IBIS World Reports: Accuracy and Filtering Options
October 14, 2022
by a searcher from University of California, Los Angeles - UCLA Anderson School of Management in Madrid, Spain
Hey there SF community!
I am very grateful that we have the IBIS World reports for free on SF, thank you for that guys.
Many of you SFers have gone on to research some of these industries in great depth, I would love to know:
- How accurate have you found the IBIS World reports vs the on-the-ground reality? I would think that the larger operators (not SF acquisition candidates) skew some of the figures, but it's just a guess.
- What are the most and least useful things you've found on these reports, and what adjustments do you think should be made to make them more representative for us SMB folks?
Potentially dumb question, but is there a way to filter industry reports by, say, profit margins? If there isn't I would be happy to scrape the data from the reports and share it with SF so that filters can be added to the site.
Lastly, a more generic and ample question: how are you guys approaching the narrowing down of industries? Do you build scorecards based on IBIS World reports, and then go deeper into the pre-qualified industries? What other resources do you recommend for this purpose?
Thank you very much, everybody. This community is a huge motivation to embark on this path.
P.S. Will be at the HBS conference in a couple weeks, would love to connect with other people in the community.
from Marymount Manhattan College in New York, NY, USA
Currently, there's no way of sorting industries by a specific criteria or datapoint in SF. If you are interested, I can connect you with one of my colleagues to explore a subscription outside of SF that would give you these capabilities. We have a tool that sifts through thousands of industries based on the information you want to see.
Something I think you'll find exciting that's arriving on SF in the coming weeks is our Industry Segment Benchmarking information. This will take the industry reports and break the industry down based on various employee segments (Ex: 0-4 employees, 20-99 employees, 500+ etc.) This should be helpful for SF members focused on SMBs. This information should also provide a more realistic view when comparing the segment industry data to real world SMBs.
I hope this helps a bit, but please let me know if you have any other questions about IBISWorld!
from Hofstra University in New York, NY, USA
Industries with many small companies create distorted figures.
I would use IBIS as a starting point but definitely consult those active within the industry for further insight.
Would be nice if they provided insight on the types (small/mid/upper market) of companies used in their reports and sample size for each type.