Forecast planning of the sort I have described can usually be identified by leafing through a company’s planning documents. Pages and pages of accounting information, detailing five years of financial forecasts with little or no explanatory material, are one earmark. Graphs of projected future performance also tend to follow a predictable pattern; ie, if recent performance has been good, the forecast calls for more and more of the same—on into eternity. On the other hand, if performance has been poor, the forecast will allow for a year or two to effect the inevitable turnaround, and then—off to eternity. (The manager doing the forecasting hopes, of course, that he will get promoted before the two-year period is up.)