Title: Finding Business Information
1Finding Business Information
- Brendan Rapple AD140
- Advancing Studies 2/23/05
2Many Types of Business Info
- General Information on Business
- Information on Companies
- Information on Finance, Investments etc.
- Information on International or Global Business
- Information on Industries
- Economic Information
- Information on Small Business
- Information on Business Organization
-
3Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library Guide
- How can I find . . .
- 1. The address of a company?
- 2. What business is at a particular address?
- 3. What person is at a particular address?
- 4. Who owns a company?
- 5. The parent of a company?
- 6. The sales, or other financial data for a
company? - 7. Info on private companies?
- 8. Info on public companies?
- 9. A brand name?
- 10. If anyone is using a name I'm thinking of
for my business? -
4- How can I find . . .
- 11. Articles on a company?
- 12. Companies ranked by sales?
- 14. How a given industry is doing?
- 15. Information on a businessperson?
- 16. What SIC codes are?
- 17. Articles which appeared in the Wall Street
Journal? - 18. Trade associations for a particular
industry? - 19. Trade magazines for a particular industry?
- 20. Wholesalers?
- 21. A company's 800 number?
5Organizational Research
- How important are leadership courses in
developing leadership? - Is leadership learned or innate?
- Should teams be multi-departmental or from a
single department? - What do we mean by learning organizations?
- How is an ethical approach to business best
fostered? - Who makes decisions?
- Should all levels of staff be involved in
decision-making? - etc., etc. etc.
6Searching for Company Information
7Why Learn How to Research a Company?
- Helps to prepare for job interviews.
- People in strategic planning, market research,
advertising, sales, public relations etc. need
information on their competitors. - Useful when making personal investment decisions.
- To find out more about a companys products.
- Maybe youre suing a company!
- For this classs assignment.
8- A vast amount of info. available in print and
electronically. - Still, no one definitive way to conduct business
research on a particular company.
9Company Research
- Very important to know the following
- Proper and full company name
- Corporate headquarters' address
- Company's form of ownership
10Company Research
- Not always easy.
- Company identity often complex question.
- Many companies have similar names, but are
separate, distinct companies based in different
cities. - Ford may refer to Ford Motor Company or The Ford
Foundation. -
11Company Research
- Form of ownership not always easy to guess.
- Large famous companies, e.g. Hallmark Cards, may
be private. - Smaller local companies, such as First Federal
Savings Bank of Youngstown, may be publicly
owned. - Also companies are bought and sold daily. A
company that was independently owned may be
purchased by a public company. - Private companies occasionally go public as they
grow and develop a need for more capital. - Subsidiaries and divisions change ownership,
operating under new parent companies.
12Is the company U.S. or foreign-owned?
- Different reference sources often focus on
- National
- Regional
- International
- Multinational companies
13- The more intricate the organizational structure
of the company, the more complex it usually is to
uncover details about its individual parts.
14Companies Located in the U.S.
- Yahoo! Business and Economy Companies
Directories Regional U.S. States - http//dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Directo
ries/Companies/ - Provides links to business directories and
yellow pages that are subdivided by geographical
location and which can be searched by company
name, business type, location.
15Locally-Owned Companies
- The Boston Globe database (full-text from 1980)
- Lexis-Nexis Academic (full-text of 100s of
newspapers).
16International Companies
- Europages, the European Business Directory
http//www.europages.com/ - Contains information on 500,000 companies, from
30 European countries, from all activity sectors.
17Is the Company Public or Private?
- Public Companies
- Trade stock on open financial market -- sell
stock to general public. - Required by Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC) to disclose financial information. - Must provide annual reports to shareholders.
- Thus, financial info. always available for a
public company. - As a result of 1929 crash, people have right to
know about publicly traded companies.
18Public Companies
- Type of Info. Disclosed
- Broad Financial data, e.g.
- revenues
- expenses
- profits
- summary of assets and liabilities
19Public Companies
- Type of Info. Not Disclosed
- marketing strategies
- production costs
- other day-to-day operations
- trade secrets, e.g. ingredients in Coke, in Mrs.
Fields cookies etc. - while salaries/fringe benefits of key executives
must be disclosed, hourly wages paid to ordinary
employees need not be
20Finding Financial Information about a Company
- Important to distinguish between
- Annual Report to Stockholders (ARS)
- Financial reports submitted to SEC
21Annual Report to Stockholders (ARS)
- Glossy, upbeat brochure mailed annually to
stockholders - It typically contains
- financial statements
- photos
- graphics
- considerable narrative
- Designed to present best possible picture of
company - Often viewed as little more than public relations
piece - Still, bad news cannot be ignored, though it may
be played down or euphemistically explained away - Moreover, GAAP and SEC regulations must be
followed - Much useful info. can be found in an ARS
22Form 10-K Reports
- Detailed financial publication
- no artistic photos
- no striking graphs
- no flowery narrative
- avoids the company hype
- More specific financial info. than in the annual
report
23Analysts Reports
- Then there are the analysts reports, often from
Wall Street, produced by such companies as
Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Salomon Smith
Barney etc. - These are supposed to tell it as it is, e.g.
this company is going under within six months and
only a fool would buy shares in it!!
24Databases Useful for Locating Financial Info
about a Company
- DB Million Dollar Database
- This database contains information on over 1.6
million public and private companies in the
United States and Canada.
25Databases Useful for Locating Analysts Reports
- General BusinessFile ASAP
- Includes three databases Business Index which
indexes over 1335 business and finance
periodicals and trade journals Investext which
contains over 50,000 analysts reports and
Company ProFiles which provides a directory of
over 200,000 public and private companies. Full
text is provided for 802 journals.
26Subsidiaries of Publicly Held Companies
- Not required to file separate disclosure
documents. - Relevant info. (especially financial) on
affiliates is attributed to parent company ---
analogy of childs phone no. being under parents
name. - Bigger the parent company, more difficult it is
to research a single component of its operations. - Often as difficult as finding info. on a private
company.
27Useful Databases for Researching Public Companies
- Business Source Premier
- Contains 3,050 full text scholarly journals and
business periodicals covering management,
economics, finance, accounting, and international
business. More than 2200 of the journals are in
image (PDF) format with coverage on some back to
1922 or the first issue published. This database
also includes Country Monitor and Industry
Yearbook Reports from WEFA, and country reports
from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). - Business Industry
- Contains information on public and private
companies, industries, markets, and products in
both the manufacturing and services industries.
It is international in scope. Industry overviews,
forecasts, trends, market size and more may be
searched very precisely through detailed levels
of indexing. Search using keywords and terms from
drop-down menus relating to companies,
industries, concept terms, marketing terms and
more.
28Useful Databases for Researching Public Companies
- LexisNexis Academic
- Extensive full-text database of legal and
business information including newspapers.
29Useful Websites for Researching Public Companies
- Free Web Sites
- Hoovers http//www.hoovers.com/
- Although much of the in-depth Company Profile
information in Hoovers is fee-based, company
contact information is readily available for
about 10,000 companies. Most of these are
publicly listed US companies.
30Private Companies
- Usually about 25 shareholders.
- Privately owned stock is not available for market
trade. - Stockholders typically the principals in the co.,
e.g. - founders
- members of their families
- key employees
- No disclosure of information is required of the
co. according to Federal Securities laws.
31Useful Databases for Researching Private Companies
- Subscribed Databases
- Most of those listed for public companies,
especially - Business Source Premier
- Business Industry
- Dun's Million Dollar Database
- General BusinessFile ASAP
- Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe
- However, it is often very difficult to find good
info. on private companies
32A Useful Website for Researching Private Companies
- Forbes 500 Top Private Companies
- http//www.forbes.com/private500/
- Forbes magazine makes available its list of top
private companies over the past three years.
33Researching a Particular Type or Sector of
Business
- Business Industry
- Broad based U. S. and international business
information database. Search using keywords
and/or selections from a set of pop-up index
company, concept term, marketing term, industry,
SIC/product code, journal.
34Researching a Particular Type or Sector of
Business
- Reuters Business Insight
- This database accesses the full text of over
250 market research reports in five vertical
markets financial services, energy, healthcare,
consumer goods, and telecommunications. It also
accesses many reports relating to the e-commerce
market.