BUSINESS REFERENCE Common Sense Strategies for Uncommonly Challenging Questions Celia Ross MLA KZOO October 27 th, :00am

Remember: You already know what you’re doing! It’s business REFERENCE Don’t forget the reference interview! And… Some business reference questions can’t be answered Not the way they’ve been asked, anyway So…it’s not you, it’s just the nature of business reference. Really

The hunt for business reference answers Most of the time you’ll be looking for pieces of a puzzle, NOT the Holy Grail.

Private companies & niche industries Some strategies: Identify a similar, but public, company and extrapolate Use Social Media Search Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, blogs and message boards related to the company’s industry Use ratios /financialRatios.asp Open internet (e.g. Google) searching on industry keywords and terms like “data or trends or statistics” Start broadly, then drill down.

Private companies & niche industries Ask yourself: Who cares?

Trade & Industry associations Identify them by Googling industry keywords and terms like “association” or “organization” or try “journal” or “publication” National Retail Federation National Restaurant Association This Week in Consumer Electronics (TWICE) Michigan Dairy Goat Society Michigan Farm Marketing & Agri-Tourism Association And many, many (and I mean many!) more. See also the Encyclopedia of Associations (available through MeL—more on that later).

Who cares? Scholars and other researchers Use Google Scholar to search across articles and white papers and see if anyone is writing about your topic Look at their sources of info and track back Identify university and other academic research centers Limit a Google search to.edu and see what turns up

Who cares? Consulting firms and industry research firms McKinsey & Co.: KPMG: Booz Allen Hamilton: Bain & Co.: expertise/index.aspxhttp:// expertise/index.aspx BCG: Nielsen:

Who cares? Think tanks, consumer marketing groups, polling firms, foundations… Kaiser Family Foundation Polls: Harris Interactive Polls: General Social Survey: Roper Center for Public Opinion Research: NPR/Kaiser/Kennedy School Polls: Gallup Polls: Pew Research Center Zogby News Polls: Pollingreport.com: Brookings Institution: Urban Institute:

Who cares? Specialized directories, regulators and certifiers Thomas Register (for manufacturers): Independent Association of Accredited Registrars (for industries that require various ISO and other certifications): Federal Reserve Board, Energy Administration, Food & Drug Administration, etc.

Who cares? State of Michigan & the US Government (& other governments!) MI Dept. of Licensing & Regulatory Affairs (LARA): Business Entity search: MI Business & Economics page: US Census’ Business & Economics page: SBA’s Business Guides by Industry: business/managing-business/business-guides-industry Industry Canada site:

Who cares? Michigan eLibrary Business and Jobs Gateway: BrowseResourcesBusiness&ParentId=832 Lots of great resources here including: General BusinessFile ASAP InfoTrac Newsstand LegalTrac Small Business Resource Center And…

MeL access to Business & Company Resource Center BCRC provides access to: Business Rankings Annual Ency. Of American Industries Ency. Of Emerging Industries Ency. Of Global Industries International Directory of Company Histories Market Share Reporter Brands and Their Companies And more!

But wait…there’s more!!!

Who cares? Local and national newspapers & other publications New York Times: Crain’s Detroit Business: Book of Lists: Other Crain publications: MLive’s Business page: FreeP’s Business coverage: Business Google news archive: news.google.com/archivesearch/ And don’t forget the General BusinessFile ASAP & InfoTrac Newsstand databases through MeL

Who cares? Business Schools & Business Libraries Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge: (free) (free) MIT’s Sloan Management Review: (some free) Business Strategy Review from London School of Business: Library of Congress Business Reference Service: List of business libraries from U. of Florida:

Who cares? Other business librarians and info professionals BusLib group: BRASS: Check out the Professional Tools section which includes Best of the Best Business Web Sites and an Index of Business Database Tutorials, among other great resources SLA Business & Finance Division: Mary Ellen Bates: Phelps Research: Business Blog: BizRefDesk: Kate, Bill and Laura! Go see Business Plans for Poets next!

Be on the lookout for clues constantly and don’t be afraid to re-trace your steps. It’s called “re-search” for a reason… Think like a detective!