Profitability Influencers
Initially launched by General Electric in the 1960s and managed by the Strategic Planning Institute since 1975, PIMS has the purpose of presenting solid evidence of the business strategies having the greatest influence on profitability within specified industries. The study identifies the strategic variables such as capital investment, advertising, product quality, innovation and pricing that work best at influencing profitability in different industries and business environments. The strategic business units in the PIMS database are divided into eight categories: consumer durables, consumer non-durables, capital goods, raw material, components-supplies, wholesale distributors, retail distributors and service providers. Though the SBUs are not identified, each participating SBU provides information about product quality, price, new product activity, market shares and competitive strategies.