Business Forecasting

Afterwords

If you had 1,000 words to tell the world something important about forecasting – something you think everyone should know – what would that be? That is the question we posed to a diverse pool of academics, consultants, vendors, and industry practitioners – all recognized and influential contributors to the forecasting profession. This compilation of 16 “Afterwords” delivers their response.

There is generally much to learn from the perspectives of others, and the more varied the perspectives the better. Thus, we purposely sought to avoid anchoring contributors to any specific subject area. Just like combinations of forecasts tend to perform better than an individual model, so do these varied perspectives provide a collective value greater than the individual parts.

These Afterwords were not meant to follow the formality and rigor one would find in a peer-reviewed journal. Instead, we encouraged the contributors to write in the form of an “opinion-editorial” piece, with the freedom to share thoughts on any topic they deemed worthy of sharing. We are gratified with their participation, and the breadth of topics they covered.

OBSERVATIONS FROM A CAREER PRACTITIONER: KEYS TO FORECASTING SUCCESS

Carolyn Allmon, Teleflex, Inc.

Introduction

I have been forecasting for businesses since 1994. In that year, an enlightened leader of a company making industrial cleaning machines, parts, and floor coatings, dissatisfied with the current forecasting results, hired me to develop ...