In the previous post, The Many Faces Of Google For Economic Intelligence: Part 1 - Google Alerts, we explained how the application can be a tremendous time saver and an effective monitoring service based on keyword(s) appearance on the web.
This second post of the series will examine Google Finance, a portal for business information.
Google Finance maybe considered as a poor man’s version of Hoover’s Online however. it provides the bare essentials on a company such as:
- Description
- Latest News
- Listing of Top Executives
- Key Financials
- Related companies
- Historical stock prices
The majority of the information on Google Finance provides data on public companies around the world.
Please click on the image to enlarge.
Case Example:
You are just about to meet with representatives from a large company in the alternative energy sector that is ready to make a significant investment in the northern of your state. Due to a lack of time, you were not able to read up on the potential investor and you only have a half a day to so. What do you do?
Solution:
Via Google Finance, you can access the following details pertaining to potential investor:
- Income statement, balance sheet, cash flow (on a quarterly or annual basis)
- Competitors
- Recent news
These details can be put together to create a brief document that can be read in minutes.
