Larsen, Erik Reimer with John D.W. Morecroft and John Murphy, "Helping Management Teams to Model: A Project in the Consumer Electronics Industry", 1991
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We have been using system dynamics with the management team of a consumer electronics company to investigate problems in training, inventory control and debt handling. In this paper we describes how the modelling approach was introduced to the company and subsequently used to support management team decision making. A small model of a direct mail campaign shows how the modelling process improved team understanding and inventory and demand dynamics. Building on experience from the project we comment on conditions for model building (training, team make-up, facilitation, model size, role of the computer) that encourage the active participation of management teams.