Strategic Business Forecasting: A Structured Approach to Shaping the Future of Your Business

The main object of this book is to describe ways to predict so that the results will be worth the effort. How a business entity fares against competitors in anticipating the overall economy, market demands, technological advances, and government policy changes can spell the difference between success and failure. It is now thought too difficult to be, and risky or wrong to try to be, a successful manager without continually making serious attempts to picture what the future might bring. Although those engaged in predicting are not universally respected, it is widely felt that to lead almost any operation competently, multiple levels of forecasting effort are mandatory. Decision makers, it is believed, must prepare for future developments and not merely plan to respond when they arrive. Foresight is expected to be accompanied by appropriate advance action to maximize the positive and minimize the negative of the earlier conceived future occurrences.