Is RAND a Think Tank?

All this week, TTLA runs an interview with Michael D. Rich. Rich is the executive vice president at the Santa Monica-based RAND Corporation, the region's preeminent public policy institute.

Friday: An Introduction

Think Tank LA: Do you mind when people refer to RAND as a 'think tank?'

Michael D. Rich: I think I've heard that term was applied originally to RAND. And we're still often referred to as a 'think tank,' and sometimes we're called the original think tank, sometimes we're called the quintessential think tank, so you know, we have to live with it. But I think we're more uncomfortable about it these days because over time, other organizations were created and grew up and began calling themselves think tanks. And when you compare some of them to RAND, we're sort of nothing like them. And in fact, some of the differences go to kind of the heart of what RAND is. And so it's not as useful anymore to say think tank "? it's got a different meaning.

TTLA: What are some of the other differences between RAND and other entities?

MR: When you go to these other organizations, a lot of them have a different business models than RAND. They don't work for clients. They're either funded by a large endowment or subscriptions or donations or a combination, and so on. So that's one big difference that we have. And it explains, you know, the difference. Another big difference is scale.

A lot of times I'll run into somebody who says, "Oh, you're like Brookings." And they're really different business models. Brookings doesn't do government contracts. That's our main business. Now government contracts are about 80% of what we do.

U.S. government contracts are only about 65%, with the difference being the state, local and foreign governments. That's one big difference. Scale is often different. On any one day there's probably 1,700, 1,800 people working for RAND. And, you know, a lot of the other places that call themselves think tanks are in the dozens or a hundred people or something. So scale is a difference.

And then the non-partisanship, there's a lot of organizations that have come into being on both sides, both sections of the [ideological] spectrum "? you know, either left of center or right of center. And they really are representing a partisan viewpoint or an ideological viewpoint. And that's just never been our thing. So the term "think tank" is just applied to so many different kinds of organizations now that it will conjure up an organization that's completely different.

TTLA: How would you prefer to be described?

MR: I wish we could think of something. We've been saying, "research organization," "non-profit," "objective research organization," but obviously that's a mouthful. So there really isn't anything, I do think RAND is a unique institution because I can't think of another one that runs a fully accredited graduate school. So that just alone makes us unique. There's not one really that has the breadth that we have.

I mean, there's a non-profit that works in the health arena, but they don't work on crime, or Iran, or China, or something like that. There's obviously some that do work on foreign policy, but they're not working on children or, depression care, and things like that. So I think the breadth, combined with the objectivity or the non-partisanship makes us not only distinctive but also unique.

TTLA: So I should probably apologize I advance for lumping RAND in something called "Think Tank LA."?

MR: You're not going to be able to avoid it. But I just want to make sure you knew the differences. Now, there are other contract research organizations. There are some in the defense field, the Center for Naval Analysis, Institute for Defense Analysis, Battelle, Stanford Research "? or I guess it's now SRI International, they've downplayed the Stanford association. The Research Triangle Institute, which is in the Raleigh Durham area. We're different from them as well.

I've always thought we're kind of a blend between a university and a consultancy. We've got the client focus and obligations of a consultancy. But we have the academic rigor and the emphasis on informing the public that a university might have. And so there are elements of both and sometimes that creates a management tensions, but that's really what we've tried to do. So at the same time we're serving our clients, we're trying to also put material into the public domain. So we've got about a thousand titles a year, I think a little over half in the RAND series. And we make it all available for free on the website in PDF form. And then, you can also buy the hard copy.

The other 40% or so, the output is in professional or academic journals. And a lot of health is published that way in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the New England Journal of Medicine, those kinds of things.

Continuing Wednesday: Complex Problems & Measuring Success

Photo of RAND HQ in Santa Monica copyright and courtesy Brett Van Ort, 2008