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Business InformationModule 2: Seeking for business information

– Web-based information resources Part B: Company information

International Summer School on Information Literacy, funded by CEI, 10-14 September 2007, Fermo, Italy

Sabina Cisek, PhDAssociate Professor

Institute of Information and Library Science, Jagiellonian UniversityKrakow, Poland

isabina@inib.uj.edu.pl, sabina.cisek@gmail.com

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Company information• Information about different types of organizations:

– publicly trade companies (listed on stock exchanges)

– private companies

– state-owned companies

– not-for-profit organizations

– government bodies

• Information about:– Company background – name, address, website, contacts,

identification number; managers; line of business – products, services; legal status and type of a company; size, number of employees; corporate affiliations; basic financial data (income, profit or loss, turnover)

– More in-depth information – company finances, competitors, history, perspectives, policies (ecological, social, etc.)

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Company information sources

• Directories, yellow pages, databases

• National/official registries

• Business/industry/product classifications

• Lists/rankings

• Annual reports and other formal documents

• Stock exchanges’ websites and services

• Trade magazines, journals, news services

• Companies’ websites

• …

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Company directories, yellow pages, databases

• globalEdge – Company Directories: http://globaledge.msu.edu/resourceDesk/companyDirectories.asp

• Central & Eastern European Directory On-Line: http://www.ceebd.co.uk/ceebd/industdi.htm

• Hoover’s: http://www.hoovers.com/free/

• Europages, the European Business Directory: http://www.europages.com/ , http://www.europages.net/

• Kompass: http://www.kompass.com/

• Teleadreson [Poland]: http://www.teleadreson.pl/?lang=en

• ThomasNet [USA]: http://www.thomasnet.com/

• Short assignment: find on the Web the yellow pages / business telephone book for your country and describe its information content

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Company identification numbers – come from:

• official / governmental company registers (in most countries companies and other organizations have to be registered with a government agency or a court or a statistical office – and get a national registration number); examples –

• Company registration around the world [links to registers] http://www.commercial-register.sg.ch/home/worldwide.html

• RBA – Official Company Registers http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/registers.htm#general

• UK Companies House – Worldwide Registries http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/links/introduction.shtml#reg

• commercial information providers; the most important is DUNS Number by Dun & Bradstreet

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Business/industry/product classifications

• List of NACE (Nomenclature Generale des Activities Economiques) codes. NACE is a EU industry standard classification system consisting of a 6 digit code: http://ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/mergers/cases/index/nace_all.html

• LogisticsWorld – NAICS / SIC Codes Lookup and Conversion Table: http://www.loglink.com/sic.asp

• The United Nations – List of international family of economic and social classifications: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/cr/family1.asp

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Global, international, local lists/rankings of companies

• Gary Price's List of Lists http://www.specialissues.com/lol/

• Forbes http://www.forbes.com/lists/ ; http://www.forbes.com/2007/03/29/forbes-global-2000-biz-07forbes2000-cz_sd_0329global_land.html

• Fortune http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/ ; http://money.cnn.com/lists/index.html

• Assignment: What type of information can you get from rankings? Check Forbes and/or Fortune lists and their information content. Work in pairs.

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Annual reports and other formal documents (compulsory prepared by „listed” companies, but

also – by other organizations)

• AnnualReports.com http://annualreports.com/

• CAROL – Company Annual Reports On-Line: http://www.carol.co.uk/ [Europe, USA]

• IRIN – Annual Report Resource Center http://www.irin.com/cgi-bin/main.cgi?index=main

• NYSE Listed Company Directory http://www.nyse.com/listed/listed.html

• Example of an annual report – European Patent Organisation Annual report 2006 http://www.epo.org/about-us/office/annual-reports/2006.html

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Annual reports and other formal documents (compulsory prepared by „listed” companies, but

also – by other organizations)

• Assignment – work in small groups

– Look at two or three different annual reports. What data and knowledge do they offer? How in-depth and comprehensive is the information? Describe information content and potential uses of annual reports.