Supporting Complexity and Risk

The current recession is leading to a more competitive business environment for companies to compete in. Successful ones will be those that can tackle a more complex business environment as well as mitigate the increased risks. Forecasters will have greater demands placed on them from corporate managers looking to plan future activities. This column discusses what forecasters need to do to support the ensuing increase in complexity and risk. LARRY LAPIDE | Dr. Lapide is a Research Affiliate at MIT and a Lecturer at the University of Massachusetts, Boston Campus. He has extensive experience in industry, consulting, business research, and academia as well as a broad range of forecasting experiences. He was an industry forecaster for many years, has led forecasting-related consulting projects for clients across a variety of industries, and has researched as well as taught forecasting. He was also a market analyst researching forecasting and supply chain software. (This is an ongoing column in The Journal, which is intended to give a brief view on a potential topic of interest to practitioners of business forecasting and planning. Suggestions on topics that you would like ...