Key Tools for Conducting Company Research
1. The Best Sources?
o Go to your favorite
search engine (our current favorites are
Google and
WiseNut.com),
and find the company's Web site. Most public companies have a
section of their Web sites dedicated to investor relations and often
have their annual reports online and in downloadable form.
o Or go to our
Quintessential Directory of Company Career Centers and find the
link that takes you directly to the career section of the company's
Website.
2. Web-based Secondary Sources:
o
IRIN --The
Investor Relations Information Network: a clearinghouse of
annual reports, fact books, and press releases.
o Web100 --
Big Business on the Web: tracks the largest American and
international companies on the Web (ranked by revenue), listing
these corporations along with their Fortune500 and Global500
rankings. Can search for companies or scroll through rankings. Links
under each company to sites that have more information about the
companies.
o Hoover's Online: once self-proclaimed as "the ultimate source
for company information," this Web site offers a lot of information
-- very little for free and most for a fee.
o Canadian Business Resource: offers in-depth information and
profiles as well as links to more than 2,600 of Canada’s top
performing businesses -- some for free and some for a fee.
o CorporateInformation -- a great resource for researching companies
and industries in the United States and around the world. Search for
company and industry information -- or search by U.S. state or by
country to find companies that operate within a specific geographic
region. More than 350,000 company profiles. Free to job-seekers.
o Vault.com -- well-known for its insider reports on thousands of
companies.
o
StockMarketYellowPages.com: allows you to search for public
companies based upon their descriptions, where you can then follow
links to other sources (including Zack's, Hoovers, BigCharts, and
more) of key information about the company.
o The Public Register's Annual Report Service (PRARS): includes the
ability to order printed versions of annual reports (for free) and a
service titled "Corporate Window," which provides various corporate
and financial information for a select group of companies.
o The Forbes 500: a comprehensive database of the 500 largest
American public corporations as measured by sales, profits, assets,
and market value.
o Forbes Largest Private Companies: an annual ranking of the top
private companies in the U.S., including number of employees, sales
ranking, and a brief company description.
o
Fortune.com Lists: a variety of lists of the "best" and largest
public companies, as well as links to industry information, and
other lists.
o The Inc. 500: a listing and short description of the 500 fastest
growing privately-held companies in the U.S.
o Better Business Bureau: includes links to companies that are
members of the organization.
o Small Business Administration Online Library: offers a great
collection of information about business trends and small
businesses.
3. Web-based Company Research Links:
o Allstocks.com's World's Largest Investors Links: where you can
find links to all kinds of information about companies and industry
analyses.
o
Yahoo! Business and Economy: Companies: provides links to company
Web sites.
o
Searching for Company Information: From the New York Public
Library's Science, Industry, and Business Library, this site is a
guide to conducting basic research on U.S. and global companies.
o Thomas J. Long Business & Economics Library: Research assistance
into researching companies and industries from the Walter A. Hass
School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.
Non-Profit Organizations & Association:
•
Volunteering and Non-Profit Career Resources: which includes links
to individual organizations as well as directories.
•
General Professional Organizations and Associations: find links to
key resources for finding associations.
Key Tools for Conducting Industry Research
1. Web-based Industry Research Links:
o Competia Express -- a great tool for job-seeker research, where
you'll find research links (to associations, company information,
online publications, and more) for more than 40 different
industries.
o Fuld & Company: an excellent source of information on a wide range
of industries.
o IndustryLink: where you can find a vast collection of resources on
25 different industries.
o
Industry Portals: a nice collection of industry portals for many
different industries.
2. Print Resources:
o U.S. Industry & Trade Outlook. DRI/McGraw-Hill, Standard & Poor's,
U.S. Department of Commerce/International Trade Administration. DRI/McGraw-Hill.
o U.S. Industrial Outlook. United States. Bureau of Industrial
Economics.
o Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys. Standard and Poor's
Corporation.
o Annual Survey of Manufacturers. Statistics for industry groups and
industries (including capital expenditures, inventories and
supplemental labor, fuel, and electric energy costs). United States.
Bureau of the Census.
o Industry Norms and Key Business Ratios. Dun & Bradstreet Credit
Services.
o Almanac of Business and Industrial Financial Ratios, by Troy Leo.
Prentice-Hall.
o Annual Statement Studies. Robert Morris Associates.
Key Tools for Conducting Country Research
1. Online Country Research Resources:
o
America's Best Places to Live and Work: from Employment Review and BestJobsUSA.com, provides professionals with information on the 20
cities with the best employment opportunities.
o
CIA World Factbook: detailed snapshots, compiled by the U.S.
government, of just about every country in the world.
o CountryReports.org: a great source for finding top-line
information about just about every country in the world, including
culture, geography, economy, political system, news, maps, and more.
o
Country Studies: from the U.S. Library of Congress. These guides
cover social, economic, political, and national security systems and
institutions of more than 100 countries throughout the world.
o
globalEDGE: a comprehensive global business resource center from
the folks at Michigan State University. Key strength are links to
further information.
o
International Business & Technology: a learning portal that
provides links to business, communication, import-export,
linguistic, legal, marketing, media, monetary, public affairs,
research, technology, trade, and travel information at both world
and country levels. From BRINT Institute.
o Sperling's BestPlaces.net -- where you'll find a wealth of data,
statistics, and comparisons about U.S. cities, counties, and foreign
countries.
o
Virtual International Business & Economic Sources: a portal to
more than 1,600 Internet sources of international business and
economic information. From the folks at the University of North
Carolina at Charlotte.
o World Trade Organization: a great source of worldwide business and
trade information and trends.
2. Global Job-Seeker Print Resources:
o
Global/International Job/Career Books -- a collection of the most
useful books for international job-seekers.
o
Geographic-Specific Career and Job Books -- a collection of city
and region job books.
Key Tools for Conducting Research on People/Individuals
• ZoomInfo -- a great tool for researching people. Calls itself a
unique summarization search engine that finds, understands and
extracts the latest online information about people and companies
and instantly delivers it to you in concise and useful summaries. No
cost to job-seekers.
Other Key Research Tools/Resources for Job-Seekers
1. Other Guides to Researching Companies:
o
Researching Companies: from the great folks at JobStar: California
Job Search Guide.
o
Researching Companies: from the Career Development Center at
Worchester Polytechnic Institute.
o
Researching Companies on the Internet -- A Tutorial: presents a
step-by-step process for finding free company and industry info on
the Web.
2. Internet/Web-Based Reference Resources:
o
Indispensable Writing Resources: Internet Reference Resources on
the Web: a great place to find resources to get information about
companies and industries, with links to libraries and reference
material on the Web.
3. Business-Related News, Magazines, and Newspapers:
o American Demographics
o Barron's Magazine
o Business Week
o Financial Times
o Forbes
o Fortune.
o MSN Money (with CNBC)
o USA Today
o Wall Street Journal
4. Media Clearinghouses:
o Media Jumpstation: from the folks at Imediafax a search engine to
more than 3,000 media.
o MediaLinksNow.com: supplying links to the publishers, catalogs,
newspapers, industrial, technology, sports, fitness, financial,
health magazines and news originations from around the world.
o NewsDirectory: providing links to newspapers and media in the U.S.
and internationally.
o NewsLink: with links to major U.S. and international newspapers,
magazines, and radio and television stations.
Information obtained
here.
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