He's a company man!
Annual Reports
Annual reports can contain a great deal of useful information, but remember: they only contain information that the company wants you to see.
Comprehensive list of links to UK annual reports on the internet. Simple registration required. FREE
Smaller list, but with some companies not on the Northcote list. Registration required. FREE
SCoRe (Search Company Reports) is a catalogue of printed company reports held in UK libraries. FREE
CAROL (Company Annual Reports On Line) has annual reports for European and American companies. Registration required. FREE
Company Information
A comprehensive list of company information sources from the University of the West of England's Library Service. FREE
Carry out research into the "social and environmental impact of large corporations, particularly multinationals". Have a clear axe to grind against those they investigate, but the website has a very useful selection of company profiles. They also have a comprehensive DIY Guide on how to research companies.
Corporate Social Responsibility
I know what you're thinking; what is such a kick-ass, devil-may-care website as this one doing in promoting such beardy tree-hugging crap as CSR?
Er...dunno. Anyway, I like hugging trees. Except holly.
A free directory of company issued CSR, Sustainability, and Environment reports from around the world. They offer access to the very latest reports as they are published, and provide an archive of reports for each company featured. FREE
A global discussion group for people working or wanting to work in corporate social responsibility and sustainable development.
A European business network of CSR professionals (from over 60 leading multinational corporations) based upon the sharing of CSR solutions and shaping the modern day business and political agenda on sustainability and competitiveness.
The leading source of corporate social responsibility and sustainability news, reports and information. CSRwire content covers issues of Diversity, Philanthropy, Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) Environment, Human Rights, Workplace Issues, Business Ethics, Community Development and Corporate Governance. FREE
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
Comprehensive guide to companies' human rights records, positive and negative. The website is updated hourly with news and reports and covers more than 3500 companies, in more than 180 countries. Topics include discrimination, environment, poverty & development, labour, access to medicines, health & safety, security, trade.
The Chartered Institute of Public Relations has a comprehensive list of CSR links, presentations and case studies on their site (but note that this section of their site is no longer maintained and is retained as an achive resource.)
CSR Register
The CSR Register aims to get hundreds of charity projects completed every year by connecting projects, skills, and resource needs with companies seeking interesting and challenging projects in which to participate. The service allows projects and challenges to be listed on the UK’s first national listing, which businesses can search by location, duration, numbers of people involved, resources, and charity cause.
Company, Director & Shareholder Databases
Databases of companies, directors and shareholders are invaluable research resources. They can provide you with a prospect's home address, current and past directorships (allowing you to build up a network of business connections for your prospect), salary & shareholdings (allowing you to estimate the prospect's wealth), and various other goodies, depending upon which resource you use.
The information for each product is from the relevant website.
Unlike databases that give you a directory of names and titles, BoardEx applications give you the capability to analyze current and historical linkages between companies, individuals, not-for-profits organizations and other private associations.
Companies House WebCHeck service offers a searchable Company Names and Address Index free of charge which enables you to search for information on more than 1.8 million companies. You can also use WebCHeck to purchase a company's latest accounts and annual returns as well as a selection of company reports, all online. FREE
Quarterly publication/CD ROM containing information on every one of the UK's 2,000 quoted companies, 14,000 senior executives and 1,800 professional advisers, including details on their remuneration, other directorships, directors' shareholdings, career details, hobbies and interests, university attended, professional memberships and much more.
Available online and in book form, Crawfords is a database concentrating on the relationships between Major UK Companies and their Professional Advisers, including companies which are listed on the LSE and the AIM, Investment and Venture Capital Trusts and unquoted companies.
A comprehensive database of companies, directors and shareholders and the links between them. Reports are included for 3.6 million companies (1.3 million of which are primary records), 5.3 million directors (3 million of which are primary records) and 2.6 million shareholders.
Factiva Companies & Executives
World-class information covering companies, industries and executives, from the most respected financial publishers including D&B, Reuters Fundamentals, Standard & Poor's, Dow Jones, and more than 10,000 authoritative news publications and databases.
Provides information for companies in the UK and Ireland. FAME contains information on 3.4 million companies, 2.4 million of which are in a detailed format.
Provides an unsurpassed range of detailed data on financial performance, people and activities to help you research and understand key UK businesses.
Hemscott's Directory of Directors
Available as a two volume book and online. The directory includes the very latest profiles of top directors and the leading companies they control. The online service profiles over 53,000 directors and 13,000 companies.
Hoovers has a database of 1.9 million companies, with in-depth coverage of 43,000 of the world's top business enterprises. They offer a variety of subscription options from limited free content up to their top product, Premium Select. FREE-ISH
Users are able to draw from an unrivalled depth and breadth of information from ICC Information's comprehensive database that includes: all UK and Irish companies, all directors, all shareholders, document images, plus access to international data from 10 European countries, all available online.
Offers company information (Dun & Bradstreet, ICC, Hoover's) and a news archive in one product.
MINT UK gives access to a wide range of high quality information covering companies, news, directors and market research. The information on MINT UK is presented in four modules: companies, news, market research and directors.
Produced by 192.com using data drawn from Britain's top 2.9 million companies and includes their main trading addresses as well as 3.4 million director reports, 2.5 million key contacts’ details and 1.6 million company reports.
NOTE: Before parting with your hard earned cash, I strongly recommend that you read Paul Pedley's Tips on Negotiating Licences for Electronic Products. And always, always read any contract thoroughly and make sure you understand it before you sign on the dotted line. Specifically,