
xvii
Preface
EXPERIENCES THAT MOTIVATED THE BOOK
The nature of strategic decisions, large capital investments, and long-range planning necessitates
forecasts 5, 10, even 20 years out in order to calculate the value of these projects. However, the
focus of the forecasting profession has been on short-term sales forecasts, usually six months to
two yearsout. These forecasts are based on statistical forecasting models that are often mechanized
to accommodate a large number of forecasts and updates needed for supply chain management
operations. As a result, most of the training of forecasters is in those areas, and the majority of them
do not operate ...