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ISBN 3540442723
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Published by Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Written by Vorgehen, Quellen and Praxisbeispiele |
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Title:
Recherche-Handbook - Wirtschafts-Informationen
Review:
Anyone who has ever had to try and find information about German
private companies will know how hard it is. Anyone who reads this
book will not find out much more about this topic, but will receive an
excellent course in the basics of business intelligence.
The book, in summary, is a primer in how to go about finding the
information you are looking for, where you should look, and strategies
you should apply. Beyond this it contains in-depth descriptions of the
contents, costs, and use of the online databases Genios, GBI, Lexis-
Nexis, Dialog, Datastar, Profound, Factiva, FIZ and STN; and 76 pages
of other sources (addresses, Internet addresses, phone numbers),
including chambers of commerce, professional databases, supplier
databases, takeover directories, market briefings, associations,
country-based information sources, university dissertations,
libraries, and newsletters. FreePint gets two paragraphs and includes
the definition of "Pint" (Note to self: must conduct market study on
how many users of FreePint actually know this!). Most of the sources
are reviewed in a couple of paragraphs so you can see what you are
likely to find and how much it may cost.
The book is built up in logical sections relating to different kinds
of search and information source. Each topic is built from the ground
up, with practical examples. The text is interspersed with relevant
tips and the frequent use of tables and summaries helps the
readability. Each section begins with a summary of the subtopics to
allow the beginner to orient or subdivide the search for better
success.
The first section is about how to put questions in order to get
sensible answers, and how to build up a search strategy. The second
section deals with the major professional databases listed above, how
to use them (including a complete index of search commands and allowed
means of payment). The next four sections deal with the four mains
areas of research, namely: company information; market and sector
information; country information; and information about persons. All
are complemented by descriptions of suitable information
sources and how to go about using them. The next section describes the
use of newspapers, journals, books and dissertations in addition to
the sources already described. Section 8 deals with the important
sidebars of limitations of searches ("Why can't I find anything out
about ..."), documentation of your search, and copyright. Section 9
answers the question "How do I stay up to date now that I have done my
research?", and the last section is the (well-ordered) list of
information sources.
To put the spotlight on the German market for a moment, the book
confirms what we all suspected - all German company information is
based around the Creditreform standards
and you have to pay a few euros for it. Other than that the German
online databases (FIZ-Technik, Genios) are worthy competitors to the
better-known Lexis-Nexis and Factiva. But it'd be a poor book if
there was nothing new in it, and I consider that, apart from those
with long years of experience and really deep expertise, anyone will
be better armed for the search after reading the book. Let's hope it
gets translated into English soon.
FreePint Reviewer:
Jeremy Williams spent most of his career in the automotive supply
sector in engineering, marketing, and product management, before
setting up the 1835 Company in Paris with the aim of helping smaller
companies expand their markets and launch innovative products
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