Maria says to lay in a supply. Germaine says to move to synthetic flannel. Oscar says to set fire to your competitors' warehouses. Frances excuses herself and goes to call her stock broker. Someone in the room undoubtedly is saying the truth.
Someone has knowledge.
This is, in fact, the conundrum that gave rise to the idea of knowledge. If you could do that reliably, you'd be on the road to Truth, Goodness and the Athenian Way. In corporations, we generally do it in two related ways. First, we look at the person's track record. The fact that Maria was right about the the great Steel Wool crisis of '93 and the great Marmite crisis of '97 gives her some credibility when it comes to the current flannel crisis.