Articles

  • Finding Competitive Information for Growing Companies
    Monday, July 13, 2009 - 11:33

    Written by Christine Hamilton-Pennell.
     
    Entrepreneurs may be defined as individuals who perceive an opportunity and create and grow an organisation to pursue it. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, roughly one in ten people worldwide is engaged in early-stage entrepreneurial activity, which is defined as setting up a new business or serving as owner/manager of a business up to 3.5 years old. Most of these organisations are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), yet their impact on the economy is significant. In the United States, for example, firms with fewer than 20 employees represent 97.5 percent of the total number of firms, account for half of U.S. non-farm real gross domestic product, and have generated 60 to 80 percent of the net new jobs over the past decade "The Small Business Economy", U.S. Small Business Administration, 2006:

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  • Filling in the Gaps: Company Intelligence Beyond the Corporate Website
    Wednesday, July 8, 2009 - 08:02

    Written by Sarah Hinton
     
    Last autumn, having completed an enquiry about a company, its competitors and key market areas, I received an appreciative email back from my client, but also the following request: 'I would be interested in how you decided where to look so I could have a chance at doing it myself as efficiently some day!'
     
     
    This article originally appeared in FUMSI and is reused with permission of Free Pint Ltd. All right reserved. For similar articles on how to Find, Use, Manage and Share Information, visit http://www.fumsi.com/

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  • Information Sources for a Global Economy
    Wednesday, May 13, 2009 - 07:46

     

    Competitive Intelligence Magazine, May-June 2008 Issue

    This article provides some suggestions for finding information for companies with headquarters and locations outside of the United States. It focuses on collecting published information for companies in "foreign" countries – that is, any country not our own.

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  • US vs. Non-US Credit Reports
    Sunday, December 21, 2008 - 14:23

    Historical Perspective

     

    In the early 1800’s, the great majority of goods the US required were either produced in factories in the East or imported through the East coast ports; therefore goods could be manufactured or imported, delivered for sale/use and collected for easily, given the relatively small geographic area being served.

    This would soon change.

     

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