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BUS 1100 Introduction to Business

Finding company intelligence for job searching and interviews.

Steps to Company Intelligence!

See MGT 1100 Introduction to Business for current version of this guide.

Are you looking for an internship or summer job? What do you need to know about the company? What resources should you look at before your interview?  

McQuade Librarians have designed this guide to walk BUS1100 students through the steps of achieving company intelligence for interviews, SWOT analysis and more. 

In the library workshop BUS1100 students will practice researching a company and finding related information.  We will

  1. Check out the company's web site for key information
  2. Locate key company reports for public, private and nonprofits
  3. Find analysts & investment reports for someone else's opinion
  4. Compare with its industry & competition
  5. Find current articles and news about the company & issues - dig deeper!
  6. Cite Sources in reports & presentations

All of the library's databases must be accessed through a library web page and can be accessed off-campus using your Merrimack MyMack/Blackboard credentials. See a video demo here.  Contact us if you have any problems.

 

"There's a culture and a way of life at the company that you've bought that sometimes can be integral to the creative process or the process of creating product at that company," Iger says. "And if you go about it in too heavy-handed a way, you can destroy spirit and culture and a sense of purpose — and in doing so, destroy the very essence of what you bought, or reduce value." - Bob Iger in "Disney CEO Bob Iger Has Lessons On Fostering Creativity — And Acquiring It" (NPR 9/26/2019)

Related Guides

Recent Business Books

e book

Available in Overdrive/Libby, as an audio book, and in Ebook Central.

Margin of Trust: The Berkshire Business Model.

Book cover for Lights Out! pride, delusion, and the fall of General Electric, by Thomas Gryta and Ted Mann.
cover of book on Netflix: That Will Never Work
book cover for The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company
book cover for  Citizen Coke : the making of Coca-Cola capitalism
book cover for The Tesla Way
book cover for Facebook: the inside story

Facebook: The Inside Story by Steven Levy

print book cover: Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone

Company Research Activity

This exercise will guide you through finding key documents for your company research project.

Make a copy of the document (see top menu File > Copy and rename) to share with your team.  Locate the documents and fill in your answers.  You'll be on your way to finding reliable, current resources for your project.

Remember that the number for each question correlates with the tab on this guide.

What Kind of Document Is it?

When researching a publicly-traded company there are key types of documents that you should look for: 

  • Letter to Stockholders
  • Form 10-K  (international and newly-traded companies may have a different one)
  • Press Releases
  • Stock Report
  • Industry Report

Each teams should assign a member to look at one of these documents and determine what which type and its date.

DocC1    DocC2   DocC3   DocC4   DocC5

Extra documents: DocC6   DocC7

What Kind of Publication Did This Article Come From?

When researching a business topic in Library databases or on the web, you will come across articles that may come from academic, trade, or popular journals, magazines or newspapers, from press releases, a blog or web article.

Each team members will take a look at 2 articles and determine what type of article and it's date.

DocA1   DocA2   DocA3   DocA4  DocA5

 

Extra articles:   DocA6    DocA7   DocA8

Browse Current Business Magazines

Browse, read, download and print current business magazines via Flipster.

For questions or feedback contact the McQuade Library
Call us: 978-837-5177 | Text us:  978-228-2275 | Email us: mcquade@merrimack.edu