Daddy's got a brand new TV!

I finally did it... I got myself an HDTV!!!

It's a 37" LCD from Sharp (Aquos). Has 2 HDMI inputs, a VGA input, 2 component inputs, etc. It's got a great backlight that really makes the image pop, and the blacks are deeeeeep. It fits *perfectly* into my current entertainment stand and is a great size for the distance that we usually watch TV at. Given that we don't have cable, the already fuzzy image of regular TV comes in even fuzzier, but given the upscaling capabilities of the X360, DVDs look fantastic.

And all for the great price of $1,000!



In other news, just a bit of a work conundrum. So, we sell product, and one of the parts of the process for selling said product is the forecasting of sales. Guessing how much we will sell of a given product is a mixture of scientific observation, guesswork, and Voodoo. Naturally, sales and marketing guys want to stick to safe numbers. If the numbers are safe, it makes it easier for them to hit. On the other side, the finance guys want us to score *huge* on everything we do. This naturally creates a problem.

On one hand, market data shows that any given type of product generally can only sell so much. If all the data shows that X-type of product has never sold more than Y, it's hard to justify saying that we're going to sell more. On the flip side, if you don't *strive* to sell more than Y, you never, ever will. So, which is right? Should we be shooting for the moon, given that we have a very aggressive corporate goal to achieve in the next 3 years? Or do we keep things realistic, and hope that every one of our product sells as much as we think and our business continues to grow that way.

This came up during a forecasting meeting yesterday, when faced with certain products. Our forecasts were already somewhat aggressive - everyone felt happy that those figures were achievable. Not *easy*, per se, but achievable. On the flip side, should we be settling for that? If we have aggressive corporate goals, shouldn't we be saying, "We know we can sell X, but what can we do to sell Y?"

It was the cause of much heated debate yesterday (mainly targeted at me, since I was the one trying to get everyone to stop being so timid), so it's really been bothering me. It makes me wonder how the discussions at the upper levels at a company like Apple went when initially discussing the iPod. Did they *know* it was going to be such a huge success? Or did they try to plan *how* to make it a huge success? Granted, they certainly had the right product at the right time, but they did a lot to make the timing work for them.

When you're faced with hard numbers, it's hard to argue with anything other than, "But we have to be trying to do *better*." And when you're a manager trying to tell that to VPs who are almost twice your age, it makes it even harder. I'm at a loss...