In an earlier entry, I mentioned Chet Richards’s book Certain to Win, which is about Colonel John Boyd’s OODA Loop. In this posting, I want to share how we came up with the name for the next book I am co-authoring.

It wasn’t easy.

The book is about forecasting. It will be published by Wiley & Sons early next year. The publishing team, co-author Steve Morlidge and I, brainstormed several titles, none of which quite resonated.

For example, we considered names like Time Travel and Future Perfect. The first, we decided, sounded more like science fiction. Although Future Perfect had a certain allure, we felt that it ultimately missed the mark. We realized that the future is never going to exactly be perfect. Besides, making that claim in a book title seemed a bit too much to promise.

The objective of the book is not to create a perfect future but to prepare an organization to be ready for the future regardless of what that future holds.

Companies cannot control the future any more than humans can control a hurricane. What we can do, however, is closely monitor the wind and the waves and other relevant factors that ultimately predict where the hurricane will make landfall. And we can be better prepared for the storm when it does strike …

Forecasting in business works the same way. The idea is to protect or invest our assets to achieve the best possible outcomes given the economic weather. Some companies use scenario modeling, others use contingency planning, while others have varying models and processes — all in an effort to prepare the company for when the unexpected occurs. Whether the unexpected takes the form of the recent cash/credit crunch, a shortage of raw materials and supplies, or a man-made or natural disaster, the damage can be limited by proper forecasting.

That’s the vision the book lays out for the Planning Department of the future, which will enable a company to be ready for whatever happens. Once we rehashed the book’s purpose, the title became clear: Look for Future Ready to hit bookshelves in early 2010. ###