Asking (and answering) crucial questions in VS .NET

Drawer QR Code ISO/IEC18004 in VS .NET Asking (and answering) crucial questions

Of course, the Global Widget Corporation doesn t exist beyond its generic use as the fictitious name of a fictitious business in case studies That said, if the company did exist, you d probably want to know a few things Probably you d like to know

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Figure 9-1: Even though there is no Global Widget Corporation, you still get results when you search for it using Google

What businesses is it in How big is GWC How many employees How many branches Is it truly global as the name suggests Where are its offices and operations Is it publicly traded (and, if not, who owns it) What is the big financial picture Is it solvent What are its annual sales and net revenues Is GWC in trouble, or are there areas of particular concern Who are the most important decision makers at GWC, their titles, and backgrounds You can make an educated guess at anything you can t find hard data about, such as the relationship between decision makers, by reading between the lines One place to look for tips about this is in the relative details of compensation packages and option grants information that is publicly disclosed for the top executives of public companies Wide disparity between important names signals who is really in power (and may also hint at possible internal conflicts)

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For example, when you enter Cooper Cameron (a real corporation) into the Google Search box, the first result returned is a link to the company s Web site The top return results include links to a variety of sites with profile information about the company Don t forget to search the recent news about a person or organization you are investigating Google News, which you can open from the Google home page (or by typing newsgooglecom into your browser), lets you quickly search for recent news items You can also use the Google News Alerts service to have news items, as they hit the wires, sent to your e-mail inbox You can sign up for alerts at wwwgooglecom/alerts Look for general business information on the company s home page On the home page of Cooper Cameron s Web site, for example, the Investor Relations link provides general business information, information about the company s officers, links to public financial filings, and most press releases that involve the company Companies are not required to have an Investor Relations category on their Web site, put almost all public companies do

In all likelihood, all the general information you need about a company is available in an easy-to-digest format on the company s Web site For example, the Investor Relations pages provided by Cooper Cameron provide all the information I list in Asking (and answering) crucial questions All the information, that is, except, Is the company in trouble, or are there any areas of concern Finding financial data won t instantly answer this question, but it can give you some hints A publicly traded company s filings such as its annual report provide a tremendous wealth of information But to make the most of the information in these filings, you need to know how to read financial statements, and also how to read between the (usually upbeat) lines to understand what is really being said If a company is privately owned, finding good quality information might be more difficult You should do Google searches on the privately-owned company and its owners and top executives (If you can t obtain information about ownership and officers from Google, this info is on file with the Secretary of State in any state the company does business in, provided the company has any size at all)

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