Innovations and Official Statistics
Heli Jeskanen-Sundström
UN Seminar on
Innovations in Official Statistics
New York 20 February 2009
Content
What is innovation?
 Some trends in private sector’s innovation activity
 Innovations in Official Statistics
 About governance
 About quality and management
 About technology push and user orientation
 About open innovation environment
 About global networks
 Questions

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Every organization - not just businesses needs one core competence: Innovation.
And every organization needs a way to record
and appraise its innovative performance
(Peter Drucker, Harvard Business Review)
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What is innovation?
An innovation is the implementation of a new or
significantly improved product (good or service), a process,
a new marketing method , or a new organisational method
in business practices, workplace organisation or external
relations.
(OECD, Eurostat: Oslo Manual, 3th edition 2005)
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Some trends in private sector’s innovation activity
Focus to strategies and management
 Focus to organisational culture
 User-orientation instead of technology-drivenness
 Towards open innovation activity
 Towards global networks

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Innovations in Official Statistics I
Towards good governance
 Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics
 “The governance issues are crucial because without
proper administrative measures the improvement and
innovation in the area of data collection and
dissemination is not possible”
A Y M Ekramul Hoque, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics
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Innovations in Official Statistics II
Focus to quality, strategies and management
 In EFQM we talk about sustainable innovation,
innovation which brings lasting added value to the
organisations, its shareholders and society as a
whole. This Framework is here to help you define your
innovation agenda, to measure your innovation
performance and improve your competitiveness.
(EFQM)
Organisational culture forms the basis -> focus to Human
Resource Management
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Innovations in Official Statistics III
From technology push to user-orientation
 Focus to processes
 Development and standardisation of methods and tools
 Active stakeholder relations policy
Towards open innovation activity
 New innovations are equally important as applying the
old ones developed by others ->sharing experience and
knowledge, learning from others, networking
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METIS / Generic Statistical Business Process Model
Quality Management / Metadata Management
1
Specify
Needs
1.1
Determine
need for
information
1.2
Consult
and
confirm
1.3
Establish
output
objectives
1.4
Check data
availability
1.5
Prepare
business
case
2
Design
3
Build
4
Collect
5
Process
6
Analyse
7
Dissemina
te
8
Archive
9
Evaluate
2.1
Outputs
3.1
Data
collection
instrument
4.1
Select
sample
5.1
Standardiz
e and
anonymize
6.1
Acquire
domain
intelligence
7.1
Update
output
8.1
Define
archive
rules
9.1
Gather
evaluation
inputs
3.2
Process
component
s
4.2
Set up
collection
5.2
Integrate
data
6.2
Prepare
draft
outputs
7.2
Produce
products
9.2
Prepare
evaluation
3.3
Configure
workflows
4.3
Run
collection
5.3
Classify
and code
8.2
Manage
archive
repository
6.3
Verify
outputs
5.4
Edit and
impute
6.4
Interpret
and explain
7.3
Manage
release of
products
8.3
Preserve
data and
associated
metadata
9.3
Agree
action plan
2.2
Frame and
sampling
methodolo
gy
2.3
Variables
2.4
Data
collection
2.5
Statistical
processing
methodolo
gy
2.6
Processing
systems
and
workflow
3.4
Test
3.5
Finalise
production
systems
4.4
Load data
into
processing
environme
nt
Source: Joint UNECE/Eurostat/OECD Work Session on Statistical Metadata (METIS)
Generic Statistical Business Process Model / Version 3.1 – December 2008
Prepared by the UNECE Secretariat
5.5
Derive new
variables
6.5
Disclosure
control
5.6
Calculate
weights
6.6
Finalize
outputs for
disseminati
on
5.7
Calculate
aggregates
7.4
Market and
promote
products
7.5
Manage
customer
queries
8.4
Dispose of
data and
associated
metadata
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Towards global networks
Many benefits
 Common ethical basis and values
 Long experience on development and harmonisation of
statistical frameworks, classifications, definitions
 Comprehensive network of international statistical
organisations and scientific partnerships like ISI
 No obstacles to share knowledge and experience
But: The development of new statistics and statistical
systems is an extremely slow process and application into
practice even more so
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What is the greatest innovation in official statistics?
Are our statistics really the relevant ones and up-to-date?
Are we sufficiently innovative as far as our concepts,
methods and processes are concerned?
Do we take care of our stakeholders well enough?
Are we doing our job efficiently enough?
Do our networks work well?
Do we use our innovation potential and capacity as we
should?
Are we credible in our work?
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