Sun's Forecast Was A Wild-Ass Guess
from the honesty! dept
Well, it’s not often you hear such honesty from folks in high positions. Sun’s Scott McNealy admitted today that Sun’s revenue forecasts lately have been wild-ass guesses. While most forecasts are exactly that, most CEOs at least pretend they know what they’re talking about. He also states that they’ll know how their quarter is going when it’s over. I think this is a good thing. People take forecasts, and other pieces of information way too seriously. If CEOs opened up and admitted that they simply can’t tell how things are going, people might take “earnings suprises” with less of a shock.
Comments on “Sun's Forecast Was A Wild-Ass Guess”
10 year surplus
Companies having such limited visibility of a quarterly performance seems like news to stoke a selloff on Wall Street, doesn’t it? The market sure appears undecided, with all eyes on the FOMC meeting next week.
It is curious that a company has difficulty in predicting even a quarter or two out in their business, and the government pretends to have the ability of predicting surpluses TEN YEARS in advance. In fact, it is more than curious. It is looney tunes, or absurd that the politicians would be able to predict ten years out what their revenue will be.
Alas, nobody in the media seems to bring this point out in the open. Scott McNealy makes news when he doesn’t have an idea about projections, but at least he is not claiming to have ten year projections like the politicians.
dreamcircle
Re: 10 year surplus
Yep, didn’t the collapse of communist economics prove that governments can’t plan even FIVE years in advance?
Not that I’m against communism or anything…