This paper is concerned with the need for more interdisciplinary, systems oriented, research directed towards major problems ecountered by decision makers in industry and government; a need which is more difficult to meet in the face of traditional methods of organizing knowledge and research.  It emphasizes the need to acknowledge the true complexity of the problems and the interactive nature of any effective research procedure.  As an illustration, both of the need and the problems involved in meeting it, the development of a new program of research into problems of Management and Technology at the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis, which is supported by seventeen nations of all political complexions, is analyzed.  The implication is that we can do something about the future but we must be prepared to do.