Even a small company with 20 professionals has the ability through the networks of those staff to meet people who might be willing to share information. Also, the people in these networks might introduce staffers to someone else who might be able to provide the information desired. Even without direct (or even indirect) contacts, a person may attend a professional meeting, trade show, course, or other live session where multiple companies are represented. This venue provides opportunities to meet well-known and knowledgeable speakers as well as attendees from various companies. It is usually fairly easy during breaks or at exhibits to arrange an informal discussion, coffee, drinks, or possibly a meal at such times. The individual who is seeking information must be prepared to approach others in an honest manner, and this type of approach is often successful in obtaining valuable insights. It is often difficult to identify the people who may have the data or information one seeks. The author has heard of many cases where investigators have been quite open to discussing the clinical endpoints used in a study when raised in discussion, not as a question but in terms of pros and cons of different approaches. They understand that they are under confidentiality disclosure agreements, but what this means to each investigator differs, and their understanding of what is confidential also differs.

Another approach is to ask for an informational interview or a tour of a factory and to ask a number of questions as one proceeds on the tour. The tour guides are often knowledgeable scientists who may be more open in discussing the operations than the business managers would be. The author has heard of tour guides providing key information on the manufacturing equipment that a rival was seeking to buy when they were unaware of the pros and cons of the various choices. Tour guides often like to brag about their accomplishments and how they solved various issues or problems, some of which may be of particular interest to their tour group, and some topics may “innocently” be raised as questions.

Finding people who used to work at the company of interest is sometimes the most desirable individual to meet. The internet can assist in locating such people by checking resumes and job postings that are listed on the internet (e.g., monster.com). Discussion groups are another approach (e.g., dejanews.com tracks online discussion groups). Another source is corptech.com, which has information on over 150,000 executives and 40,000 high-tech companies. Other types of helpful people include university and government research librarians, journalists, consultants, and academicians.

This category includes the medical literature, trade press, trade press databases, convention abstracts, patents, stock analyst reports, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 10k filings, major newspapers, and local newspapers. Experts in CI frequently stress the importance of local newspapers near the headquarters or a plant of a company of interest because they generally follow the company’s activities very closely. In addition, they also have announcements of hirings and new positions, which are very helpful in targeting people to approach for information. They publish stories that often contain important comments on plans for the future as well as data and other material of interest. NewsLink has data on over 3,600 newspapers worldwide (newslink.org), and this source can also be searched by state. Another database for newspapers is newsworks.com.

Full-text articles are available from Vu/Text and Datatimes. Help wanted advertisements from a competitor may indicate the direction a company is moving if several ads are listed for a specific type of talent and background (e.g., in clinical, marketing, manufacturing, or information systems). Other types of advertisements of value are those advertising for clinical trial subjects.

Trade associations are a possible source of important information, and they can be identified by viewing the Encyclopedia of Associations. Published sources include patents, Wall Street analyst reports, SEC 10K filings, initial public offerings, trade press, ads for clinical trials, clipping services, medical literature, and Lexis-Nexis.

Other sources include the websites of the target competitors, which will contain press releases, information on press conferences that are sometimes of great interest, and job listings in some cases. By purchasing a few shares of a publicly traded company, one can obtain the company’s annual report, letters to shareholders, and the right to attend the annual meeting. Useful data may be obtained in this way. Assessing a competitor’s advertisements and press conferences for their messages (and any changes in these messages over time) can reveal useful information on new products, new positioning of a drug, line extensions being developed, and new problems that the investment community is being informed about.

Apart from interviews, most of the nonpublished information from interviews that CI specialists use is obtained via the internet. A small number of such sources are mentioned to indicate the types of free data available, but every corporate CI group will have developed its own set of invaluable website addresses.