By the fall of 2004, consensus forecasts were generated monthly by a group that included the VPs
of marketing, product strategy, finance, and product management, as well as the sales directors, some
of whom participated in the meetings via telephone conference call. The goal of the consensus
forecasting process was to collect assumptions about future product demand and performance from
different areas of the organization and to summarize these assumptions in a single document that
would be used to drive sales, manufacturing, and financial planning. The process in itself created
multiple opportunities for evaluating and revising these assumptions and their implications