The increasingly volatile, fragmented, and dynamic marketplace requires a demand planning process for identifying, shaping, and reshaping demand dynamically. Best-in-class companies are ruthlessly focusing on the dynamic management, shaping, and selection of the best marketplace mix of customers, products, geographies, channels, and prices. They do not expect improvements in supply chain flexibility and responsiveness, such as lean manufacturing, to reduce the need to excel in demand forecast accuracy and marketplace segmentation targeting and choice.
 
Simply generating demand projections based on static analysis and aggregated market segment relationships is not sufficient. Achieving market and channel success requires a highly integrated customer and product category strategy. More than 85% of all companies that have implemented a program to improve demand management have generated significant improvements in key customer facing performance. The average benefits from demand planning improvements have been dramatic:
- 4.7 percentage points in % gross margin
- 24% gain in inventory turns
- 13 percentage points in forecast accuracy