All businesses are confronted with the general problem of havingto make decision

All businesses are confronted with the general problem of havingto make decisions under conditions of uncertainty. Management mustunderstand the nature of demand and competition in order to developrealistic business plans determine a strategic vision for theorganization and determine technology and infrastructure needs. Toaddress these challenges forecasting is used. According toMakridakis (1989) forecasting future events can be characterizedas the search for answers to one or more of the followingquestions: