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1.  

   They Teach it in Business Schools

   

   Slavito, Aug 27th, 2007 @ 11:53pm

   
   

   Having recently completed a business degree, I can attest that everybody does this... in class projects. Perhaps, Mary picked up the number skills at Cornell University (her MBA alma mater).
   
   P.S. Never mind massaging the numbers, but not knowing the definition of CPM is puzzling, especially considering Mary has followed the Internet sector since 1993.

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2.  

   Never Ass-ume !

   

   Ed Noctor, Aug 28th, 2007 @ 12:31am

   
   

   Good girl,
   
   Ya show the true meaning of never to ass-ume !

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3.  

   She must be buy-side

   

   ReallyEvilCanine, Aug 28th, 2007 @ 3:36am

   
   

   Clearly she wants to tout anything Google -- it was Morgan Stanley (along with Credit Suisse) which underwrote the GOOG stock offering. Fund managers and their aides are notorious for this sort of goal-seeking.

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4.  

   Re: They Teach it in Business Schools

   

   GoblinJuice, Aug 28th, 2007 @ 4:33am

   
   

   P.S. Never mind massaging the numbers, but not knowing the definition of CPM is puzzling, especially considering Mary has followed the Internet sector since 1993.

   
   
   That sorta explains what happened during the 90s. =)

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5.  

   It is always better to know the end

   

   Ajax 4Hire, Aug 28th, 2007 @ 4:59am

   
   

   result that is expected.
   
   CPAs, Engineers, Architect, Lawyers all know this.
   You tell them what the answer is and they adjust the future reality to meet the answer. We are all molders and manipulators of reality to meet future desires. Some are better than others. The good ones get their services hired out to others.

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6.  

   other possibilities, too

   

   Lori, Aug 28th, 2007 @ 5:33am

   
   

   Without denying that the tweaking goes on, there is another possibility as well. Having worked on models such as this, I can tell you that the assumptions are rarely all one's own. What usually happens is that you present your model to umpteen people who rank more highly than you in your organization, and then they argue and discuss the assumptions and eventually tell you what changes need to be made. After you do that you go through that process again, sometimes ad infinitum or until your deadline arrives. It is quite possible that the flak she got for her first bungle also generated a number of criticisms of her assumptions from within and without that required her to change them.

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7.  

   "Tweaking"

   

   Spuds, Aug 28th, 2007 @ 6:29am

   
   

   This is tweaking... but there is a reason for it in most cases. In business, executives want to meet a target. Their target is that end number. 89 million, let's say. So the executive says to the accountant... "What do we have to do to make that 89 million?" Then the tweaking begins.
   
   We can charge our customers x per impression with y impressions per day.

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8.  

   ANALysts numbers

   

   HateScammers, Aug 28th, 2007 @ 12:26pm

   
   

   Are always pulled out their rear to make something look good so they can make money off suckers buying into it.

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9.  

   meeker morgan stanley

   

   bob, Aug 28th, 2007 @ 1:00pm

   
   

   They could be trying to justify the youtube acquisition as MS probably issued the fairness opion for Google.

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10.  

    Hindsight !

    

    Saurabh Garg, Oct 22nd, 2007 @ 11:27pm

    
    

    Typically you would have variables and then you would put value to those variables to come up with a number. This is a classic case where you had a result and you computed the value of the variables.

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