The Test of Intelligence Information.

The ultimate test of an information system is that there are no surprises. Before events become significant, executives have already adjusted to them, analyzed them, understood them, and taken appropriate action. One example is the very few American financial institutions that, in the late 1990s, were not surprised by the collapse of mainland Asia. They had thought through what "information" means in respect to Asian economies and Asian currencies. They had gradually eliminated all the information they got from within their own subsidiaries and affiliates in these countries-these, they had begun to realize, were just "data." Instead, they had begun to organize their information about such things as the ratio between short-term borrowing and the country's balance of payments and...