March 16th, 2009

As analysts compete with the media to try to outdo one another on the pessimism, Greenshootsblog was fascinated and slightly pleased to read of an alternative to their opinions. The Economist reports on the rise of what it calls ‘internal prediction markets’; basically a way to harness (and even reward) the views and expectations of employees.

With so many miserable predictions out there, perhaps this could be a good tool for larger companies to find their own signs of recovery? Because, despite scepticism from some quarters, it reports that, “many pilot projects run so far have shown that junior staff can often be surprisingly good forecasters”.

http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13184829