Illustrate how management focus on forecasting, planning, and business strategy can create wealth for a company in your industry.
Forecasting, planning, and business strategy can all create wealth for a company. I believe strategy would be the most important as it gives the company focus on what they want to accomplish. There are different types of strategies - however, the one I think of most often when it comes to business is the type of business the company will conduct. For example, will they be a cost leader and provide their goods/services at the lowest costs or be a benefits leader and offer the best quality and/or best features for their product. You can easily see how this can create wealth for the company as people value these things and will build loyalty towards their brand.

Forecasting and planning may not seem something that builds wealth since it is something you should do so you are prepared for the future. However, by planning ahead and forecasting for the future, companies may be able to find out demand will increase/decrease dramatically and make necessary changes to remain profitable during a recession or increase production during an economic boom to do even better.
According to economic theory we might suspect that unemployment would lead housing starts. In essence if unemployment increases then there will less consumer money floating around causing fewer home purchases. Similarly an increasing unemployment is associated with a slowing economy which should lead to decreased commercial construction. Housing does tend to lag behind changes in the economy. The forecasts above both suggest that unemployment is increasing and housing starts are decreasing. I would suspect that housing starts are a better indicator of the housing industry which is the focus of your project. Although unemployment, among other things certainly affects the housing industry. Housing starts is perhaps a more direct indicator than unemployment.

Forecasting is an art and it is something that takes lots of time and analysis to really get it right. Of course you can never be at 100% accuracy, the closer you get to it the better it will be for your company. At the company where I work, we hired a forecaster about 2 years ago and he managed to takes us from 75% accuracy to about 95% accuracy! This was a huge feat and accomplishment for all facets of our business. Forecasting creates wealth not immediately but over time because when you have the correct sales projections year after year, even for a 5 year span, you can keep inventory levels low when you need to and increase it as the busy season approaches. You can also keep raw materials on hand at the perfect level to where your safety works perfecty with the production schedules. This can also help reduce overhead costs overtime or over the life of a product because you become a more efficient manufacturing plant that builds product as you need it and eliminates extra costs and expenses.