1. Think of a business you are familiar with and the operational measures we discussed in our first conference call (efficiency, variety, responsiveness, and quality). Select one of these measures and discuss specifically how the business perform on the measure and how the performance affects the competitiveness of the business.

2. Select a business and an industry you are familiar with. Briefly present the competitive players in this industry and how the business you are familiar with performs relative to other competitors.

3. Considering what a forecasting system must do, select a characteristc of a system (accuracy, cost, flexibility, etc.) and discuss its importance in how the system is used for planning and decision making.