The role of information in the financial crisis

Since my last entry, I had a very stimulating meeting with fellow judges on the Computing awards and have run a couple of seminars around my IT-Enabled Business Change book.

It's been an exciting time, particularly since I have also been trying to get an understanding of the current financial crisis.

Just to link these points, I have used the IT-enabled change model of people, process, information and technology.

Most of the focus has been on people, particularly the greed angle. There has been some process views on risk although this has been limited. Likewise the role of technology in making this all happen so fast has been highlighted but not to any great extent.

For me the biggest question relates to information. No-one seems to understand the value of many of these 'toxic assets'. This includes sellers, buyers, raters and regulators. It appears to be a classic case of information ignorance rather than information asymetry where the seller is better informed than the buyer.

It makes me wonder what role if any the CIO has to play in this. Next month I am presenting another seminar on IT-enabled business change to a group of change managers linked to financial services - perhaps an opportunity to find the answer!