Systems, Man & Cybernetics - October 2015 - 21

for industry and government. Serving as CEO of Search Technology
until 1995, Rouse led the company's
landmark efforts to create intelligent
interfaces for the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency pilot's associate and the Air Force designer's associate programs. The company also
researched, developed, and deployed a
wide range of training and aiding systems for operations, maintenance, and
design in numerous domains.
Building a Foundation
Much of Rouse's research up to 1980
is reflected in his first two books, Systems Engineering Models of HumanMachine Interaction (Elsevier, 1980)
and Management of Library Networks: Policy Analysis, Implementation and Control (Wiley, 1980). These
books began his tradition of authoring and editing over 30 books that
captured and articulated the state of
the art, much of which Rouse and his
colleagues were creating.
In 1981, Rouse moved his research
team of ten faculty, staff, and students
to the Georgia Institute of Technology, founding the Center for Human-
Machine Systems Research in the
School of Industrial and Systems Engineering. During the first Georgia Tech
period (1981-1988), the human systems
program quickly grew to several faculty
members, a large cadre of graduate students, and a strong base of sponsored
research. The associated graduate curriculum reflected a strong, modelingoriented systems perspective.
Rouse was president of the SMCS
for the two-year period of 1982-1983.
The burning issues within the SMCS of
the early 1980s included sustaining and
growing SMCS membership, which
long had hovered at about 5,000 members. SMCS also wrestled with the man
in SMC. Should they become SHC?
Much energy was devoted to this question. It was argued that man referred
to mankind rather than men. In the
end, the name remained SMC, but elsewhere, human became the norm, for
example, in human-machine systems.
Rouse left Georgia Tech in 1988 to
devote his full-time efforts to Search

Technology, which then had roughly
35 employees. Seeing the coming defense downturn-heralded in the Wall
Street Journal in 1987-he hoped to
transform the company from an increased defense focus to commercial
software products. The company had
a strong track record of building and
deploying real things. However, these
things were typically expensive, oneof-a-kind training and aiding systems.
A brief foray into the manufacturing industry, a hot topic in the United
States at that time, failed to create any
momentum. At the same time, however, Rouse was increasingly asked
to lecture on the design processes
his company employed to create its
innovative training and aiding systems. This led to the formalization of
the human-centered design methodology first described in his book Design for Success: A Human-Centered
Approach to Designing Successful
Products and Systems (Wiley, 1991).
A central tenet of this approach is that
success depends on all the humans involved in a system, not just the users.
The success of this book, as well
as many requests from the company's
clients, soon led to the business-oriented Strategies for Innovation (Wiley, 1992) and Catalysts for Change
(Wiley, 1993). These books provided
the foundation for numerous consulting engagements with executives and
senior managers in many large technology-oriented companies and government agencies. Rouse decided to
incorporate this accumulating knowledge into software tools, which led to
the Advisor Series of strategy tools
for business strategy, new product
planning, market assessment, and
technology strategy.
By 1993, these business opportunities led to the formation of a separate
division of Search Technology. In 1994,
a subsidiary company, Enterprise Support Systems, was formed. By the end
of 1995, Enterprise Support Systems
was independent with Rouse as CEO,
having sold his stake in Search Technology to acquire Enterprise Support
Systems. With this change, he could
then focus on human-centered design

O c tob e r 2015

of software tools for executives and
senior managers-training and aiding
for the executive suite rather than the
cockpit or shop floor.
The most successful tools were the
Product Planning Advisor that sold several thousands copies in over 20 countries and the Technology Investment
Advisor that enabled valuation of science and technology portfolios using
options pricing models. The success
of the Product Planning Advisor was
associated with its model-based manifestation of Rouse's human-centered
design philosophy and methodology.
Mastering Business Strategy
and Product Planning
Working with a wide range of clients,
Rouse was rapidly accumulating
a wealth of experience in business
strategy, new product planning, and
organizational change. This experience is reflected in his books at that
time, Best Laid Plans (Prentice-Hall,
1994), Start Where You Are (JosseyBass, 1996), and the award-winning
Don't Jump to Solutions (Jossey-Bass,
1998). Rouse was gaining enterprisewide perspectives of relationships
between marketing, sales, engineering,
manufacturing, finance, and so on.
His human-centered philosophy
helped him to identify the Essential
Challenges of Strategic Management
(Wiley, 2001). This book described seven central management challenges,
why they are difficult, and how best to
address them. The training and aiding
concepts that have been pervasive in
his career show clearly in this book.
This capstone work brings together
best practices gleaned from his extensive experience as well as several hundred leading-edge references.
In Best Laid Plans, Rouse articulated the merits of multiple ten-year
careers. In 2001, he followed this advice, embarking on his fourth ten-year
career. He moved into academic leadership, becoming the H. Milton and
Carolyn J. Stewart Chair of the School
of Industrial and Systems Engineering, returning to Georgia Tech after
a 13-year absence. This school with
100 faculty and staff and almost 1,700

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