In The Daily Drucker, November 4 “The Test of Intelligence Information,” Peter F. Drucker and Joseph A. Maciariello point to very few American financial institutions who were not surprised by the collapse of mainland Asia in the late 1990s.

These “unsurprised firms” thought through the “information” they had, in respect to growing Asian economies and currencies.

They then gradually eliminated all the information they got from within their own subsidiaries, and affiliates.

Basically, they ignored all the “data” and instead, began organizing their information in ways like:

• The ratio between short-term borrowing, and the country’s balance of payments.

• Information on funds available to service foreign short-term debt.

It was long before these ratios turned unfavorable, so unfavorable as to cause a panic, that these executives saw “it” was coming.

What was “it?” The decision as to whether to pull their firms out of Asian countries, or to stay in them for the very long term.

They had, in other words, realized what economic data is meaningful in respect to emerging countries, and what is not.

They had to turn all the data into information.

And, they had to prepare for what action to take long before that action became necessary.

In today’s world, use the data that you have from the past to make informed present and future decisions.

It is a lot of data, I know. And the pressure is mounting.

But you have to tell an informed story with all this data, so you and your firm can do business.

ACTION POINT: How can Big Data become Business Intelligence?