As a business student, you will often be called upon to do research and presentations regarding different companies, their corporate structure, and their financial information. Finding that information can be very difficult – an internet search leads to thousands of results that are often out of date or inaccurate. And yet, as a student, you don’t have the access or time to dig into official documentation regarding each company.
Another challenge facing students is how fast the business world changes. Mergers take place constantly, executives move to another division or company, and daily news affects corporate earnings. In order to stay on top of everything, you’d need your own research team.
Fortunately there is software that can address these needs. In evaluating any software, it’s good to look for software with a free trial period. This can help you know if it’s a good fit for your research and future projects. You also need to look for software that is updated daily – an overview from last year is unfortunately not at all useful in today’s fast-moving world. Of course, you need software that provides in-depth company profiles to help you understand the organizational structure of various companies.
LexisNexis Corporate Affiliations is one service that provides company profiles and insight on nearly 1 million parent and subsidiary businesses worldwide. See example below of a sample company profile -
They have detailed profiles of 850,000 public and private companies from around the world. In addition, they provide detailed information on 1.5 million executives with titles as well as have 120k executive and director bios. The MergerTrak feature gives you complete and accurate information regarding mergers and acquisitions, and you have access to a 90 day file of specific company news.
As a student, you want to make sure your research is as accurate, complete, and timely as possible. A Google or other search engine no longer suffices to get you the most up to date information – a software package can go a long way to making your research and student life easier.
The University Library at Pepperdine provides access to LexisNexis and other business databases to students, alumni, staff and faculty.
Lexis Nexis
Latest posts by Lexis Nexis (see all)
- Accurate Corporate Profiling as an Aid to the MBA - November 13, 2012
- How Busy MBAs Can Research Companies - August 28, 2012
