Risk and information management

The name of my department is thoughtfully chosen:  Risk and Information Management.  Two topics that are intrinsically inseparable but practically detached from each other, like two sides of the same coin. At least, our ’risk’ people are working on completely different things from our ‘information’ people. Only when we meet at obligatory department meetings do we realize that we actually belong to the same department.

As  one of the ‘ risk’  people, I do think about information management from time to time, but more from the risk management point of view. For example, how to make rational decisions when there is a lack of information. It is often stated that more information will reduce risk, but this is definitely not true. First of all, wrong information is known to be a high risk factor. On the other hand, even if the information is right, it is subject to misinterpretation and may lead to bad decisions. 

From an economic point of view, abundance of information decreases the marginal value of information and increases the risk of misinterpretation. In such situations, it may be not worthwhile to collect more information. Perhaps it’s time to talk to our ’ information’  people about a joint information risk management research.