Forecasting fundamentals

Author / Creator

Sanders, Nada R., author

Available as

Online

Summary

This book is for everyone who wants to make better forecasts. This book is not about mathematics and statistics. It is about following a well-established forecasting process to create and implement...

This book is for everyone who wants to make better forecasts. This book is not about mathematics and statistics. It is about following a well-established forecasting process to create and implement good forecasts. This is true whether you are forecasting global markets, product demand, competitive strategy, or market disruptions. Today, most forecasts are generated using software. However, no amount of technology and statistics can compensate for a poor forecasting process. Forecasting is not just about generating a number. Forecasters need to understand the problems they are trying to solve. They also need to follow a process that is justifiable to other parties and be implemented in practice. This is what this book is about. Business leaders know that accurate forecasting is a critical organizational capability. Forecasting is predicting the future, and the list of what needs to be predicted to run a world-class organization is endless. Forecasting goes well beyond simply predicting demand or sales. Accurate forecasts are essential for identifying new market opportunities, forecasting risks, events, supply chain disruptions, innovation, competition, market growth, and trends. It also includes the ability to conduct "what-if " analysis to understand the tradeoff implications of decisions. Companies can navigate this daunting landscape and improve their forecasts by following some well-established principles and bearing in mind certain caveats to conventional wisdom. This book is written to provide the fundamentals business leaders need in order to make good forecasts. These fundamentals hold true regardless of what is being forecast and what technology is being used. This book provides the basic foundational principles all companies need to achieve competitive forecast accuracy.

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