Managing the Future: Analytic Insights for More Confident, Proactive Decision Making

Overview

The task of managing the future comprises different types of activities: forecasting, risk management, decision making and planning. The aim of this paper is to explain each activity briefly and to suggest a possible way of linking them together. Finally, some recommendations on SAS offerings are given. The need to deal with the future is probably as old as mankind. For example, knowing when to sow a plant and when to harvest it was (and still is) a crucial activity. The need for gaining insights about the future is of particular interest when there is a time lag between awareness of an impending event and occurrence of that event.