You ask the CFO what his main focus is for the company. He replies that his goal is to manage profitability and cash flow. You ask about the importance of revenue growth, and he replies that 'revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, and cash flow is reality'. You think about what that means and how it might impact how the CFO will view the project and its goals. It seems clear that the CFO supports the corporate growth objectives, but only if other objectives around profitability and cash flow are met at the same time. In fact, he views cash flow as being of primary importance, since the company is primarily engaged in purchasing from suppliers and reselling them to customers. The more efficient the company can be in converting products to cash, the more successful the company can be in delivering bottom-line results. The CFO states that there have been issues with effective planning as the forecasts being developed are not very accurate, especially at the product level. This has led to various over- stock positions (over-stock means that the company is holding far more inventory on certain products than necessary - a waste of capital investment). Also, it has led to situations where the company cannot fulfill demand due to stock-outs, resulting in lost revenue and profits.