FORECASTING ACROSS THE ORGANIZATION

Forecasting is a critically important tool used in business. Its use is necessary to build budgets, project sales and insure that the operations of a firm are run in an efficient, cost effective fashion. What is often overlooked is the fact that forecasting can be used effectively in a much broader range of applications throughout the organization and, by mastering a few relatively straight forward techniques, middle managers can add forecasting to their tool box of techniques to be used to manage more effectively. Forecasting across the Organization offers the reader a brief introduction to forecasting--what forecasts are, why they are made, what quantitative tools must be used to carry out a forecast, what types of forecasts can be used and what purposes they serve. This introduction is followed by a section that describes in detail the functional areas throughout an organization that benefit from the use of forecasting and demonstrates the effectiveness of forecasting when used in each of these functional areas.