Overlooking the often dominant role of seasonality in short-term forecasting can lead to confusion in interpreting sales changes and a lost opportunity to reduce forecast error. Roy explains the seasonality puzzle and how to improve forecasting performance and credibility by properly accounting...

A 2014 International Monetary Fund (IMF) report examined the world economies? 2007-09 financial crises to establish their causes and impacts, as well as the initiatives governments and central banks undertook to deal with them. Roy Batchelor, Foresight?s Financial Forecasting Editor, expands on...

TechCast Global ? www.TechCastGlobal.com ? is a system that generates forecasts for technological innovations and major social trends, examining the impact on business and individuals. Its forecasts are derived from the collective judgment of 130 expert forecasters, scientists, and academics...

Tonya and Ram give their views on the preceding Foresight article by John Mello. Copyright International Institute of Forecasters, 2015

Robert and Fotios discuss the results of their important new survey on the key elements for improving the quality of the forecasting function. A lot more is involved here than software and statistical methodology; it?s also about removing organizational impediments, developing appropriate...

Copyright International Institute of Forecasters, 2015

Effective demand-supply integration (DSI) is an increasingly acute problem in industry, prompted by pressure from large retailers on manufacturers to provide higher levels of service while reducing inventory costs. Meanwhile, the advent of online ordering has further complicated matters by...

Mark comments on the preceding Foresight article about Improving Forecast Quality in Practice, by Robert Fildes and Fotios Petropoulos. Copyright International Institute of Forecasters, 2015

In this uniquely collaborative effort, Mark Moon, academic and author, and Pete Alle, a Vice President of Supply Chain, present guideposts for overcoming many obstacles to effective business integration through S&OP or its associated labels. They describe the common failings of organizational...

Despite great acclaim for the potential and use of prediction markets as an efficient tool for aggregating individual judgments, corporate adoption has been limited. To find out why, Thomas Wolfram examined existing research and interviewed several dozen key business executives. He reports that...