The PIMS Database (Some Details)

Since its founding in 1975, the Strategic Planning Institute (SPI) has developed and maintained the Profit Impact of Market Strategy (PIMS) database for use in strategy analysis and research. Tom Peters described PIMS as " the most extensive strategic information database in the world." Over the years, SPI member companies have contributed detailed profiles of thousands of businesses in many industries in regional, national, and international markets. These profiles include financial data as well as information on competitive environments, customers, markets, and operations.


A database of business units

The PIMS unit of analysis is the Strategic Business Unit (SBU). Each business is a division, product line, or other profit center within its parent company. The SBU sells a distinct set of products and/or services to an identifiable group of customers, in competition with a well-defined set of competitors, and for which revenues, operating costs, investments, and strategic plans can be identified.

Businesses in the database can be separated into groups such as producers of (1) consumer durables, (2) consumer non-durables, (3) capital goods, (4) raw and semifinished materials, (5) components, (6) supplies (7) services, and (8) wholesale and retail distribution. The industry to which the SBUs belong are not identified, although many industry characteristics (such as growth rates) can be examined.


Variables

The PIMS database has financial, strategic, competitive, and background data on each business unit. Each business is profiled in terms of some 500 variables. The data include:

• Standardized income statement
  
  • Purchases and manufacturing components of cost of goods sold
  • Marketing expenses (4 categories)
  • R&D expenses (2 categories)
  • Pretax, preinterest income
  
  
• Standardized balance sheet (primarily asset side)
  
  • P&E (net and gross book value)
  • Inventory ( finished goods, raw materials , WIP)
  • Receivables
  • Payables
  
  
• Quality and price relative to competitors
  
• New product levels for business and competitors
  
• Market share levels and changes for business and major competitors
  
• Descriptions of markets, channels, and competitive tactics

Access

Limited access to the PIMS data is now available through www.pimsonline.com the applications include ROI determination; Market Share Change; Marketing Budget development; Market Attractiveness/Competitive Strength (competitive position); by establishing PIMS business comparables to the data submitted by you, the user.


Strengths and limitations of PIMS data

The nature of the PIMS data and the confidentiality conditions that govern the assembly of sensitive data drive the way that the data is used. Specifically, users of the PIMS data look for statistical relationships among variables, and not at the individual data records.

Data Characteristics	PIMS can provide	PIMS cannot provide
Data describes business units, not companies	Data on market shares, relative prices, and other factors that describe business units	Data on debt, equity, diversification and other factors that describe companies
Retrieval is restricted to statistical summaries of data, not individual records	Average ROI of fast growing businesses	ROI for GE Plastics
There are eight broad categories for type of business (e.g. consumer durables, industrial capital goods,); there is no data identifying the industry of the businesses	Correlation between quality and market share for consumer durables businesses	Correlation between quality and market share for automobile industry
PIMS cases contain annual data, typically tracking a business over 4-6 years	How an increase in R&D expenditures typically affects new product levels one, two or three years into the future	How an increase in R&D affects new products three months into the future