Product Review

Ord/Fildes PRINCIPLES OF BUSINESS FORECASTING, 1E gives users the tools and insight to make the most effective forecasts drawing on the latest research ideas. Ord and Fildes have designed PRINCIPLES OF BUSINESS FORECASTING for users who have taken a first course in applied statistics or who have an equivalent background. Whether used by students or current practitioners, this book provides an introduction to both standard and advanced forecasting methods and their underlying models, and also includes general principles to guide and simplify forecasting practice. A key strength of the book is its emphasis on real data sets, taken from government and business sources and used in each chapter's examples. Forecasting techniques are demonstrated using a variety of software platforms and the companion website provides easy-to-use Excel macros to support the basic methods. After the introductory chapters, the focus shifts to using extrapolative methods (exponential smoothing and ARIMA) and then to statistical model-building using multiple regression. In later chapters, the authors cover more novel techniques such as data mining and judgmental methods, and also examine organizational issues of implementation and the development of a forecasting support system within an organization.