BCOM 3143 — Kusler — Business Communication

Finding information about Publicly traded Companies

TIP: Find the company stock ticker, primary SIC code, and primary NAICS code for your corporation of choice. These are  helpful for analyzing businesses.

For the resume assignment, consult the following to find information about a corporation:

Lexis-Nexis Business.  Select Company Dossier from the choices at the left.  Type in company ticker or name to begin.

Standard and Poor’s. To find a company profile, go to Publication Search in the upper right corner. Keep Select Publication on Company Profile. If you know the ticker, keep “Search by” on ticker, or change it to Company Name if you do not.

Mergent Online — For company profiles, type in company name or ticker. Each green and gray tab contains specifics about each company.

Business Source Premier — Enhanced.  Click on Company Profiles on the list on the right.  Check out the  SWOT Analyses as well.

Check out the corporation’s website. Most businesses have an “About Us” page with financials, histories, news, and key employees’ names. Example– Target’s Company Info page– the link is at the bottom on target.com.

Finding information about Private Companies

Privately owned companies are more difficult to research because they do not have to submit documents to the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC).  Larger private companies publish annual reports, and many are available in Lexis-Nexis Business.  These companies will not have a ticker because they do not trade on a stock exchange, so use the company name.

For all private companies, look in local news sources for information.  A local paper may report more minutely on a company than a national paper.  The best newspaper sources are Lexis-Nexis General and Newsbank.

RefUSA contains some information on very small businesses.   It also offers options search for businesses in a community.

View this brief video for a demonstration of how to limit to a specific community. This sample is for a restaurant. The SIC code is 5812.

TOPIC #1

For topic #1, try to find information about how universities try to improve their images.

Article Databases

ERIC: Comprehensive database for all aspects of education. ERIC covers educational articles, including some on higher education.

TIP: Try “university image” with quotes or university reputation without quotes.  Limit subject to Higher Education to focus the search.

Communication & Mass Media. Contains articles pertinent to communication studies. Often pertains to media and advertising

TIP: Try keywords such as university image to begin.  Limit the subject to Universities & Colleges after performing the search.

NewsBank Contains newspapers contents, including Oklahoma.  A local paper will report in more detail about a local university than national sources will.  Local sources may give some indication of the university’s current image or areas for improvement.

TIP: Select “Oklahoma Newspapers” from the list to search all at once

Business Source Premier or Lexis-Nexis General contain articles and other information about businesses. Some articles about improving corporate image might adapt for universities too.

Finding books

Library Catalog

Tip: Try keywords such as corporate image or university planning

TOPIC #2
For topic #2, find information about the company’s current situation regarding efficiency and profit as well as its future plans for improvement.

Useful Databases

Business Source Premier or Lexis-Nexis General contain articles and other information about business.  They are good places to begin.

TIP: Try searching with the company ticker and such words as profit* or efficiency or growth.

Mergent Online,  Standard & Poor’s, Lexis-Nexis Business, and Lexis-Nexis General contain information about the company and its competitors.

TIP: Finding your business’ potential SIC code will help with analyzing the company’s competitors.  All companies in the same business will have the same SIC codes and thus are competitors.  Mergent Online and Lexis-Nexis list SIC codes as well as listing competitors.

TIP: Check Standard & Poor’s Industry Surveys to learn how an industry as a whole is performing and what the industry is doing to improve profits and efficiency.

Finding Books

The library has many books on improving businesses.  Consult the Library Catalog with keywords such as business efficiency or profit? improv? to locate useful titles.

Links to Library Handouts
The Basics
Business Resources

BCOM 3143 Business Communication- Kusler

Hello,

Here are some tips to help guide you in your team project research needs–

FINDING INFORMATION ABOUT CORPORATIONS

For your resume assignment, you may want to consult the following to find information about your corporation.

The corporation’s website– Most businesses have an “About Us” page that will give you financials, histories, news, and key employees’ names.  Example– Target’s “Company Info” page– look on bottom on target.com

Business Source Premier– Once inside this database, look underneath the green “Basic Search” tab and go three hyperlinks over to “Company Profiles”.  Click on the “Company Profiles” link and then either search the A-Z listing or enter your corporation’s name in the “browse for” search string.

Standard and Poor’s– To find a company profile, look over to the far right-hand side and keep “Select Publication” to “Company Profile” then either keep “Search by” on ticker (if you know it) or change it to “company name”… Enter either the name or ticker, hit search and voila!

TEAM A
If you’re in team A, you will want to find out information about how businesses try to improve their images.

Sample searches might include:
Library Catalog
corporate and image

Business Source Premier or Lexis-Nexis
corporate and image
or
improving and corporate and image

TEAM B
If you’re in team B, you’re going to need information concerning your competition.

Thus, you may want to consult ReferenceUSA or Standard & Poor’s

Sample search in Reference USA.
If you’re trying to find out information about Edmond restaurants–

Click on Custom Search and select “Major Industry Group” under “Business Type,” and “Zip Code” under “Geography”.

On the next page, expand “Retail Trade” then select “Eating and Drinking Places”. 

Then hit enter and all local eating and drinking places within the zip code you’ve entered, will appear.

Do a step by step video of this, please click here or visit the following link: http://screencast.com/t/64aHlw81JwH

Visit the Small Business Association’s website– http://sba.gov/ — for help in preparing management and financial plans.  Look for the maroon left-hand side tab called “Small Business Planner” for sample plans and strategies on how to complete plans.

TEAM C

To find information about the Oklahoma lottery, you may want to visit a database such as NewsBank (Select “Oklahoma Newspapers” from the list)

Sample search:
lottery and education and revenue

Also, go straight to the horse’s mouth– The Oklahoma Lottery Commission

Go to the bottom of the Oklahoma Lottery Commission’s website and look for the “About Us” in the lower left-hand corner.  Here, you’ll be able to find the legislation concerning the lottery and also the financial statement of the first fiscal year.

Some of our Selected Business Resources

On the Business Resources Table in the Reference area:
North American Industry Classification System – HF 1041 .U614
Standard & Poor’s Industry Surveys – HC 106.6 .S74
Almanac of Business and Industrial Financial Ratios – HF 5681 .R25 T68

In the Reference Collection:
International Directory of Company Histories – HD 2721 .D36x
Million Dollar Directory – HC 102 .D8
Standard Industrial Classification Manual – HF 1041 .U613
Oxford Reference Online

Databases – Find these resources on the databases page
Business Source Premier – for article literature
Lexis-Nexis – company and industry information published in newspapers and trade journals, as well as company directory and financial information
Mergent Online – US and international company information
Reference USA – brief directory information, SIC numbers, local competitors
Standard & Poor’s – company and industry information
Value Line - short summary information on the history and projected performance of companies and industries

Links to Library Handouts (I handed these out in class)
The Basics
Business Resources

I hope this helps and please do not hesitate to ask us for help with any of your research needs.  Again, you can visit us on the first floor, call us (405-974-2878), email us, or even chat with us.

Have a great night!
Amanda

BCOM 3143 – Wardrope, Monday, June 18, 2007

Hey everyone,

As promised, here is a summary of the instruction session.  Remember, if you have any questions at all, please don’t be afraid to ask.  We are more than happy to help with anything you may need.

Library Catalog

Use the library catalog to find books or other materials in the library.  The catalog will NOT search for articles.  Type in a few keywords to find materials on the industry you have selected.  Don’t forget the results are based on the date, not relevance, so make sure to scan the entire list.  You may miss something really good if you only look at the first few.

Also, remember to check out some of the books on the Business Tables on the 1st floor in the reference area.  They may be especially useful.  You can consult the list on the handout I gave you entitled “Business Resources.”

LexisNexis

Use LexisNexis for several different kinds of information.  First, you can use LexisNexis to perform business news searches.

LexisNexis is also good for company financials, company profiles, and SEC filings.  To access all of these, make sure to click on the “Business” link on the left-hand side of the LexisNexis homepage.

Standard & Poor’s

Standard & Poor’s (SP) is great for industry analysis, company profiles, and financials.  Once you log in, you can search for specific companies or use the “Quick Links” box to find information on a specific industry.  Definitely consult this database for your assignment once you’ve identified the industry you’ll be researching.

Mergent Online

Mergent is a powerful database, most useful for company financials.  Mergent also allows you to create custom reports where you can select different data sets to include.  You can even compare multiple companies.  Try it out and create a comparison report with different companies within the industry you have selected.

Business Source Premier

You can use Business Source Premier (BSP) to obtain a variety of information.  BSP contains loads of different news and scholarly articles on different industries and companies.  You can also find SWOT analyses by typing:

Your Company AND SWOT

To obtain industry profiles, type the name of the industry into the search box, and use the “Publication Type” box below to limit the search to industry profiles.

Conclusion

Ok, that’s about it.  Remember, if you have any questions, feel free to contact us.  You can get in touch with me directly at:

jcimock@ucok.edu

405-974-2947

Thanks everyone, and good luck with your assignment.  Hope you thought the class was helpful.

Jason Cimock

BCOM 3143 – Kusler (Henderson) Class – Library Instruction (Wednesday, June 13)

Hey everyone

So here’s a rundown of what we covered during the library instruction session for BCOM 3143 – Kusler (Henderson).

You have a group project which you’ll need to complete for the course.  If you lost your copy of the assignment sheet, here is a brief version:

BCOM 3143 -Team Project Assignment

Staple reports, do not use binders.

 NOTE:  Components to be included in the written report may be adjusted by the instructor.

Instructions

 Step 1:  The team may select one of the following topics or submit a different topic to the instructor for approval. 

1. President Webb has selected you to be part of a team responsible for developing a concept to improve the UCO image.  Be specific on ways the recommendations will help UCO.  Include research to support your recommendations.
2. You and friends have a terrific idea for a new business.  Explore the entrepreneurial ventures that fit your business idea.  Write a report and prepare a presentation to be used as you seek funding for your venture.  Include a description of your proposed company, its product or service, a market analysis (competition), and if appropriate a management and financial plan.
3. The Governor is disappointed in the results of the lottery.  The funding generated for education is less than expected.  Report the lottery results and make suggestions on how the revenue can be increased for next year.
4. Propose your own report topic to the professor for approval.

Step 2:  DUE July 11:  Submit a Work Schedule Calendar (see page 357)

Step 2:  Prepare a written report including at least the following components:

A. Title Page

B. Executive Summary (1-2 pages)

C. Introduction  

D. Body (include justification of your recommendations/decisions)

E. Conclusion

F.  Cite research in APA format (attach the first page of each of your secondary sources)

Step 3:  Present an oral report of your proposal.

1. The team is allowed 20 minutes for their presentation
2. Visual aids are required in the presentation
3. Present for and attentive to other group presentations

 Step 4:  Evaluate team member’s participation in this project.

A. Complete the evaluation form.

B. Instructor reserves the right to lower the participation grade if the team member is not present for and attentive for other groups’ presentations.

 Format Limit the report to no more than eight pages in length.  Use 11-point type.  Use white space effectively for easy reading.Ok, to complete this assignment you’re going to need to do some research.  In particular, you’re going to want to find some books and articles about your topic so that you can use them as sources in your paper and in your oral presentation.  Let’s start with how to find books you can use for the project.

Books

To find books, use the UCO Library Catalog

Once there, type in some keywords and run a search.  These are some searches that might be helpful:

corporat? AND image

business AND plans

business AND proposals

entrepreneur?

lotter?

Articles

To find articles concerning your topic, you’ll need to use some of the library’s databases.  These databases can be accessed anywhere as long as you have an internet connection.  If you’re accessing the databases from off-campus, you’ll need to input your UConnect UserID and Password.

To access the business databases, click here.

Depending on your topic, you’ll probably need to search several different databases to find the information you need.  Most databases have unique information that cannot be accessed anywhere else.  Here is an overview of some of the databases we covered in class:

Business Source Premier

Great database to consult for any business related topic.  Specifically, search this database to find articles from magazines, newspapers, and journals related to the business field.

Searches you might want to try:

improv* AND corporat* and image

business AND plans

business AND proposals

oklahoma AND lottery

LexisNexis

Use this database to find newspaper articles and articles relating to the business field.  Try the same searches as the ones listed under Business Source Premier.

Standard & Poors

Use this database to get market analyses.  Those working on Topic B (business proposal) will definitely want to consult this database.  Search for the industry of your proposed business (Restaurants, Housebuilding, Computers: Networking, etc.).

NewsBank

Go here to get full-text access to The Daily Oklahoman, The Tulsa World, and The Journal Record, as well as many other national and global newspapers.  You can use the same searches listed under Business Source Premier.

ReferenceUSA

Use this database to scout competition for Topic B (business proposal).

Job Postings

There are a ton of different ways to search for job postings.  For starters, over the last few years there has been a surge of different websites which allow you to post your resume and search for job postings.  Good examples of these are Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com.  Of course, there are many others besides the most recognizable.  A good list of sites containing job postings can be found at the Librarian’s Internet Index.

There’s always the good old-fashioned way of looking in a newspaper, but now many newspapers put their job postings online.  The Daily Oklahoman Job Site is a good example of this.  If you know the area in which you’d like to find a job, search the area’s newspaper web sites.

Also, many trade journals and publications also feature different job postings from around the country.  There are thousands of different trade journals, many related to specific industries or disciplines.  Start subscribing to a few trade journals related to your field.

Don’t forget about the Career Services department here on campus.  They can help with the job hunting process.  In particular, they are hosting a job fair soon.  Job fairs are a quick and easy way to distribute your resume to a large number of corporations that are hiring.  Make sure to dress well when attending.  First impressions are critical.

Other Resources

Basics Handout

APA Handout

Please remember, if you need help or have a question for another class, please feel free to chat with us (chat box is on our MySpace and Facebook profiles), call us (405-974-2878), email us, or stop by the reference desk.  We’re here to help!

Thanks alot,

Jason Cimock