A friend comes to you with the following problem: I provided my boss a cost equation based on account analysis.

He was unhappy with the results. He told me to do more work and not return until I had a lower cost estimate for one of the cost drivers—number of setups. My analysis covered the last 12 months, January through December of last year. I found that by including the 12 months before that, January through December of the year before last, I was able to get a lower estimated cost-driver rate for number of setups. My boss was happy with my new results. Do you think that what I did was unethical? How would you respond?