Company official website: Generally speaking, the company's official website contains a lot of information, such as company introduction, product introduction, company annual report, prospectus, etc. These materials are usually reliable. The annual report of a listed company will analyze the business sales and the driving factors of profits in the business analysis content, so when you want to know the business development of a listed company, the annual report is a good choice. The annual reports of listed companies can be obtained from stock exchanges, official website, Juchao and Snowball.
Consulting company: Consulting company reports can usually help us to know non-public information, because consulting companies usually have their own methodology to conduct their own qualitative analysis and market research, so they usually look for consulting company reports for consumer insight and industry trend judgment, but it also exists that data are often difficult to unify. Consulting companies in the market are usually divided into market research consulting companies and management consulting companies. The former generally serves the latter. Market research consulting companies such as iResearch, Nielsen and Ipsos usually provide their own insights in consumer research and industry analysis, but they do not provide strategic decisions for the development of enterprises. The research results of such consulting companies can often be downloaded for free in their companies in official website, which can be used as the source of research data in our industry. If necessary, management consulting companies will hire market research consulting companies to provide specialized research and analysis, and management consulting companies will give specific strategic suggestions for enterprises. Of course, people like McKinsey, Bain, BCG and Roland Berger will also share their industry insights in their own official website, which are important sources of information to help us make industry development judgments and business model analysis.
Brokerage report: Most of the research reports of brokers are aimed at listed companies and unlisted leading enterprises, so when you want to know a certain industry in depth, you can consider looking for 10 articles for in-depth analysis and careful study, even if you know something about the industry. The latest trends of listed companies and the company's strategic actions can be found in the research report of brokers. Industry data can also be found here, but there may also be a problem that the data reported by many brokers are not uniform. At this time, cross-validation is needed to select appropriate values. Here, I recommend a website that I often use to inquire about brokerage reports, Radish Investment Research.
Professional database: Professional database is generally charged, but the information is also complete. You can consider Wind and Huibo Intelligent Strategy Terminal if possible. Of course, there are also free websites, which are generally government departments. For example, the National Bureau of Statistics can check industry development data, population data and GDP data. In addition, there are the Ministry of Industry Information Technology related to industry, the Securities Regulatory Commission related to finance, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, the stock exchange, the People's Bank of China, the China Customs related to import and export, the national intellectual property website related to patents, the industrial and commercial information publicity system, official website, the governments at all levels who check the ownership structure of enterprises, and the government policies, the trade associations of various industries, and the population inquiry of the Health Statistics Bureau.
Search engine: Learn to use WeChat, Zhihu and other search channels, and I often get summaries and shares from some insiders, which is also my favorite information acquisition channel. Although it is fast to directly use the search engine, the authenticity of the information needs to be identified, which is suitable for fuzzy search when you don't know how to start, and then trace back to find the source. Adding pdf after keywords, adding ""to keywords, adding website name, etc. will usually have unexpected results.
Using web crawler requires a certain technical foundation. For information search channels, please see my previous answer.
Channel judgment: You will find that listed companies and mature industries can easily obtain information through annual reports, brokerage reports, prospectus, regulatory agencies and professional databases, but how can we obtain information for some small enterprises and emerging industries? The answers are expert interviews, public news, consulting companies and consumer research. As mentioned earlier, consulting company reports often have inconsistent data caliber. At this time, multiple data sources are needed for verification. According to the assumptions made by consulting companies, whether the time is the latest, the logic of data derivation, and the source of channels, we can comprehensively judge the data we should adopt.
Obtaining information through non-public channels: You probably can't obtain a lot of information through public channels. At this time, questionnaire survey, strange phone calls, expert interviews, focus group brainstorming, field research and other methods have become the channels for consulting companies to obtain non-public information. Of course, each method has its own advantages and limitations, and I will analyze them one by one below.
Expert interview: It is characterized by high cost, but high efficiency. You can learn more about non-public information, such as the competitive pattern of the industry, the future development trend of the industry, the key success factors of the industry, and the core competitiveness of enterprises. At this time, the industry interview should pay attention to the control of time, generally in half an hour to 1 hour. Usually, we can help us introduce experts through expert database companies such as Kaisheng and Sanqiao. For the purpose of interviews, it is most appropriate to find those experts who have just left their jobs. After all, on-the-job experts still have scruples. Prepare questions in advance, usually about 10, and put the important questions at the front, with the purpose of testing the professionalism of experts to judge whether to continue the interview, which can reduce costs and improve efficiency. In the whole process, you should pay attention to the rhythm, guide the experts to the questions you want to know, and record the information well. Privacy issues should be considered from an expert's point of view, for example, if you directly ask what is the core competitiveness of your company? It often gives experts embarrassment. Let's change the question, for example, if you are allowed to run a business similar to yours, what do you think is the most important? This can usually reduce the psychological burden of experts. For data questions, it is often difficult to answer them in one breath by asking about key data indicators in one breath. Remember to decompose the problem. A complex problem is decomposed into multiple problems, which are promoted layer by layer, and finally summarized and confirmed by the other party.
Unfamiliar phone calls: Time-consuming and labor-intensive, but you can also get the information obtained by expert interviews. Because you call a stranger, you need to make a reasonable identity assumption, do a good job in psychological construction, and cross-verify the information you get at the same time, so as to ensure that the interviewee doesn't answer a random question, and the prepared questions are less than five, so you can visit again every few days when you want to know more questions. When you meet the front desk, you should express a short and direct tone, provide the company's employee names, etc. to increase trust, and learn to think from the other side's point of view. What benefits will this call bring to the other side?
Questionnaire survey: generally including defining the purpose, designing the questionnaire, distributing and recycling the questionnaire and analyzing it. First of all, let's make clear what is the purpose of this questionnaire survey, the object of the survey and the information to be collected. Regarding the design of the questionnaire, important questions should be put forward, because people are often the most energetic at the beginning. Therefore, in order to ensure the quality, the time spent on the questionnaire should not exceed 20 minutes, and similar questions should be set up at different times for cross-validation. Generally speaking, the survey questionnaire should be put on a small scale after it is designed to find out the problems, such as whether the way of asking questions is inappropriate, ambiguous or imperfect. For example, you don't need words that have different understandings like occasionally, and the options should be independent and completely exhausted. When you encounter sensitive issues, you should find ways to eliminate the other party's concerns, such as reminding the other party that the questionnaire results will be strictly confidential and not guiding the other party to get answers. After the modification is completed, large-scale delivery will be carried out, and then collection and analysis will be carried out.
Field investigation: When choosing the place for field investigation, we should consider it from two dimensions: time and place. First of all, we should consider morning, noon and evening, weekends and working days. The location should be in the city center, suburbs, commercial areas and residential areas, and the samples should be selected to be more representative.
Focus group: The focus of focus group is to enable each participant to fully express their opinions. How to do this? Of course, the best way is to let everyone know the purpose of this discussion and let the participants prepare in advance, so as to avoid the initial silence. It is best to introduce yourself before the group discussion, and people are often willing to share their experiences with people they are familiar with. Since it is a brainstorming, the design problem should not be a yes or no problem, but should be able to cause extensive discussion, and the problem should be put in the middle, because the middle period is the most active period for everyone. The role of the moderator is to remain neutral, make clear the theme, ensure that everyone is on the right path, and don't forget to record the content of the discussion.