Company Information

Competitor Analysis Checklist

Utilizing a Competitor Analysis Checklist helps define - and refine - efforts to ascertain Competitive Intelligence (CI) needs by helping to identify both, specific targets and the relevant CI needs. This checklist approach provides a vehicle to ensure that critical data is not omitted in the research process. For example the following CI Checklist provides a quick list of competitive intelligence essentials for an industry:

· Number of competitors, product lines (or services), and locations
· Market shares, gross sales, and net profitability of all competitors
· Expansion potentialities of all competitors
· Industry marketing, distribution, and pricing practices
· Rate of technological change in this niche
· Need for new technology
· Barriers to entry and exit
· Regulatory constraints
· Potential entrant and future competitors
· Indirect competition

Company Information

Basic company information includes:

Services, products, brands, trademarks, operations, SICs, NAICS, brands, trade names, etc.
Company history and corporate structure
Officers and key players
Financials including balance sheet, income statement, ratios, and growth statements (current and historical)
Public filings including Annual Report to Shareholders and other SEC filings (e.g., 10-K)
Company news including mergers & acquisitions, IPOs, litigation, new officers, new products, new markets, etc.
Market share, competitive landscape, rankings
Governance
Marketing and advertising strategies/expenditures

Trade journals, business magazines, case studies, and financial newspapers provide an excellent starting point for business research. Many of the databases that the Kennedy Library subscribes to, such as Factiva, ABI/Inform, and Business & Industry, deliver many fulltext business journals right to your desktop. The following core list of business databases deliver a wide range of competitive information on companies, industries, products, and general business concepts.

Publicly Traded Companies

Publicly traded companies must file with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC).
The primary mission of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is to protect investors and maintain the integrity of the securities markets. As more and more first-time investors turn to the markets to help secure their futures, pay for homes, and send children to college, these goals are more compelling than ever. For more information on the SEC visit http://www.sec.gov/.

Information on public companies is relatively easy to secure. In fact, many of the Library's databases, such as Mergent Online , Factiva, and Lexis-Nexis, supply up-to-the-minute news, financial data, industry news, and SEC filings such as 10-Ks and Annual Report to Shareholders.

Financial Data

The following databases provide comprehensive data on public and large private companies:

Mergent Online
An Internet-accessible subscription service covering 10,000 public companies and their SEC filings. In addition, Mergent offers comprehensive analyst reports on hundreds of industries.

Basic Search | Advanced Search | Executive Search | EDGAR Search* | Industry Reports

International Company Data
More companies from more countries than any other international database, with global searching across databases

U.S. Annual Reports
Easy-to-access current and historical annual reports on 10,000 U.S. public companies, all in PDF image format that provides faster download and allows viewing the document

International Annual Reports
Hard-to-get, timely annual reports on all companies in our International Company Data database, available in PDF image formats

Factiva
A comprehensive database that delivers detailed company financials, company-to-industry ratios, and full-text articles from more than 6,000 business sources.

News Pages

Wall Street Journal
New York Times
Los Angeles Times
Business Week
Barron's

Search - Free Text and Source Titles

Factiva allows you to search within specific journals such as: Institutional Investor; Investment Dealers' Digest; Investment Management Weekly; The Financial Times; and Investor's Business Daily

Companies/Markets

Quotes | Charting | Company

Lexis-Nexis
Business news and articles from newspapers, magazines, journals, wires & transcripts; financial data about companies; SEC Filings & Reports EDGAR filings, annual & quarterly reports & proxy statements and industry and market news from over 25 industries. . Includes private company data and Hoover Company Profiles.

Company Information

Company Financial Reports:
Disclosure Reports | NAARS-Annual Reports, 1984-1995 | NAARS-Annual Reports, 1972-1984 | Stock Reports*

Company Profiles:
Bankruptcy Reports | Hoover Company Reports | International Company Reports | ISS Reports | S&P Corporate Descriptions | U.S. Executive Compensation Database | U.S. Private Companies | U.S. Public Companies

SEC Filings:
10-K | 10-Q | 8-K | 20-F | ARS | Proxy Statements | Prospectuses | Registration Statements | Williams Act Filings

*Nelson's Consensus Earnings Estimates; Vicker's Security Report; Nelson's Research Headlines; Zacks Investment Research

Hoover's Online
Hoover's, Inc. delivers comprehensive company, industry, and market intelligence that drives business growth. This database covers 12 million companies, with in-depth coverage of 35,000 of the world's top business enterprises.

Articles

ABI/Inform
ABI/INFORM provides in-depth coverage of business issues, management techniques, competitive information, and a variety of other topics. It indexes and abstracts articles from more than 1,000 leading business and management publications, including over 350 English-language titles from outside the United States. More than half of the articles are available in full-text or full-image.

Business & Industry
A multi-industry, international database that provides access to company, industry, market, and product information. Includes articles from over 900 trade and business publications covering business events in over 190 countries. Subjects include companies, industries, products, and markets

Private and/or Small Companies

Information on private companies may be hard to find - especially local and/or very small firms.
Private companies DO NOT need to disclose any financial information - or any information for that matter - to the public. There are exceptions -- for example, private investment banks must disclose financial data to the SEC.

The following resources provide a good place to start:

Lexis Nexis - U.S. Private Companies
Indexes key newspapers from many U.S. cities.
Be sure to select U.S. Private Companies from the drop box!

Ward's Business Directory of U.S. Private and Public Companies (Print)
REF HG 4057 .A575
Whether it be for contacting a company or calculating its market share, the Ward's series is an invaluable tool for librarians, executives, students, analysts, marketers and all other professionals who require updated company and industry profiles. Your researchers will use Ward's to:

Identify market participants and study market share
Locate potential clients and create targeted mailing lists
Determine parent/subsidiary relationships
Analyze market position and find specific data on targeted companies

Dun & Bradstreet Million Dollar Directory (Print)
REF HC 102 .DB
Includes private and public companies - use volume 4 to get a list of U.S. companies by SIC.

California Companies

Many students require information on small, local companies -- this may be difficult as small private are not required to disclose financial information to the public.

The following resources, however, do provide an excellent starting point for California companies:

Hoover's Master List: California
REF HF5065.C2 H66
Covers approximately 1,540 of the most important companies in California.

Book of Lists
REF HF 5068 .07
Ask at the Reference Desk
The book contains lists of top companies, arranged by industry. Each listing includes: company name, address, telephone number, fax number (some cities - see market page for counts), contact person, job title, rank in list, and criteria for ranking (employees, revenues, etc.). The Kennedy Library owns the following metro areas/cities:

Los Angeles
Orange Country
San Diego
San Francisco
San Jose

California Newspapers Online (Newsbank)
One of the best ways to secure information on local companies is in local newspapers! Local newspapers write about local talent and trends within markets. This database delivers fulltext of many California newspapers including:

Californian, The (Salinas, CA)
Contra Costa Newspapers
Daily News of Los Angeles (CA)
Desert Sun, The (Palm Springs, CA)
Fresno Bee, The (CA)
Grunion Gazette, The/The Downtown Gazette (Long Beach, CA)
Long Beach Press-Telegram (CA)
Los Angeles Times
Modesto Bee, The
Monterey County Herald, The (CA)
Opinión, La (Los Angeles, CA)
Orange County Register, The (Santa Ana, CA)
Press Democrat, The (CA)
Press-Enterprise, The (Riverside, CA)
Sacramento Bee, The (CA)
San Diego Union-Tribune, The (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle
San Jose Mercury News
Tribune, The (San Luis Obispo, Ca)
Ventura County Star (CA)

California Business Directories

Business directories supply basic company information for a specific geographic location:

California Manufacturers Register
Ref T12 C3

Northern California Business Directory and Buyers Guide
Ref HF 5065 .C2 N67

Southern California Business Directory and Buyers Guide
Ref HF 5065 S2

Directory of California Wholesalers and Service Companies
Ref HD 9981.7 .C2

American Wholesalers and Distributors Directory (California Section)
Ref HF 5421 . A615

Interviews and Media Transcripts

Lexis Nexis
News Transcripts (includes CBS News, CNN, CNN Financial, CNN International, MSNBC, NBC News, Nightly Business Report, and more).
Available online through
TIP: Select News. Next, select News Transcripts. Next, select All Transcripts. Finally, enter search terms.

Global Operations of U.S. Companies - Directories

Corporate Affiliations
REF HG 4057 (8 volumes)
Business reference tool that covers major public and private businesses in the United States and throughout the world. The principle organization of the set is geographical (by parent company) and hierarchical (by company reportage). Subsidiaries of a parent company, no matter where they are located, will be found in the same volume as the ultimate parent.

Directory of American Firms Operating in Foreign Countries
REF HG 4538 (2 volumes)
Public and private businesses ranked within industry category and state.

Who Owns Whom
REF HG 4081 .Z65
Definitive information on worldwide corporate structures.

International Companies

Mergent Online
U.S. Company Data - An Internet-accessible subscription service covering 10,000 public companies and their SEC filings
International Company Data - More companies from more countries than any other international database, with global searching across databases
U.S. Annual Reports - Easy-to-access current and historical annual reports on 10,000 U.S. public companies, all in PDF image format that provides faster download and allows viewing the document
International Annual Reports - Hard-to-get, timely annual reports on all companies in our International Company Data database, available in PDF image formats

International Directory of Company Histories
REF HD 2721 .I63

Hoover's Handbook of World Business
REF HF 5030 .H668

Principle International Businesses: The World Marketing Directory (D&B)
REF HF 54 .U5 P74

Related Research Guides

Industry Analysis

Industry Ratios

Market Share

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Frank Vuotto, M.A., M.L.I.S.
Business & Agribusiness Librarian, Faculty
California Polytechnic State University
Robert E. Kennedy Library
San Luis Obispo, CA 93420
fvuotto@calpoly.edu

Last updated March 28, 2007