods in the planning activities of their bank. Based on the questionnaire responses, 39 of the banks were identified as users of operations research techniques in corporate planning. The 39 banks provided background information on their operations research activities in corporate planning with respect to techniques used, number of persons employed, general organization and overall results. In order to learn more about the performance of operations research planners, comparisons were made between the financial performance of the group of users and the group of non-users in the sample. The results suggest that U.S. banks using operations research methods in corporate planning are larger, but not necessarily more profitable, than other banks in the industry.