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HOW TO PERFORM BASIC INDUSTRY AND COMPANY RESEARCH

These instructions will introduce you to basic research on an industry and/or a publicly-traded company. While you may be

required to do this for a course (i.e. Strategy, Finance, etc.), it is also something that you should be able to do when you enter

the work force as a recent graduate of a quality business school.

1. Find out the NAICS code for the industry you are interested in (Google “What is NAICS code”? if you don’t know what one

is). You can search for NAICS codes at http://www.census.gov/eos/www/naics. As an example, go to this website and enter

“Soft Drink” in the “NAICS Search” field on the left side of the screen. When you press the button to perform the search,

you should get somewhere around 11 or so results. Note that NAICS code 312111 is associated with the industry “Soft

drinks manufacturing”. Click on the NAICS code itself (it should be a hyperlink). This should take you to a NAICS definition

page, with cross references. Make note of the NAICS code that you want to search.

2. After you identify the NAICS code that you want, you can enter the code in the search field at the TOP RIGHT of the page.

This will give you a list of government documents from the Census bureau that you might find interesting.

3. Go to the Library page at http://trojan.troy.edu and click on “Databases”. From there, scroll down and click on “Business

Insights:Essentials”. In the page that opens, there is a search field that says “company” on the right side. Click on the little

arrow to the right of “Company” and change the setting to “Industry”. Then, enter the NAICS code you wish to research in

the search field and click “Search”. This should give you access to one or more industry summaries. Most of these include

the key information (number of companies, employees, revenue, etc.), as well as the top five or so performing companies.

In the case of NAICS code 312111 that we identified earlier, the top three companies are (in order) PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, and

American Beverage.

4. Clicking on the name of one of these companies will bring you to a company summary page. On this page, there are a few

key pieces of information that investors would need to research a company. First, and most important, is the Ticker code

and the name of the stock exchange where the stock is traded. In the case of PepsiCo, the ticker is “PEP”, which is traded on

“NYSE” (New York Stock Exchange). (If you do not know what a ticker is, just Google “what is a ticker symbol”) . Another

piece of information that is important is the URL of the company’s primary website. On most websites, and on nearly all

publicly-traded websites, there is a link (usually at the bottom) for investors to find more information.

5. Note the left side of the screen, in the “Company Information:” area. The information you find here is also very important.

You can find investment reports, news, financials, and much more. There are a couple of things here that are important for

strategic planners, so take your time and explore through some of this. At the top of the screen, just under the company

name, you might find a link that says “View company Hierarchy”. This is a link that will display a list of other companies that

are owned by the parent company, which can be surprising. In the case of PepsiCo, you might be surprised to learn that

they own Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Quaker Oats, Taco Bell, Tropicana, and more. On the right side of the screen, you will also

find a list of other NAICS codes that the company might be participating in.

6. Another useful place to search for information on a company is the U.S. Securities and Exchange commission

(http://www.sec.gov). Just visit their website and enter the stock symbol of the company you are researching in the search

field on the top right of the page. You should be able to find a number of documents, but the most important is the

company’s 10-K report. The 10-k is the annual report that the SEC requires all publicly held companies to file, which gives a

very thorough summary of how the company is doing, along with quite a bit of information that most would find important.

It is generally held by most professionals that any research on a company must include a look at the latest few 10-k filings.

7. It is often necessary, especially in strategic planning, to know more than just information about a company and an industry.

Context is important, especially with regard to the forces of macroeconomics. There are many government agencies that

provide useful information, including the Bureau of Labor Statistics (http://stats.bls.gov). The complete list of U.S.

Government Departments and Agencies can be found at http://www.usa.gov/directory/federal.