Forecasting Failure for BB&B

 

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-06-20/bed-bath-and-beyond-tumbles-after-forecast-trails-estimates

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. forecasted less than analysts estimated for quarterly profits and in turn dropped in market shares. This is the most they have ever dropped since their first shares in 1992. Since store sales in the firsts quarter had risen, analysts projected a gain; however, the forecast was less than estimated causing a huge drop.

Some people think that forecasting is silly and some people think forecasting is something a company should live by. Clearly, Bed Bath & Beyond showed that forecasting is important and it’s important to do correctly. Forecasting  helps companies in so many ways to project estimations for the future based on the past. Bed Bath & Beyond showed the errors that can occur within forecasting.

I think that it’s important for a company to forecast because otherwise they have nothing to base their decisions off of.

Obviously a company can over forecast or under forecast, which can cause problems for the company. Do you think it is better to under forecast or over forecast? Is forecasting even important? How could Bed Bath & Beyond have avoided this problem?

 

2012 London Olympics

As July approaches talk of the Olympics continues to grow and people are getting excited for the games to begin. Do people really think about what all goes in to making the Olympics possible? If you think that the athletes just show up the day of you are sadly mistaken. It takes years for the host city to prepare for the games to attend. I was in London for Spring Break and there was construction everywhere as the city was trying to build new venues as well as fix up broken streets and buildings.

Project management is a HUGE part of preparing for the Olympics. London has to take into account all the characteristics of project management, which include performance, time, and cost. New venues need to be built in order to host the events as well as provide room and board for the athletes. Preparing for this event takes a lot of time; however, they are also working under a time limit as they are given the time from when they get the bid till when the games start. Cost is an important factor as well. Rumor has it that the cost estimate for the games was very off and they have spent a lot more then they estimated. Performance of course is important as well. As you can tell a lot of work in put into making this summer event a success.

It’s important that while planning for the events the manager keeps in mind having time to plan, good communications, careful tracking and control, meeting the deadline, and meeting goals. I suppose once the games begin we can all judge the outcome of how well the project was managed. I’m guessing it is going to be better than we can imagine.

What do you think it takes to have a successful Olympics? How do you think they get it done in time? What else is important besides project management?