Benchmarking Forecasting Practices In America

BENCHMARKING FORECASTING PRACTICES IN AMERICA By Chaman L. Jain, St. John’s University It is a common practice to benchmark a company against the industry practices to see how it’s doing. If your company is performing below the industry norms, then the mission is clear. You have to do something to bring up your company to the industry level. If you are at par or above the industry norms, then you may like to raise the bar and do something to improve further the performance of your company. This is our fifth update on the forecasting practices in corporate America. Ever since we started, which was 2002, the response from our readers has been overwhelming, so we decided to continue this practice. Benchmarks are merely averages—average forecast error, average salary in the forecasting profession, background of an average forecaster, etc. Benchmarks given in this issue are based on the survey conducted by the Institute of Business Forecasting (IBF) at all our forecasting conferences and tutorials held in 2006 in the United States, which numbered five in total. Since the participants attended forecasting conferences and tutorials, they are either forecasters or plan to become ...