If you are a conservative manager you should use conservative estimates and attempt to avoid overstating results for shareholders and potential investors since: 1) The market may value more conservative earnings numbers. Aggressive earnings management is unsustainable in the long run. 2) The new CEO may be shifting costs to the current period from the future periods in order to record less expense and report higher income in future years. This allows the new management to blame poor current performance on prior management and take a \"big bath\" (rid the Balance Sheet of costs that would otherwise be experienced in the future)