the business of information

Perhaps, we could say that the Internet is the greatest invention of the century. I can bet that there is totally no way that someone here has not glimpsed or used the Internet.

In the past dozen years or so, the Internet has evolved from its beginnings of being a simple government-sponsored research network to what it is now - a commercial enterprise serving millions all over the world. For the past years, the number of Internet users and user networks, the total traffic volume, and data transfer speeds have all grown beyond expectations.

I think I can also call another bet – that 99% of the people gathered here owns a cellular phone unit. In an independent report, it was estimated that more than one in 10 international phone calls is already made from a mobile. What about the local communication needs? Last year alone, the SMS or the texting industry as we Filipinos call it, is estimated as a P180 million a day industry.

All of this is driven by the need to accumulate data and gather information. We are gobbling up numbers and names and addresses and dates and events and organizing them into a cohesive sum for our use or for us to sell to users.

Indeed, from the industrial revolution and the technical revolution, we enter the 21st century experiencing a different revolution: it is the age of the knowledge worker, of global data access and instantaneous transactions, the empowerment of the individual, the blurring of technical enterprise boundaries. It is the information revolution.

Information stopped being scarce for us. We listen to the news in our cars as we drive to work, we read our daily horoscopes and the latest showbiz gossips from our mobile, and we download music and videos from the World Wide Web. Indeed, we are all coasting now in the Knowledge Economy.

The Thirst for Information

As members of a community that surveys, tallies, writes, summarizes, reports, files and shares information, we all here know that he who has the information, wins. Do you know the story of Wikipedia? Wikipedia is a free, open content, community-built encyclopedia with thousands of articles on topics from A to Z. And it is even available in dozens of languages. Its usage and hits are staggering.

Its success is traceable to the great number of individuals out there who need the information – simple and no-nonsense presentation, updated and fast. Yet there is another and far more important reason to Wikipedia’s achievement – the providers of these information who come out from the open and take their time to share and edit the entries on this online facility and storehouse of information.

The Census and Buildup of Information

The unique feature of the information that we need in our economy and that we want in our daily lives is its availability. We want access to information and data.

Our Oro Chamber members want information on markets abroad that need products and services from our country. A potential investor visits the city and our local business leaders package an information kit containing the existing companies, the human resource base, and the costs of doing business. And I attend my MBA Program at the Xavier University and I scour books and references to access information on corporations and their reports of their operations.

But then again, we look at the other side of the equation - the gathering of the data in order to organize and put together a paper, a report or an economic outlook.

The Census of Philippine Business and Industry or CPBI is once again doing its rounds for the year 2006. It is the nationwide undertaking which aims to provide data on the structure and level of economic activity in the country. And before the data will be available for use, it first must be made available by the source establishments.

Looking at the scope and coverage of the CPBI, one can see the similarities of the list with that of the sector groupings in the Oro Chamber. The CPBI covers establishments engaged in the economic activities as defined in the Philippine Standard Industrial Classification: agriculture and forestry, fishing, mining and quarrying, manufacturing, electricity, gas and water, construction, wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles, motorcycles and personal and household goods. Covered also are hotels and restaurants, transport, storage and communication, financial intermediation, real estate, renting and business activities, private education, health and social work, and other community, social and personal services.

It is just regrettable for me, as another knowledge worker and user, that there are activities which are out of scope in the CPBI. And these are interesting activities that I believe, from which once data is gathered, will prove very useful to the local economies and governments. But for now, these economic activities are still not covered by the annual survey: selling in open stalls in public markets, operators of tricycles, jeepneys, calesas and pedicabs, government postal and telegraphic offices, letting and operating of real estate, public education, public medical, dental and health services, sari-sari stores with no regularly paid employees, and activities of membership organizations.

With this undertaking, the importance of accessible and correct data just cannot be stressed or highlighted well enough. Data gathered from the business establishments is seen to serve as reliable bases upon which the government and private sectors can formulate policies and evolve economic development plans.

Therefore, the availability and reliability of statistics from these participating establishments will completely define the commission, and shall impact not only the results, but also the studies and projects that will be created based on the results.

Samples and Data Gathering

I have had my first actual brush with surveys two year ago. I was totally involved with the information and communications technology sector of the region and so together with a partner, we proposed a survey on the use and spread of ICT among schools, regional government agencies and business establishments. We wanted to gauge the level of acceptance and the reach of ICT and from the supposed output, establish our strategies and next activities. So we started off with enthusiasm in full gear, but I believe we wanted so much from our data providers that we came up almost empty in return.

I ponder about it now and realize that there must be two things that we missed or taken for granted. First, is that we asked too many questions and the sample data providers were not ready to give us what we asked for. And second, that people, as a rule, do not readily divulge or are afraid to divulge and share information. Business organizations and entities are very protective of three things - their people, their processes and their systems.

Of course our survey was crude and had a very limited budget, but that experience made me appreciate the importance of this annual survey of the National Statistics Office, and the importance of the information that will be gathered from and provided by the business establishments.

I have studied a tabular report from a CPBI and I am aware of the value of each raw entry provided which form part on the following major items: employment, costs, compensation, fixed assets, hours worked, capital expenditures, revenue and inventories of the business establishments included in the annual study. Each individual response contribute to the aggregate that go into a statistical table, that in turn, will serve as a quantitative portrait of business sector structures and trends on national and regional levels.

The Question of Data Reliability and Anonymity

As the Oro Chamber encourages support and participation from sample establishments for the CPBI, we are also assured that the list of establishments is regularly updated for better response rate and accuracy of data gathered. Updating is done through a series of mail inquiries, a screened list from regulatory bodies, a list of members of business associations, and survey feedback from past establishment surveys.

A survey job is no joke. But the process and time for information gathering for the CPBI is simple and enough for the involved establishments. Information will be collected using a questionnaire which will be delivered personally to them by NSO field men, and thereafter shall be collected one month after the distribution.

The final results of the survey shall come out in individual volumes for 14 major economic sectors. All through this is the assurance to the public that the information given to the survey will not be used against them in lawsuits or for purposes of taxation, investigations or regulations, as guaranteed by Commonwealth Act# 591.

Oro Chamber Takes One More Step

Now let me quote a paragraph from an article in Wikipedia:

The current economic era is defined as the Intangible Economy. In the Intangible Economy, four factors of production - knowledge assets (what people know and put into use), collaboration assets (who people interact with to create value), engagement assets (the level of energy and commitment of people), and time quality (how quickly value is created) are the four key resources from which economic activity and competitive advantage are primarily derived and delivered today.

Today it is no longer sufficient to just provide and protect the data behind a given process. To keep a competitive advantage, organizations must keep people and information continuously connected. It is in this premise that the Oro Chamber creates its Business Knowledge Kiosk.

It shall be a facility open to chamber members and the rest of the business community to provide access to their business-critical information—utilizing a combination of technology and Internet infrastructure, business expertise and close collaboration between Oro Chamber and partner information-rich agencies like the regional office of the National Statistics Office. We have already started negotiating with other organizations and research bodies that can help us provide content and enhance the utility of the knowledge center.

The Oro Chamber, as a business organization that is in constant work with its member business companies, other associations and industry offices here and around the world, is a staunch supporter of an economy guided by knowledge, collaboration, commitment and value creation.

We highly endorse the 2006 Census of Philippine Business and Industry and thus, we enjoin the business community to actively participate in this undertaking and come up and provide quality and reliable data. Let us always remember that the quality and reliability of the information we take is as only as good as that of what we give.

May our ride together in the information highway be smooth and totally enriching. Good afternoon.

* My discussion notes during the CPBI Data Appreciation and Bookkeepers' Conference on June 14 at the Grand Caprice Restaurant