The credit crunch - older but wiser?

Let's be honest, it didn't need a brain the size of the Universe to work out that if you lend lots of money to people who can't afford to pay it back, then the whole house of cards will come tumbling down one day. It staggers me that so many people got caught up by the whole thing and threw away the fundamental rules of banking, but hey I don't run the world (thank God I hear you cry)!

The youth of today (or any time) are, of course, convinced that they know everything. I, on the other hand, am now convinced that as you grow older, you either become a nerd and know lots about very little, or like me you know know less and less about more and more.

For instance, I simply do not understand:

• How anyone finds Ricky Gervais funny
• How anyone can like Coldplay or the Streets
• How anyone finds Kate Moss attractive
• How anyone ever believed a word Tony Blair said
• Why they don't pay me megabucks
• Why people can't use apostrophes correctly
  
• etc. etc.

Being serious, what the current crisis has brought home for me, and I hope for lots of others, is the painful truth that you can't have everything today. Good stuff costs hard work and money, and if you haven't got enough money then you need to prioritise your requirements. Too many people, IMHO, say "I need", when they really mean "I want" or "I would like".

Same thing applies to IT. As a bedrock, I require sound business policies and a strategy that lays out the requirements and the priorities. If I don't have that, then I have a system that will collapse under pressure.

It is very easy to run things efficiently in IT - there are loads of tools for people to play with and tune stuff for hours - all of which is a total watse of time and money if they are working on the wrong thing. The first step is to be effective. Then you run what matters efficiently.

Now, could we have some effective global fiscal rules please?

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tags: Business policy |  Business rules |  Effective |  Efficient |  Strategy