What if I am having trouble finding much, if any, information about my company?
Determine whether the company is public or private. Due to reporting requirements, public companies have more information available than private companies.
Be sure you are searching for the official, full name of the company. Many companies have popular names that may not be listed anywhere. For example, 3M is really Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing.
If the company is a personal name or includes initials, e.g. Walt Disney or H. J. Heinz, look under each part of the name. Various sources are not consistent in how names are treated.
If the company name is a common word such as Apple or Amazon and you tend to retrieve articles about rivers (Amazon) or fruit (Apple), try adding in Inc. or Corp. after the name. It can also be useful to search for ticker symbols or other company identifiers.
If you are researching a subsidiary, expand your research to include the parent corporation. For example, Google is under its parent company Alphabet.
Companies sometimes change their names, so be sure to look under multiple possible company names. For example, the cigarette maker Phillip Morris changed its name to Altria.
Understand the company history. For example, MSCI Inc. is a public company located in New York City. While the name originally stood for Morgan Stanley Capital International Inc., the parent company Morgan Stanley hasn't held ownership of MSCI Inc. since 2007.
Very small or very new companies may not appear in the standard sources, particularly print sources. Look for news articles and a company website. Use any regional or specialized industry directories or newspapers which may be available.
See if the database you’re searching in has a specific search tool or area to search for company names – Euromonitor, Factiva, and others have special sections or filters to search by company names. In the list of results, there may be a way to limit by company name, as well.
Make sure the source you’re searching includes private or international companies.
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