For annual reports, check your company or your target company’s Website. Most companies have an investor relations page that will allow you to download their annual report free. If the report is not available online, you will usually find contact information for the company’s investor relations department where you can request a copy of the report to be sent to you. Some companies will also post copies of their SEC filings on their Websites. If you cannot find this information, try the SEC at www.sec.gov. If you are a consultant and looking for financial information, you might even invest in a share of stock so that you will regularly receive financial news from them. You can find some information on the 500 top private companies at www.forbes.com. Keep in mind that private companies are not required to publish financial information; therefore, the information you will find at this site will be more general in nature. For more in-depth information, check Hoover’s at www.hoovers.com. Some of Hoover’s reports are not free, but paying for data may be a very economical way for you to get valuable information fast.

Other Information

While you are on the company’s Website, don’t forget to look for other information such as press releases, mission statements, and new product releases.

Press releases may alert you to major new deals or ventures that will imply changes in revenues, long-term investments, or market share. Mission statements can give you an idea of what the company will emphasize in the way they do business, such as “highest quality in the industry.” Such statements can indicate their approach to costs or services. Wal-Mart is a huge U.S. company. As an example, Wal-Mart is known for its devotion to low prices. To maintain such low prices, Wal-Mart must employ great diligence in cost control and purchasing negotiations. Other things to look for may be new products, which can imply major cost investments or a temporary dip in revenue from other product lines that could affect cash flow.

Useful Facts About the Industry

In addition to information that you can get directly about the company itself, you also need to obtain information about the industry that the company is in. Your Senior management closely watches industry statistics, competitor information, market-share distribution, trends, and new developments that could favorably or adversely affect your target organization.

Important Senior managers make financial adjustments to meet the demands of their industry. As a WLP professional, you’ll be ahead of the game if you anticipate these moves.

Where to Find the Facts

Even though we live in a world that Googles for almost any bit of information, the public library is still a good place to find business intelligence. You can find industry magazines listed in Bacon’s Magazine Directory: Magazines and Newsletters. The SRDS Business Publication Advertising Source provides advice to its database subscribers on industry publications in particular industries.

Important Many articles in business publications report on trends, organizations, and business practices that are considered best in class. What is considered best in class today will be expected of all businesses in that industry within three years in order to maintain a competitive position. Senior managers surely will be focused on ensuring that best-in-class changes occur within their organization within a three- to five-year period.

Other Sources

Security analysts at investing firms create a wealth of reports on a wide variety of industries. You might be able to get access to some of these reports through a stockbroker. Of course, Websites are always available. Four excellent information sources are Dun & Bradstreet at www.dnb.com, the Brandow Company at www.bizminer.com, Hoover’s Online (www.hoovers.com), and Zacks at www.zacks.com.

External to the Organization

Business intelligence on information technology investments, for example, can be found by searching the Web for press releases about major deals awarded to a vendor. Searching for vendor success case stories can also tell you about an organization’s investments and goals. New regulations or legal requirements that may affect how a business is managed can be found in many trade publications or even the general press. Litigation can significantly affect the organization’s cash flow and its ability to continue sales or other operations. If a business has experienced a shutdown due to environmental or other issues, it will be easy to find articles about it. The same will be true for special investigations or public protests.

Read the articles you find with a critical eye. Recognize that the writers may have been biased in their presentation of the facts either for or against the business. Lobbying efforts will also tell you what is important to a business or industry. Political watchdog or industry Websites may discuss specific lobbying activities.

By searching through the proceedings from industry conferences, you can sometimes find excellent case study presentations of how a particular company or one of its competitors solved a problem in an innovative way. By reading such case studies with an eye to their effect on financial imperatives, you can make educated inferences about what was valuable to the Mid-level management within that organization.

Many companies participate anonymously in industry benchmarking studies. Although you may not be able to identify a particular company within a benchmarking study, you will be able to find critical information about the trends that Mid-level managers are expected to keep up with. Benchmarking studies and industry proceedings usually are not free, but you may be able to borrow a copy from a public library. Don’t forget to ask about interlibrary loan programs. University libraries often have larger collections of specialty information.