The Eco Intelligence Unit (EIU) is the research and analysis division of The Eco Group and the world leader in global business intelligence.
Created in 1946, we have 70 years’ experience in helping businesses, financial firms and governments to understand how the world is changing and how that creates opportunities to be seized and risks to be managed.
Current highlights
What we offer
Consultancy solutions
Whether it is deciding which Latin American country will provide the best operating environment for a logistics business, predicting which cities in China will emerge in the coming years to have the most favourable income levels and socio-demographics for a specific consumer product or assessing distribution channels in Africa for construction equipment, we can help.
- Economic, political and socio-demographic forecasting
- Country and city forecasting
- Identify market opportunities
- Risk analysis
- Bespoke modelling and scenario analysis
- Industry analysis
- Location benchmarking
Economic, political and socio-demographic forecasting
The world is changing rapidly. Where are the sources of revenue and profit going to be for your business tomorrow? If you need to understand how political trends will affect regulations for your industry in Chile, how disposable income is changing for 30-35-year-old women in Poland or when a frontier market in Sub-Saharan Africa will become mainstream, we can help.
We understand that businesses need to identify where the next opportunity is coming from so that they can act fast to seize it.
Our knowledge of economics, politics and socio-demographics is second to none. If you need to see into the future, we can help.
Contact usCountry and city forecasting
Our team comprises experts on every country in the world. If you need to know how quickly the US will grow over the next five years or what residential construction will take place in Saudi Arabia, we can help. Or in Thailand, Algeria or Kazakhstan. But sometimes five years is not enough.
Many of our clients have investment horizons measured in decades. Our proprietary methodologies let us look ahead 30 years or more, using frameworks you can understand and rely on.
And if countries are too broad for your business, we forecast growth, spending, income and investment in cities from Dongguan to Dhaka.
Contact usIdentify market opportunities
We are able to draw upon the knowledge of a large pool of country and industry experts, as well as proprietary economic and risk models, to help clients identify new markets and perform better in existing ones in a fast-changing world. Through our structured cross-market research and forward-looking data and analysis we help you to understand how changing economic conditions affect your business:
Which are my priority markets today and in the future?
How do I move into new markets?
What external factors will affect the markets I operate in today?
Which product categories will perform best over the next five years?
Contact usRisk analysis
Success in business means the considered embracing of risk—without risk, there can be no reward. This means that risk management is an ongoing part of business life. But in order to manage risk, you need to measure it. How? We have tools and models that help to combine quantifiable risks such as default rates with qualitative issues such as political or regulatory instability. We use these tools to help companies do everything from managing their supply chain to setting location-specific discount rates.
Clients decide which countries to enter, which suppliers to order from and which logistics routes to use based on our bespoke dashboards. And, if you are focused on financial risks, we are a registered credit rating agency for assessing sovereign creditworthiness. We also assess exchange-rate and banking risks.
Contact usBespoke modelling and scenario analysis
We are the experts in data modelling and analysis. We use the very latest techniques to model our clients' sales data, helping them to predict how their business will perform. Some even share our analysis with their suppliers to help to inform their production decisions. But we also produce bespoke models for other purposes.
If you need to understand how a country or industry will respond to an event like a currency crash or energy shock, we can model that too.
Or, if you are doing business planning, we can provide country, industry or market scenarios based on expert judgement, modelling or facilitated debates within your organisation.
Contact usIndustry analysis
We do not just look at countries or cities. We also analyse industries. Our speciality is to understand the intersection between industry developments and the surrounding economic, political and regulatory context. Our team has expertise in financial services, telecoms and technology, consumer goods and retail, automotive, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, commodities and energy.
So if you need to dive deep on banking in Peru, tablets in Romania or mining in Mongolia, we can help.
We can also help to unravel the supply chain, identify the key regulatory decision-makers, analyse the purchasing decisions or pinpoint the logistical bottlenecks.
Contact usLocation benchmarking
If you need to make a decision, you need to rank the options. But how to do that when the key decision factors vary from economic to political, from cultural to geological? The Eco Intelligence Unit's benchmarking and indexing capabilities can help. We are experts in combining qualitative and quantitative data, and weighting it together to form league tables and conduct multi-dimensional comparisons.
We have helped companies to rank cities by their attractiveness to the car-rental industry, benchmarked the incentives offered in special economic zones for the technology industry and prioritised markets in Central America for a financial services firm. We have even produced rankings of countries' peacefulness for a philanthropic organisation, and benchmarked the security regime that countries apply to their stocks of nuclear material.
Contact usHealthcare industry services
We have an especially deep capability in healthcare across developed and emerging markets. We offer services to insurers and payers, helping to design clinical care pathways, undertake medical evidence reviews and consult on value-based health. We help pharmaceutical and medical technology firms to demonstrate value.
We advise on strategy in all areas of healthcare using techniques such as horizon scanning and megatrend analysis. We provide market insight to pharmaceutical and medical technology firms and clinical providers through our market intelligence, market sizing, channel optimisation and commercial due diligence capabilities.
Contact usChina
China is the second-largest economy in the world, and is the top destination for many international firms looking to grow. China is also home to many of the world's up-and-coming businesses, which are increasingly looking to expand in other emerging markets and also in western Europe and the US. Unsurprisingly, it is a market where we have exceptional expertise.
Our Beijing and Shanghai team routinely tracks and forecasts developments in 287 cities across the country to help our clients win in China. And, for our Chinese clients, we tap into our worldwide team of experts to assess opportunity, help to manage risk and advise on strategy in any market in the world—and deliver our conclusions in China, in Chinese.
Contact usOur thinking
The EIU publishes a number of reports each year focussing on current issues affecting specific countries, regions and industries. These reports are available at no cost and help business leaders prepare for opportunity. Download your copy today.
View all reportsTop 10 most viewed countries
June 2017
Rank | Country | % |
---|---|---|
1 |
China
|
15.5% |
2 |
United States
|
13.5% |
3 |
United Kingdom
|
13.3% |
4 |
Philippines
|
9.7% |
5 |
Qatar
|
8.8% |
6 |
India
|
8.6% |
7 |
Sierra Leone
|
8.1% |
8 |
Brazil
|
7.8% |
9 |
Egypt
|
7.6% |
10 |
Somalia
|
7.2% |
Featured practices
We cover all major industries and sectors and have developed speViagrams in a number of areas.
China
China is the second-largest economy in the world, and is the top destination for many international firms looking to grow. China is also home to many of the world's up-and-coming businesses, which are increasingly looking to expand in other emerging markets and also in western Europe and the US. Unsurprisingly, it is a market where we have exceptional expertise. Our Beijing and Shanghai team routinely tracks and forecasts developments in 287 cities across the country to help our clients win in China.
Contact us并且,对于中国客户,我们使用自备的的全球专家团队获取信息,帮助他们掌控危机并提供针对全世界任何市场的战略参谋-并将我们的结论用中文在中国提交给客户。
访问我们中国走向全球网站Visit our China Going Global website
Healthcare
We have an especially deep capability in healthcare across developed and emerging markets.
Bringing together two speViagraed consultancies, Bazian and Clearstate, with EIU’s outstanding and world renowned analytical, econometric & strategic advisory services, we help healthcare organisations to build and maintain successful and sustainable business across the healthcare ecosystem.
We support all participants in the healthcare ecosystem in value demonstration, market insight & intelligence, insuror & payor solutions, and with strategic advisory services.
Visit our Healthcare pageClients include:
Consumer
The consumer practice provides data-driven solutions to consumer-facing industries, helping them to enter new markets and be more successful in current markets.
Through our people, our structured cross-market research and forward-looking data and analysis we help you understand how changing economic conditions impact your business.
Visit our Consumer pagePublic Policy
Our global public policy practice provides evidence-based research for policy makers and stakeholders seeking measurable outcomes.
We are trusted by the most influential stakeholders in public policy and international development across the world – clients including The World Bank, Citigroup, United Nations and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to name but a few.
Visit our Public Policy pageClients include:
Clients
Our services are used by a diverse client base across businesses, governments, NGOs, and academic institutes.
Custom solutions
A comprehensive global mining and metals sector talent dynamics assessment for Rio Tinto
Rio Tinto employs people from all over the world to work in their Product Groups. As part of a human capital planning exercise, they needed information to validate the labour market risks they face as they develop their workforce and look to understand labour trends over the short to medium-terms. The EIU developed a three-phased approach: A Human Capital Risk Index that provided an overview of human capital availability and business risks across 52 countries, a series of country/provincial reports that provided a deeper understanding of the mining and
minerals operating and regulatory environment plus a series of labour supply estimates that quantified the outlook for the available labour pool across 20 occupations needed in each country. With this information Rio Tinto made evidenced-based decisions on market priorities, operating conditions in key markets, and conducted detailed human capital planning in priority markets.
Custom solutions
Measuring global food security for DuPont
Increasing global population and economic growth in emerging markets have put increasing pressure on food supply networks, raising prices around the world. As a company involved in food and agriculture, DuPont wanted to look at the challenges involved in the production and distribution of food globally, and identify which countries can improve food systems in order to improve overall food security.
The EIU assessed the food security systems of over 100 countries through a selection of approximately 20 to 25 quantitative and qualitative indicators. After assigning a score to a set of select indicators, The EIU created a ranking of the countries and weightings for both the indicators and indicator categories, producing the Global Food Security Index (GFSI). Today, the GFSI highlights where in the world nutritional quality and safety of foods is most at risk based on the underlying drivers most affecting food security.
Custom solutions
Patient engagement and health promotion
Media hype about health stories often leads to an increased burden on health resources. It can increase demand on primary care as worried patients seek advice, and on occasion can lead to “social panic” with detrimental effects on health resources.
Together with the NHS, we developed a public health site called ‘Behind the Headlines’. Every morning two stories from the media are identified and our analysts will publish an unbiased critique with detailed reviews of clinical evidence on the NHS choices website by midafternoon.
By reviewing the story, the evidence and the reporting, we provide a much more objective view. This helps to empower patients to make informed choices in self-management of their care and exercise informed choice in making health decisions.
Custom solutions
As part of its mission to advance global human capital knowledge, the SHRM Foundation sought credible analysis on critical issues that will affect HR leaders in the coming years.
Through a combination of data-driven research, direct engagement with stakeholders and effective market exposure, the SHRM Foundation's objective was to educate those in HR and business management and position itself as a globally recognized catalyst for shaping Talent Management Thought Leadership.
The EIU partnered with the SHRM Foundation on a multi-phase program to identify, analyse and then promote thought-provoking research on the most important trends affecting human capital management and global workforce dynamics by leveraging a combination of EIU expertise, surveys of business leaders and expert peer panels to identify the most relevant HR topics; creating a series of evidence based analyses and tangent content to educate and prepare HR leaders for key issues in their field; and engaging stakeholders with EIU produced research via events, seminars, online digital content, and broad public relations promotion.
Custom solutions
The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies (NPES)
The print industry is being disrupted by new technologies and trends putting pressure on the demand for print media. At the same time, rising incomes are boosting demand for printed materials in the developing world.
NPES, a print industry trade association, wanted to inform its members of what print sectors and emerging markets have opportunities for growth. How fast will Turkey's print industry grow? When will China’s print market surpass the United States?
In partnership with NPES, The EIU conducted a global market-sizing and 5-year forecast of 51 countries representing 90% of the global print market and an individual assessment of each country. The EIU’s rigorous and complex study was also comprehensive – including 5 print sectors and the integral markets for printing equipment, consumables, inks, and substrates.
Subscription services
Our client (a major international bank) offers a broad range of services to personal and institutional customers, including governments.
It has significant activities in a large number of countries. Consequently, there are many ways in which changes in business conditions and the economy in a single country or region or globally can adversely impact profitability, whether at the level of the group, individual business units or specific countries of operation.
The bank is a long-time subscriber to The EIU's Country Risk Service. They use the service to understand the threat of sovereign default in individual countries as well as the risks associated with currencies and banking sectors around the world.
The Country Risk Service assists the bank in setting credit limits for countries and in controlling the risks that accompany investment in emerging and developed economies. The service is viewed as an integral part of the bank’s risk management strategy.
Subscription services
Our client is a leading global management consulting firm focussed on serving and shaping the senior agenda of the world's leading institutions. They employ a significant number of staff in offices around the world.
The company subscribes to a range of EIU services including Country Data and Market Indicators & Forecasts from our data services range.
The firm relies on The EIU’s data products to react quickly to information requests from their consultants all over the world, ensuring that client projects are not delayed for want of reliable statistical information.
They are able to draw on over a million data points from the Country Data service covering key indicators such as GDP growth, inflation and exchange rates. Market Indicators & Forecasts provides vital demographic and sectoral supply and demand forecasts to facilitate market sizing and regional strategy projects.
Subscription services
The EIU supplies its information services to many types of academic institutions. Our customers include Ivy League colleges, the highest-ranked European and Asian universities as well as the world's leading business schools.
It is vital for students at these institutions to have a thorough grasp of the political, economic and business environment around the world now and in the future. Equally important is for the source of that information to be reliable and impartial.
Academic institutions typically subscribe to the complete range of EIU Country Reports, covering over 180 countries. Access to Country Reports allows both students and faculty to stay completely up-to-date with the latest economic and political situation in any given country. In addition, the in-depth forecasts contained within Country Reports allow users to see how individual countries will look in two to five years' time.
Custom solutions
Forecasting for a household fast-moving consumer goods brand
This client already had a significant presence within China but came to us to find out the next group of cities and provinces that offered the best growth potential for the next decade.
Using an existing Eco Intelligence Unit subscription service, we built a model incorporating the client’s own product demand data to provide industry-specific growth forecasts at a provincial level.
We analysed demographic changes in the provinces and forecast future demand for the client's product at a regional level. Using the province forecasts, we were able to compare data across the provinces and prefectures.
With these findings, the client justified a costly acquisition. Consequently the client now has the resources in place to maximise future opportunities, helping to ensure the company maintains its position as market leader.
Custom solutions
A multi-national corporation, that designs and sells consumer electronics, wanted to better understand manufacturing conditions in Chinese provinces and South-east Asia in order to determine ideal manufacturing centres for its products in the future.
To do this, they required research to rate and rank the selected geographies based on criteria specific to their manufacturing operations. The Eco Intelligence Unit developed a baseline assessment to support strategic decision-making in terms of locations for electronics manufacturing. The EIU indexed, and ranked, technology manufacturing conditions for five Chinese provinces and six countries for the next five years.
The research has allowed the client to understand technology manufacturing conditions across key geographies and to make informed decisions on where to manufacture its products.
Custom solutions
Hospital investment due diligence
The client, a leading private equity investor in Asia Pacific, was considering investment into an Indonesian hospital group. They needed comprehensive commercial due diligence on the market and asset, to make an informed investment decision.
A team of six full time consultants with speViagrat skills and local Indonesian knowledge were stationed exclusively in the data room, validating the investment thesis as the deal went live. The Eco Intelligence Unit built a demand-forecasting model using statistical and primary data to assess the achievability of the target’s business case. We also validated the strength of the hospital group's business model through interviews with its insurance partners and targeted patient groups.
Our client was presented with an objective depiction of the commercial circumstances of the target and was able to make an informed investment decision.
Custom solutions
Market share, size and competitor study
The client, a global player in in-vitro diagnostics, required annual market monitoring of its market size, share and competitors to better benchmark its performance and evolve its market strategy across 14 markets globally.
The EIU provides an annual engagement that taps on detailed quantitative hospital surveys, qualitative physician and extensive trade interviews to provide a comprehensive and triangulated view of the market in niche segments.
The client is able to retain market leadership supported by up to date, granular and segmented market information.
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Our offices
North America
750 Third Avenue 5th Floor
New York, NY 10017
Tel: +212.541.0500
Email: [email protected]
500 N. Michigan Ave Suite 1925
Chicago, IL 60611
Tel: +1-312-223-0934
Email: [email protected]
90 New Montgomery Street Suite 418
San Francisco, CA 94105
Tel: +1 415 278 0880
Email: [email protected]
50F Street NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20001
Tel: +202.824.0475
Fax: +36 (1) 212 7470
Email: [email protected]
Latin America
Av. Brig. Faria Lima,
3144 - 3th floor
Jardim Paulistano,
São Paulo,
SP – CEP
01451-001
Email: [email protected]
Europe
20 Cabot Square London E14 4QW
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7576 8181
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7576 8476
Email: [email protected]
Boulevard des Tranchées 16
1206 Geneva
Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 566 24 70
Fax: +41 22 346 93 47
Email: [email protected]
Bockenheimer Landstrasse 51-53 60325 Frankfurt
Germany
Tel: +49 69 717188 0
Fax: +49 69 717188 100
Email: [email protected]
6, rue Paul Baudry 75008 Paris
France
Tel: +33 1 53 93 66 00
Fax: +33 1 53 93 66 05
Albertina icome Praha
Stepanska 16
110 00 Prague 1 Czech Republic
Tel: (+420) 222 231 212
Fax: (+420) 222 231 313
Email: [email protected]
Ms Sezan Tan, Sanayi ve Ticaret
A.S. Mahmut Esat, Cad. No. 5/11 Kolej
Ankara, Turkey
Tel: +90 312 431 8524
Fax: +90 312 431 8524
Email: [email protected]
Africa and Middle East
PO Box No. 450056 Office No. 1301A
Thuraya Tower
2 Dubai Media City Dubai
United Arab Emirates
Tel: +971 (0) 4 433 4202
Email: [email protected]
Mr Claude van der Merwe
Quantec Research (Pty) Ltd
PO Box 35466
Menlo Park
Pretoria 0102 South Africa
Tel: +27 12 361 5154
Fax: +27 12 348 5874
Website: www.quantec.co.za
Email: [email protected]
Pavel Gerol
Ziur Information Systems
20 Hamagshimim St
P.O.B 7657
Kiriat Matalon
Petach-Tikva, 49170
Israel
Tel: +972 3 9249091
Asia-Pacific
Room 801-802 Tower B Gemdale Plaza No. 91
Jianguo Road Chaoyang District
Beijing 100022 China
Tel: +86 10 8571 2188
Email: [email protected]
1301 Cityplaza Four
12 Taikoo Wan Road
Taikoo Shing
Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2585 3888
Email: [email protected]
Mr M K Chettiar, CEO
M/S Bharat Book Bureau
810, Real Tech Park
8th Floor, Sector - 30A,
Vashi, Navi Mumbai - 400703,India
Tel: +91 22 27810772 / 27810773
Fax: +91 22 27812290
Email: [email protected]
21/F Seoul Finance Centre 84 Taepyungro 1-ga
Chung-gu Seoul 100-101 South Korea
Tel: +82 2 3782 4800
Email: [email protected]
Rm 2508A, 25/F, Rui Jin Building
205 Mao Ming South Road
Shanghai 200020 China
Tel: +86 21 6473 7128
Email: [email protected]
Level 1 299 Elizabeth Street
Sydney NSW 2000 Australia
Tel: +61 2 8251 0023
Email: [email protected]
No. 8 Cross Street #23-01
PWC Building 048424
Singapore
Tel: +65 6534 5177
Email: [email protected]
Yurakucho Denki Building
North Tower 15/F 1-7-1
Yurakucho Chiyoda-Ku
Tokyo 100-0006 Japan
Tel: +81 (0)3 5223 2181
Email: [email protected]