Industry data sharing works when participants trust the platform that holds their data. IMEC, the ICOMIA Marine Engine Committee, has run its statistics programme with PowerStats for more than ten years. Its CEO, Joe Lynch, explains why members contribute commercially sensitive figures: a neutral, impartial platform holds the data anonymously, releases only aggregated results and pays the favour back as the insight members need to plan investments and new products.
Imagine signing off a multi-million euro investment - gearing up a factory, launching a new model - without knowing the size of the market opportunity. That is the scenario Joe Lynch asks people to picture when they question the value of industry data sharing. As CEO of IMEC, the association of the world's leading leisure marine engine and propulsion manufacturers, he has spent years answering a harder question: why would competitors hand their sales data to anyone? His answer rests on trust and governance in competitive data sharing, and it comes from a programme that has run for over a decade.
Trustworthy information is the scarcest resource in a fragmented industry
The leisure marine industry is global, fragmented and complicated, and that makes reliable information hard to come by. IMEC exists partly to solve this. Its members span the world, and the association works, in Joe's words, on "the recreational, the fun side of the industry" - people going on the water for fun, not ships or cargo.
"Everybody has this hunger for information," Joe says. "We all want data about market conditions, about trends, about new technology, but we really need to have reliable, impartial, trustworthy data so we can make informed decisions."
That need covers a wide spectrum. At the commercial end, it is trading data: how many engines or propulsion systems have been manufactured and exported from a region within a year. At the research end, IMEC's members have collaborated on what Joe describes as groundbreaking research into decarbonising recreational marine propulsion - work he says was only possible through global collaboration. In both cases, the raw material is the same: information members trust enough to act on.
Why industry data sharing depends on a neutral administrator
Fear can stop a data sharing conversation before it even starts. Joe names the two objections he hears most often: "Will it compromise my commercial opportunities? Will I be breaking any trust arrangements?"
The programme's design answers both. "You give us the data, we'll hold it safely and securely and anonymously, and only when we have enough contributors together, we will then share the results back to the industry," Joe says. "So it's impossible to identify a particular company's performance."
The model Joe describes is closed reporting. In a closed reporting model, each participant sees only two things: their own data and an aggregated total for everyone else. No individual competitor can be identified. Not every programme works this way - including IMEC! Some industries choose open or delayed disclosure instead, a governance decision explained in how industries choose a reporting model. For IMEC's members, delayed open reporting was the design that made contribution feel safe - providing both the benefits of total anonymity and confidentiality for the latest few months, while allowing a deeper analysis of the historical data.
Design alone is not enough, though - the confidence has to be earned over time. "We've got that relationship of trust," Joe says. "People are happy to give information that is commercially sensitive into a safe, anonymous, impartial platform."
Contribution pays back as insight for big decisions
Members do not share data out of goodwill - they share because the programme returns something they could not assemble alone. Joe frames it as a favour repaid: "Once we have sufficient data in there, we can pay back that favour and give people the insights and the information that they desperately need to plan their investments, to plan their new product development."
The decisions that insight supports are not small ones. "These are big decisions people are making, a lot of money being invested, so we need to be able to give them reliable data to make informed decisions," Joe says. Production planning, new model launches and product development commitments in this industry run to millions - and shared market statistics give those commitments an industry-wide reference point that internal figures alone do not offer.
Asked what the industry wants from IMEC, Joe does not hesitate: "It's data, data and more data. It's the ability to make informed decisions based on trustworthy, reliable, accurate and recent data." More than ten years of partnership between IMEC and PowerStats exists to serve exactly that demand.
Deciding without market data means wastage
The strongest case for shared statistics is the alternative. "Imagine trying to make a multi-million euro or a multi-million dollar investment decision about gearing up your factory, about launching a new model, but you didn't know what the market opportunity was," Joe says. "Imagine the wastage, the loss of time and resources of creating products that nobody wants to buy."
Fresh, accurate, trustworthy data protects against exactly that wastage. In Joe's view it also serves a bigger goal: reliable information makes the industry more successful and more sustainable at the same time, because better-informed investment wastes less.
Key takeaways
- Trust is the entry condition for industry data sharing - participants contribute commercially sensitive data when a neutral, impartial administrator holds it.
- The give-to-get model sustains contribution - participants receive market insight for investment and product planning in return for their data.
- Without shared market data, major investment decisions rest on guesswork, risking wasted time, resources and products without buyers.
- IMEC's ten-plus years with PowerStats show that a well-governed programme becomes more valuable to members over time.
Frequently asked questions
How can competitors share sales data without exposing their performance?
Through a neutral administrator running a closed reporting model. Each participant sees only their own data and an aggregated total for everyone else, so no individual competitor can be identified. Results are released only once enough participants have contributed for the aggregate to protect them. Delayed open reporting is a valid alternative for less-sensitive, older data being shared amongst participants.
Why do participants keep contributing commercially sensitive data year after year?
Because the programme pays the favour back. In return for contributing, participants receive reliable market insight they could not assemble alone - the reference point they need to plan investments, production and new product development. IMEC's experience shows that this exchange, protected by trust built over years, sustains itself.
What happens when an industry has no shared market data?
Major decisions become guesswork. Companies commit millions to factories, new models and product development without knowing the size of the market opportunity - risking wasted time and resources on products without demand. Joe Lynch calls this the strongest argument for a shared statistics programme.
What role does an industry association play in data sharing?
The association holds the programme in trust for the industry. IMEC gathers the data its global membership needs, partners with a neutral provider to hold it safely and returns aggregated insight to members - turning a fragmented industry's scattered information into a shared reference point.
Considering industry data sharing for your association?
Trust, a neutral administrator and a give-to-get exchange - IMEC's decade-long programme shows what makes industry data sharing work. If your members face big decisions with too little market information, a shared statistics programme can give them a reference point that internal data alone does not offer. Learn how setting up an industry data sharing programme works in practice, read more about trust and governance in competitive data sharing, or contact PowerStats to talk it through.
