| Plexus Consulting Group | Articles by Plexus Authors | ||
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Case Study: Industry Standards |
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Just a few short years
ago, popular knowledge about the high-tech industry could have been summed
up in the words "a place known as Silicon Valley." Not much more
was understood. In grappling with the challenges of representing the
high-tech industry before Congress, it became clear to the American
Electronics Association (AeA) that there was no uniform, reliable source of
data on the new economy and its impact on jobs, salaries, and economic
trends nationwide. AeA launched an initiative to address this challenge and
has proven beyond doubt, according to CEO Bill Archey, that "good data,
which is well-presented, has enormous power in this town."
Having identified the data vacuum, AeA set out to gather reliable information on new economy industries and to measure the impact on the U.S. economy. To do this, the association created a research department and developed a foolproof methodology to generate reliable high-tech statistics to leverage policy efforts on behalf of member companies. Created in 1996 and staffed by just three professionals, AeA’s research department has produced unprecedented data on the economic impact of high-tech industries on U.S. and global markets. This research has paved the way for several significant, bipartisan legislative victories. For example, a highly charged congressional debate erupted just over two years ago on the issue of whether to grant visas to foreign nationals who possess the technology skills that U.S. companies desperately need. While Congress then dealt a blow to the industry in an effort to protect American workers, AeA set out to inform the debate. Using in-house research, AeA turned the debate on its ear and built an overwhelming bipartisan mandate in Congress to support the industry’s legislative objectives. The research initiative enabled the association to:
AeA hired Michaela D. Platzer in March 1996 to establish Research and Industry Trends, an in-house research department. Together with Christopher Novak and Matthew F. Kazmierczak, AeA’s new research team developed an award-winning enterprise, which earned ASAE’s Gold Circle Award in December 2000. Upon conducting a needs assessment, Research and Industry Trends produced a systematic framework of comprehensive data, eventually covering "cyber" education, cities, states, national, and international high-tech trends. On a shoestring budget, two AeA staff members collected and parsed digitized data from U.S. government databases. Once the preliminary criteria and data were established, AeA fed this information into a feedback loop of trusted local offices and industry advisers to ensure the relevance of both the data and the presentation format. In developing credible data, AeA takes the risk to understate results that may show industry bias. AeA uses government databases, which report statistics provided directly by companies, and does not rely on survey information. To show how stringent AeA’s research parameters are, biotechnology data had been excluded from industry statistics, resulting in a significant undercount in areas with heavy biotech activity prior to the establishment of specific SIC codes for that industry. While biotechnology activity could have been reported under SIC code subsets, AeA leaders concluded that such an evaluation would have been too subjective to be credible. AeA’s pioneering research deliverable focused on Cyberstates, a state-by-state overview of the high-technology industry. The success of this effort piqued NASDAQ’s curiosity and resulted in NASDAQ’s underwriting of Cybernation, one of AeA’s flagship research deliverables. AeA hired a designer to develop the initial graphic and desktop presentation. Ultimately, AeA hired an additional research team member responsible for in-house desktop publishing, which helped to reduce project costs. For the first time in the history of the new economy, AeA provided a comparative data methodology to enable effective state-by-state comparisons of high technology statistics. Previously, it was impossible to compare such statistics between Maryland and Virginia, for example, because totally different methodologies are in place and there is always some skepticism that this data is presented to promote state economic interests. The new methodology has been well received. Approximately 90 House and Senate staff members participated in a luncheon briefing to celebrate the publication of Cybercities, which received wide acclaim in congressional circles. Pursuant to the briefing, AeA was asked to brief half of all U.S. congressional delegations on Cyberstates, a state-by-state overview of the high-tech industry. AeA’s recognition as a high-tech research authority has caught the attention of ASEAN ministers and has resulted in significant opportunities to develop a stream of non-dues revenue from research material sales. The ultimate result of AeA’s research initiative is a comprehensive view of the high-tech sector that "tells the complete story" of the industry in cities, states, the nation, and the world. AeA’s research publications include the following cyber reports: Cyberstates, CyberEducation, California Cybercities, Cybercities and Cybernation. Through its efforts to develop a solid, reliable knowledge base on new economy industries and their economic impact, AeA was able to use in-house research to educate members of Congress, establish a successful government affairs campaign, and arm member companies with credible facts to help them achieve policy goals. While AeA is considering taking its research online in part to reduce costs, it is clear that the value clients place on tangible reports is very high. AeA has shown that in Washington, DC, data matters and has a profound impact on the government relations initiatives of trade associations and their members. According to Archey, it is critical to focus on the basics. A major lesson from AeA’s experience is that reliable, basic facts have significant power to persuade, and companies equipped with such facts have an enormous advantage. When AeA first established the research group in 1996, its management was keenly aware that the press and members of Congess were highly skeptical about trade association data. Invariably, such statistics are considered skewed in the industry’s favor. AeA’s rigorous research methodology ensures objectivity and as a result, AeA research has been well received on both sides of the aisle. |
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Reprinted by Permission