Here’s the third and final part of my interview with Jason Rinsky, SVP of corporate taxation with defense systems giant DRS Technologies (the first part is here and the second is here). Starting in 2006, Rinsky led a technology implementation that integrated large areas of the firm’s tax processes, yielding significant efficiencies. Here he talks about users’ response to the new software. more

In my last post, I explained how when it comes to forecasting, Dow Chemical Company has recently embraced the notion that understanding the timing behind economic upswings is as important as forecasting accuracy.

So what did Dow do next? To start building a framework that would connect recessionary cycles to business cycles, Dow looked to tap sources of existing economic data.

“We first thought, Well, who is doing this type of work? And how do we use it to a different advantage?” said Tim Rey, the manager of Dow’s advanced analytics group, situated in Dow’s Six Sigma Expertise Center. According to Rey, Dow first turned to the Chicago Fed National Activity Index. more