Yet with economies in free fail, managers also need up-to-date information　about what ishappening to their businesses, so that they can change course　rapidly if necessary. Cisco, anAmerican network-equipment giant, has invested over many years in the technology needed togenerate such data .Frank Caideroni, the firm's CFO, says that every day its senior executivescan track exactly what orders are coming in from sales teams around the world, and identifyemerging trends in each region and market segment. And at the end of each month, the firmcan get reliable financial results within four hours of closing its books. Most firms have to waitdays or even weeks for such certainty.

　　Admittedly, Cisco's financial results have not made happy reading recently because, incommon with many other large technology companies, it has seen demand for its productsdecline in the downturn. In early February it announced that its fiscal second-quarterrevenues of $ 9.1 billion were 7.5% lower than the same period in 2008 and that its profit hadfallen by 27%, to $1.5 billion.

　　In response to hard times, Cisco plans to cut $1 billion of costs this year by, among otherthings, making use of its own video-conferencing and other communications technologies toreduce the amount its executives travel. It is also using these facilities to relay information fromemployees on the ground to its senior managers, and to get instructions from Cisco's leadersback out to its 67,000 staff. A rapid exchange of information and instructions is especiallyvaluable if the company wants to alter course in stormy times.

　　If everybody in a company can rapidly grasp what they have to do and how it is changing,they are more likely to get the job done. But some firms are reluctant to share their goals withthe wider world. Unilever, a big Anglo-Dutch consumer-goods group, has decided againstissuing a 2009 financial forecast to investors, arguing that it is difficult to predict what is goingto happen, given the dangerous state of the world economy. "We're not just going to providenumbers for the sake of it," explains James Allison, the company's head of investor relations. 　　Other companies that have decided not to provide annual earnings estimates for 2009include Costco, a big American retailer, and Union Pacific, an American railway company.

　　Some firms, such as Intel, seem to have chosen to take things quarter by quarter. Thegiant chipmaker(芯片制造商) said in January that it would not issue an official forecast for thefirst quarter of 2009 after its fourth-quarter 2008 profit decreased by 90%. Several retailchains have also stopped providing monthly sales estimates because they cannot see what thefuture holds. Retailers, chipmakers and firms in many other industries may have a long waitbefore the economic fog finally lifts.