Future ready: how to master business forecasting

Currently, managers are facing an unprecedented level of instability in their businesses. Future Ready improves managers' ability to anticipate and manage the future with tools to 'go beyond budgeting.' This non-technical guidebook offers techniques on developing an effective management process. Through an accessible approach, this book discusses the connections between business challenges and everyday situations in relation to biological and systems sciences. Including illustrations, cases, examples, and optional 'panels' with further technical explanations, this book is essential for managers who are interested in integrating forecasting processes with their business processes.

Section I 'Why?' : Why Change? Everyone Knows the Trouble I've Seen -- Forecasting Disease, the Symptoms and the Remedy -- Section II Principles : Mastering Purpose -- the Cassandra Paradox -- Mastering Time -- Delay and Decision -- Mastering Models: Mapping the Future -- Mastering Measurement -- Learning to Love Error -- Mastering Risks: How the Paranoid Survive -- Section III 'Praxis' : Mastering Process: The Mother of Good Fortune -- Theme #1 Recipe for success: tips and traps -- Theme #2 Coordination in a complex system : how different can we be? -- Theme #3 'Whose job is it anyway?' Roles and responsibilities -- Section IV Transformation : Implementation: Beginnings and Endings -- Beyond Forecasting: The Biggest Barrier -- Beyond Budgeting: A New Management Model? -- Conclusion: Reconnection -- Appendix 1 -- Design Principles : A summary -- Appendix 2 -- Important concepts in systems and cybernetics.