Michael Gilliland is a longtime business forecasting practitioner and formerly a Product Marketing Manager for SAS Forecasting. He is on the Board of Directors of the International Institute of Forecasters, and is Associate Editor of their practitioner journal Foresight: The International Journal of Applied Forecasting. Mike is author of The Business Forecasting Deal (Wiley, 2010) and former editor of the free e-book Forecasting with SAS: Special Collection (SAS Press, 2020). He is principal editor of Business Forecasting: Practical Problems and Solutions (Wiley, 2015) and Business Forecasting: The Emerging Role of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (Wiley, 2021). In 2017 Mike received the Institute of Business Forecasting's Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2021 his paper "FVA: A Reality Check on Forecasting Practices" was inducted into the Foresight Hall of Fame. Mike initiated The Business Forecasting Deal blog in 2009 to help expose the seamy underbelly of forecasting practice, and to provide practical solutions to its most vexing problems.
Back in 2013 the BFD asked Is one number forecasting a new worst practice?, concluding yes. Certainly, it is important for an organization to be aligned, with different functions like sales, supply chain, and finance not going off independently in their own directions, doing whatever they want. But trying to
Editor-in-Chief Len Tashman's Preview of the Summer 2019 Issue of Foresight This 54th edition of Foresight features an important new take on the role of judgment in the forecasting process. Normally, we see judgment applied to adjust a statistical forecast or supply a forecast directly. But here Fotios Petropoulos proposes
Special Feature Section Our special feature section in this 53rd issue of Foresight poses the question, Are You a Victim of Your Models? Here Tom Willemain, a longtime contributor to the journal, ponders why modeling and optimization algorithms haven’t displaced “gut instinct” in supply-chain forecasting as much as one would
The value of any data lies, of course, in its use to make better decisions that lead to more favorable results – like increased revenue and profit, improved customer satisfaction, and increased safety. The Internet of Things is giving us a lot more data. The challenge is how to manage
This issue's preview is provided by Ralph Culver, Foresight's manuscript editor. Preview of Winter 2019 issue of Foresight The Winter 2019 issue of Foresight—number 52—kicks off with Simon Clarke’s enthusiastic review of The Little Illustrated) Book of Operational Forecasting by Dr. Steve Morlidge. Every year brings us new, inexperienced business-operations
Applying machine learning approaches to forecasting is an area of great research interest. Progress is being made on multiple fronts, for example: In the M4 Forecasting Competition, completed earlier this year, the top two performers utilized machine learning with traditional time series forecasting methods. At the link you'll find full
This Fall 2018 issue of Foresight, our 51st, opens with Fotios Petropoulos’s review of Paul Goodwin’s latest book, How to Profit from Your Software: A Best-Practice Guide for Sales Forecasters. Fotios notes that the author doesn’t single out any one software system, but keeps the discussion general and so applicable to many products.
Continuation of Q&A from the September 19, 2018 ASA web lecture "Why Are Forecasts So Wrong? What Management Must Know About Forecasting." Why Are Forecasts So Wrong? Q&A (Part 2) Q: Should we make a distinction between business as usual forecasts and major change forecasts and do FVA for these
Last week I had the pleasure of delivering a one hour web lecture for the American Statistical Association on "Why Are Forecasts So Wrong? What Management Must Know About Forecasting." I find it helpful (both for myself and the audience) to follow up with written responses to all questions submitted
Forenote: We Are The Champions In a season marred by more cheating and dirty play than a church league, I had the pleasure of teaming with this motley group below to win the 2018 SAS Basketball Championship. Easy everyone...don't think I announce this to be glorified and put on a
