At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jim Goodnight, CEO of business intelligence leader SAS, offered insight into the critical role of advanced analytics in predicting future trends.
Goodnight, whose company has had more than three decades of revenue growth and acclaim as a leading software provider and workplace, participated in a panel to discuss new forecasting approaches and tools that organisations should use when formulating their strategies.
He joined Ian A Goldin, Peter Schwartz, Angela Wilkinson and Paul L Saffo. "Everyone is touched by analytics today," Goodnight says, noting that forecasting has become more volatile and complex as volumes of data grow.
"Our ability to tackle forecasting problems has improved because of technological advances," he continues. "The nature of forecasting and predictive modelling is more refined, and the use of forecasting, and advanced analytics in general, is pervasive."
The agenda for the 2008 meeting was based on five conceptual pillars gleaned from a broad view of economic, political, societal and technological forces at work in the world.
These pillars include: Competing While Collaborating, Addressing Economic Insecurity, Aligning Interests Across Divides, Exploring Nature's New Frontiers, and Understanding Future Shifts. The event drew 2 500 contributors from 88 countries, including 27 heads of state and governmental leaders, as well as global business, social and economic leaders. Approximately 60% represent the 1 000 foremost companies in the world, crossing all economic sectors.
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The World Economic Forum, founded in 1971, is an independent, international organisation incorporated as a Swiss not-for-profit foundation. According to the forum's Web site, the vision is threefold. "It aims to be: the foremost organisation which builds and energizes leading global communities; the creative force shaping global, regional and industry strategies; the catalyst of choice for its communities when undertaking global initiatives to improve the state of the world."
SAS
SAS is the leader in business intelligence and analytical software and services. Customers at 43 000 sites use SAS software to improve performance through insight from data, resulting in faster, more accurate business decisions; more profitable relationships with customers and suppliers; compliance with governmental regulations; research breakthroughs; and better products and processes. Only SAS offers leading data integration, storage, analytics and business intelligence applications within a comprehensive enterprise intelligence platform. Since 1976, SAS has been giving customers around the world The Power to Know. Visit us at www.sas.com http://www.sas.com/ or http://www.sas.com/sa.
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