Steps in pimsonline.com analyses:

1. Define the business and identify key issues

In PIMS, a business is defined as an entity that sells a distinct set of products or services, serves a specific group of customers, and competes with a well-defined set of competitors. e.g. The General Motors Corporation is not a PIMS business; it’s many PIMS businesses. GM’s Saturn business is a PIMS business. In fact, both Saturn’s small-car and its large-car lines can each be correctly defined as a PIMS business, as can individual models (such as convertibles) within Saturn’s small-car line.




Key issues currently addressed by pimsonline.com are:

• Return on Investment Report - What level of profitability is "expected" for comparable businesses? ( Sample)
• Market Share Change Report - What level of share gain/loss is "expected" for comparable businesses? ( Sample)
• Marketing Budget Report - What level of marketing expenses is "expected" for comparable businesses? ( Sample)
• Market Attractiveness/Competitive Strength Report - How attractive is the market/competitive position of comparable businesses? ( Sample)
2. Develop a quantitative profile of the business

The profile should include estimates of all the criteria used to select PIMS comparables for the issues to be addressed. The pimsonline.com criteria have been selected because both PIMS experience and micro-economic theory have shown them to be powerful drivers of the factor under study. e.g. Market share is a powerful driver of profitability. To explore profitability levels for a business, the market share for this business and each of its three leading competitors must be provided.

Frequently businesses defined as specified above to explore competitive-strategy issues do not align with existing management or financial reporting structures. The analyst must develop a "green-field" quantitative profile by referring to relevant documents and interviewing knowledgeable individuals. Just because the data is not readily available, don’t give up. Experience shows that this work of profiling competitive product/market segments that are not aligned with traditional reporting structures can be highly instructive.

3. Enter values for sample variables and run program to select sample of comparable PIMS businesses
4. Review results

How closely does the sample’s profile match the business’ profile? If sample does not match the businesses, return to step 3 and change the bounds to get a different (better) match.

Note: This sample/business criteria-matching process is like trying to keep a set of balloons under water - when you shift emphasis to push some balloons further under, others begin to pop up. Similarly, when you tighten the bounds on one criterion to force the sample to more closely match the business on that criterion or to increase/decrease the sample size, the sample/business match of other criterion may be degraded.

5. What outcome is "expected" for PIMS businesses comparable to this business?

The outcome shown on the pimsonline.com report represents the average reported by the selected sample of comparable PIMS businesses. The sensitivity of the outcome to various levels of input criteria and or sample size can be explored by systematically varying the sample-selection bounds and running additional pimsonline.com reports.

6. What’s the potential of this business?

To explore the potential of this business given alternative strategic positionings, "what if" scenarios can be identified and profiled, and additional pimsonline.com reports run.