GICS Core
The focus of GICS Core as the TIER 1 level of the G11 General Industry Compass System is on broadly defined economic sectors as stable classification units. Instead of detailed subdivisions, the aim is to classify economic activities into a few viable categories that serve as a long-term frame of reference.
The helicopter perspective of GICS Core opens up space for fundamental questions:
- How do weights shift between sectors?
- What structures shape entire industries across economic cycles?
- And which sectoral dependencies only become visible from a distance?
The Materials sector brings together companies that provide the physical raw materials from which economic activity is created in the first place. The focus is on raw materials, intermediate products and materials that are further processed and are at the beginning of numerous industrial, technological and consumer-related value chains. Materials is not an end market, but a foundation sector. The companies grouped here supply materials that are used in construction, industry, energy, technology, mobility, consumer goods and infrastructure. Their products are rarely visible to end customers, but are found almost everywhere. The Materials sector is characterized by its wide range of content. It ranges from basic, often raw material-related activities to highly specialized materials with clearly defined applications. The areas of application are correspondingly diverse: from structural building materials, metals and minerals to chemical products that are specifically tailored to certain industrial or technological requirements. What the companies in this sector have in common is their close connection to real production processes. Cost structures, energy use, transportation, economies of scale and regulatory framework conditions play a central role. At the same time, global demand cycles, geopolitical factors and technological developments have a direct impact on supply, pricing and investment decisions. Materials therefore plays a connecting role in the economic system. The sector is at the interface between natural resources, industrial processing and downstream industries. Changes in this area often have a time-delayed but profound impact on other sectors. Within GICS Eleven, Materials serves as a stable frame of reference for numerous specialized topics. It forms the content bracket for developments ranging from classic basic materials to highly developed material solutions - and thus creates the basis for further trend, micro and application perspectives.
GICS Core acts as a strategic thinking space within the General Industry Compass system. The perspective provides orientation without simplifying and creates a common basis on which further perspectives - such as Trending or Microsectors - can be built upon in a targeted manner.
GICS Core is deliberately designed as an introductory and reference level.
The perspective is aimed at users who initially want to get their bearings, grasp interrelationships and understand sectoral structures in a broader economic context without committing to detailed analyses at an early stage.
As an organizing framework, GICS Core is particularly suitable:
- as a conceptual haven of peace within the GICS family,
- as a common reference level for cross-references to in-depth content,
- as well as a conceptual starting point for further perspectives such as GICS Trending or GICS Microsectors.
The level thus serves less for operational analysis and more for strategic classification - it creates an overview, promotes systemic thinking and lays the foundation for in-depth discussion along downstream perspectives.
