This article is one in a series focusing on your building intellectual capital. The last article and this one target a particular area: competitive intelligence. As practitioners of competitive intelligence (CI) for many years, I can attest to the depths to which we could discuss this topic. Our purpose, however, it to review a few tips that will give you insight that others in your company may not have.

In the previous column, we reviewed tools to send information automatically to your in-box, places to search articles, blogs and press releases for free, and using job sites to dig out potential competitor strategic shifts. We also discussed the importance of ethics. In short, if it is lying, stealing or trespassing, it is out. Dumpster diving, paying sources for information, appropriating competitor’s passwords, encouraging someone to violate their Non-Disclosure Agreement, using a false identity or pretense to get information, and acquiring your competitor’s proprietary information are all off limits.

In this column, we focus on obtaining high level financial information, and it differs if it is for public or private companies.

For public companies in the US, The United States Securities and Exchange Commission and it’s EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval) search engine have real-time filings by company Several reports to consider are:

10-K report:
This is an annual report providing a comprehensive overview of the company’s business and financial condition, and includes audited financial statements. Major customers and suppliers may be included as well. Using the 10-K Wizard tool, you can search for company mentions in 10-K’s from several companies. This is a great method to potentially spot strategic relationships.
10-Q report:
If you are looking for something more recent or a more continuous view, the quarterly unaudited financial statements from the 10-Q report are useful.

8-K report:
This report signals a significant change or announcement at a company that shareholders should know about. A merger or acquisition or senior management change are examples of when this report should filed with the SEC.

S-1 (Registration Statement):
This is another harbinger of something significant going on. This report is filed when a company raises funds and details how much money and why the money was raised. It could be, for example, to buy another firm.

For private US companies, information is more difficult to get to. Just like public firms, they have paperwork as well, but it is not as detailed or current. For the headquarter’s location, the Secretary of State will have incorporation details, and state tax records may have tax details that will give a view into revenues and properties. Headquarters, revenues and leadership information are available free at both Dun & Bradstreet and Hoover's. More details are available for a fee.

Do you have a source you would recommend? Share it in an email to mcook@ageos1.com!

Part 1 | Part 2