Current State of the Forecasting Discipline—Some Observations of A Roving Forecaster

Current State of the foreCaSting DiSCipline—Some obServationS of aroving foreCaSter by mark lawless It is not uncommon to see the final forecast turn out to be the budget, plan, sales quota or some other business objective for the period ... forecasting models often used in business are the ones with which the forecasters feel most comfortable, compared to the optimal model choice … a forecast is neither a goal nor a plan, but often the management believes that it is both. I I have been privileged to meet planners and forecasters of numerous companies over the past several years. The purpose of these meetings has been to focus on forecasting and best practices that will improve their companies’ ability to forecast in order to best support the planning and decision processes. The meetings involved managers and professionals, forecasters and planners, and virtually every key organization function within the companies’ structures. The level of management varied, and so did the backgrounds of planners and forecasters, and their industry settings. Despite the many variations and apparent differences, there was a commonality in the issues and problems they faced in their ...