Business planning and innovation have
become essential for any organization, many organizations have realized how important
it has become to adjust to the changing business environment for survival and
sustainability. In
addition, innovation forecasting has become significant in overall business planning
and innovative business planning has become a priority rather than the traditional approach, which may
require gradual changes to business need over time (Wade, 2014). There is a need
to filter proper and useful information for processing and to enhance the
decision-making process based on knowledge acquired. In todays’ chaotic and
competitive business environment, many organizations have realized the
importance of adjusting to the changing business environment for the sustainability
and survival of their organizations. Simply
put, business-forecasting method used for prediction of the future, maybe
narrowly defined based on the economic conditions, which may consist of historical
information and current data, and which will give accurate picture of all economic
conditions, to predict the future.
The importance of Business Planning and Forecasting
Business
planning and forecasting is a valuable business method that enables businesses
to develop data-driven strategies, to drive business financial decisions,
including operational decisions and market conditions, which contributes to predictions
on the outlook. Business forecasting allows the use of historic data to
analyze, aggregate and to discover patterns, used for future prediction of
trends and changes. Therefore, business forecasting allows the organization to
be proactive instead of being reactive (Landau, 2018). It is important to establish alternative business plans that
sets you apart from other businesses and to enable you to create healthy profit
margins, using easy to understand and manage dynamic forecasting methods (Güell,
2019). You must ask the right questions such as, what are the characteristics of
the project that need to be undertaken using the following business
innovation process checkpoints listed below; there
are five forecasting checkpoints and methodologies in business process innovation,
that include quantitative
statistical methodology, project analysis and
regression analysis with complex algorithms (Güell, 2019);
·
Causal methodology
or methods, which is based on statistical data and target population
relationship
·
Statistical methodology
or methods, which is based on historical data and trends, recurrent or cyclical
period, correlations and patterns; you need these combinations to make a projection
·
Exploratory and Qualitative
methodology used with Delphi method in the brainstorming group, surveys, design
thinking, forecasting, historical data and product analysis
·
Consensus
methodology building, which is used for exchange of results from different
methods; and requires team of individuals to contribute from their methods and
ideas
·
Simulations/Analogy
methodology used for different scenarios, for predicting future outcome; this
is applicable in long-term planning situations.
Technology has reshaped our lives for a long time, yet the need for
business forecast looms very high in modern business environment with changes
in technology; and enables business leaders in driving organizations to gain
competitive advantage and to predict future business outlook. There are variations of forecast
such as, Financial, Economic, Marketing, etc. Technology forecast helps
business leaders to engage in future predictions and embrace the force of
change from the predictions.
Business
Innovation
Many predictions and interpretations from science fiction movies revealed future inventions and innovations; and real life innovations follow closely. Life-altering technological innovations have extended live expectancy and have simplified our lives around the world. With predictions and innovations, product developments follow closely. For example, technological innovations like the cell phones and helicopter received inspirations from sci-fi moves and episodes like “Star trek” and “War of the Worlds”. See attached document (CS875 Unit 3 Discussion Board 2 – Attachments).
Advantages of forecasting
Business forecasting is not as easy
task; but it offers great advantages, which include –
·
Valuable insight from access to past and present or real-time
data, to predict the future
·
Ability to learn from past mistakes, it is difficult to start
from scratch, you gain some leverage
·
Decrease in cost, existing processes will help to increase
efficiency and profitability, and decrease excess inventory and cost of
development
Disadvantages of forecasting
·
Forecasting is hard and
it is never 100% accurate and some products have higher volatility
·
Very time-consuming and
resource intensive, requires data gathering/collection and marketing
·
It is not cost
effective; cost of quality tools or upfront costs can be expensive
There was a short movie clip created around
1967 that depicted a “house of tomorrow” which shows how shopping activities or
habits can change when people watch old sci-fi movies or clips; shopping for high-end
appliances and electronic machines increase substantially (Larkin, 2019).
Different technologies are beneficial to
people around the world, benefits include convenience and life-saving
innovations; the new technologies that are beneficial, but can be detrimental,
if put to bad use; they can harm the society.
This assignment calls for prediction and innovative ideas of infamous predictions; the most infamous prediction that comes to mind is the Internet prediction that eventually came to fruition and popularity of the Internet sky-rocked from imagination to popularity and has changed the world (Larkin, 2019).
