1. European profiling and the EGR
Wiesbaden Group on Business Registers Tallinn, 27 – 30 September 2010
Session No 3:
Profiling (Costs and Benefits)
Sept-2010
European profiling and the EGR

2. Outline of the presentation
Why profiling is needed for
The MNE organisation …
…makes the statistics more difficult to compile and less relevant
What is the right level to produce statistics?
Some remaining issues
What would be the benefits for the countries
A new statistical model…
…to improve the relevance of national statistics…
…and increase the efficiency of the production of statistics
How the EGR could support profiling
EGR is a platform to support statistics…
…that should disseminate a single information on groups and their entities
EGR should be a place for coordination
Sept-2010
European profiling and the EGR

3. The annual report of the group: a very important tool
The show case of the group
Text analysis
A starting point for profiling
Segment information
A relative homogeneity of presentation (IFRS)
A source of information for additional information
Information to update the EGR (global employment, global turnover, global decision center…)
Sept-2010
European profiling and the EGR

4. Why profiling is needed for
Changes in the organisation of the production in the frame of the MNEs
Allotment of the production function into several legal units
Globalisation of the economy
The MNEs organise themselves at the global level…with attention to the local level
Result of the text analysis:
27 annual reports analysed
54 occurrences related to the global dimension (average)
50 occurrences related to the local dimension (average)
Global dimension: refers to the strategy of the group
Local dimension: refers to constraints
Sept-2010
European profiling and the EGR

5. The globalisation of the economy
Sept-2010
European profiling and the EGR

6. The globalisation of the economy
Reasons for this organisation
Increase their competitiveness
Increase their profit
Decreasing their costs
Sept-2010
European profiling and the EGR

7. The MNEs organisation Some examples Unilever Heidelberg cement
Sept-2010
European profiling and the EGR

8. The MNEs organisation
The annual report: A first step in the profiling process
Sept-2010
European profiling and the EGR

9. The MNEs organisation
The annual report: A first step in the profiling process
Result of an analysis of 40 annual reports
Sept-2010
European profiling and the EGR

10. The MNEs organisation
The annual report: A first step in the profiling process
The segment: a level to report financial information
Sept-2010
European profiling and the EGR

11. Business statistics and globalisation
The statistical representation of the MNE may be different from the MNE’s own vision
Example of Siemens France: allocation of the French employees according to the statistical activity and to the group segments
Sept-2010
European profiling and the EGR

12. Business statistics and globalisation
To take into account the global dimension may change the statistics and the economic analysis
Sept-2010
European profiling and the EGR

13. Business statistics and globalisation
The usual collection units may become irrelevant to produce statistics or indicators of a good quality
In some European countries, the legal unit is used as a proxy of the enterprise
In the frame of groups, this may lead to meaningless indicators
Case of indicators which relate 2 economic variables which are not “managed” in the same legal unit
Turnover, employment, R&D expenditures, assets…
Labour productivity, R&D expenditures/turnover….
At the micro economic level: some indicators cannot be computed
At the macro economic level: can lead to a wrong interpretation
Sept-2010
European profiling and the EGR

14. Business statistics and globalisation
The right level to produce statistics?
Find a balance between the global dimension of the economic units and the need to produce national statistics
The group:
A too global entity (by activity and geographically)
The enterprise: two levels
The global enterprise
The national enterprise
The object of profiling
Some issues remain to be treated
How to consider support activities:
R&D, transportation, administration, human resources management, Investments, wholesale or retail trade
How to allocate them by country when the serve the global group?
How to compute national indicators in such cases?
Sept-2010
European profiling and the EGR

15. The benefit of multinational profiling for the countries
A new model for statistical units…
The actual “enterprise” unit is not homogenously defined in the European countries
Sept-2010
European profiling and the EGR

16. The benefit of multinational profiling for the countries
…to improve the relevance of national statistics
To promote the need to take into account the international dimension of the economic entities
To increase the comparability of statistics in Europe
…and increase the efficiency in the production of statistics
Gain for European NSIs to approach the MNEs at their global level
One (or a few) NSIs as contact points for the groups
One (or a few) NSIs to define the global enterprises
Sept-2010
European profiling and the EGR

17. The benefit of multinational profiling for the NSIs
Number of subsidiaries in the TOP 500 MNE by countries of location according to the country of the UCI
Source: EGR-2008
Sept-2010
European profiling and the EGR

18. The use of EGR in the profiling process
The EGR: a platform to support statistics
Survey frame for the collection of information
Access to the global group not only to the truncated information
Access to the enterprise level
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European profiling and the EGR

19. Information available in the EGR
Sept-2010
European profiling and the EGR

20. The use of EGR in the profiling process
A single information on the groups and their entities
To be used by all the statistical compilers
A place for coordination between NSAs
Coordinate the production of statistics
At the group level
Determination of the UCI
Share of information like UCI
At the enterprise level
Share of profiles
Sept-2010
European profiling and the EGR

21. Thank you for your attention
Sept-2010
European profiling and the EGR