International Business: Need for a Data Base

After reading this article you will learn about the international business’ need for a data base.

The international business in very simple terms is the flow of goods and services across the national borders. The exports of one are the imports of the other. The data on this movement of the goods and services is of significant importance.

It gives an indication for the origin and destination, for the sources of availability and point of consumption, about the corporations and the competitors, about seasonal ups and downs of specific commodities, about the pattern of production demand and consumption, about transportation about the economic condition, about the industrial activities and last but not least about the organizations.

For a global trader this flow of commodities is vitally important, it is his lifeline tuned to his survival in this trade. He is bound to know not only the mechanism of this flow but is also bound to keep it up dated in order to remain is step with the ever changing flow at the global level.

Though the trade data is available from the secondary sources but no such can keep him up dated because all such data is just a history and not about the time when the history was being created. The best source of such data is the trader himself. He keeps most up to data on the flow of goods and services that fall under his area of operations.

This need is fulfilled by creating:

1. Data record folder.

2. Data base.

Data Record Folder (DRF):

This is one of the most important and best practical way for keeping abreast of the market. The traders generate this folder as market specific and/or the product specific depending on the operational area of the global trader. The DRF contains any information that is related to the product and industry specific.

The production & consumption, manufacturers and consumers, imports & exports, new capacities being planned and those that are folding up, labor relations and strikes, chairman’s speeches and the financial reports, government policies at home and overseas which have direct or indirect bearing on the trade of the related industries/products, competitors and their data, technologies or products, past contracts and contacts, consumer or end user’s consumption behavior and changing pattern.

These are some of the points that a trader has to be vigilant and keep track of the data through the primary and secondary sources.

The trader can generally get all such data from secondary sources, like:

a. Economic and financial newspapers,

b. Relevant publications,

c. Trade associations,

d. Government publications,

e. Annual reports,

f. Past and present business data,

g. Competitors reports, and 

h. Miscellaneous data from unspecified sources.

The DRF gradually becomes a storehouse and serves as reference material. This document becomes the trader’s know how of the business that he is conducting or had conducted or even the one that he might be conducting in the future.

This document under no circumstances the trader can afford to lose. This is his encyclopedia and information source. The more systematic the data is stored the more helpful it becomes to the trader.

This DRF gradually tends to become very bulky and becomes even more difficult to refer. In such a situation the trader can use this data to create a database in his computer that would be easier to manipulate and up date. But if is not possible then the document can be split in different sections each dealing with specific item/market as listed above.

In any case it must be noted the DRF does not lose its importance even if the trader creates the Data Base. The database gives the overall view of the market, the industry, and the product or even at the micro level about a particular manufacturer. But the DRF is product/manufacturer(s) or related market specific. So both the DRF and the DB are essential operative instruments.

The Data Base: The Most Powerful Operational Tool:

This is the most effective operational tool that a trader can have. This is his foundation on which he builds his business. This database is not limited to any one industry or product rather it is the collective reference tool covering specific profiles falling with in his area of operations. For details refer to sample database.

Uses of the Data Base:

The basic purpose and usage of this data base is to assist the trader to know the producers and consumers, importers and exporters, origins and destinations, quantities traded, volumes of the transactions and other miscellaneous information helpful to him for conducting his business.

Creation of the Data Base:

The trader decides what type of information would be helpful to him for his business; each single element of information is then treated as one field for the database. Depending on the capacity of the computer and the software that he uses, the trader can decide the number of field that he can generate.

For general type of database the following fields are considered essential:

1. Product,

2. Industry to which the product belongs,

3. Country of origin,

4. Country of destination,

5. Name and address of the buyer/importer/trader,

6. Name and address of the exporter/manufacturer/trader,

7. Quantity covered under one transaction,

8. Value covered under above transaction,

244 International Business and Contract Management,

9. Date of the transaction, and

10. Miscellaneous information and remarks of the trader on each transaction.

Using this data base we can get following types of combinations & related information,

Combination 1: product, origin, destination, value

Combination 2: product, origin, destination, quantity

Combination 3: product, origin, producers

Combination 4: product, origin, traders

Combination 5: product, origin, exporter

Combination 6: product, origin

Combination 7: product, destination

Combination 8: product, destination, importer

Combination 9: product, destination, trader

Combination 10: product, destination, quantity, value

Combination 11: industry, origin, destination, value

Combination 12: industry, origin, destination, quantity

Combination 13: product, value, quantity, date

Combination 14: product, importer, remarks

Combination 15: product, exporter, remarks

It must be noted that the master database given here is only an example. In actual practice there could be more or lesser fields depending upon the net operational requirements. It is continuously updated or weeded. This database grows with the trader and in couple of years it takes a healthy shape. Safe keeping of the contents is of vital importance.