MGT 201 - O'Neal: Search the Company Website

Once you have found your candidate company, you should take a look at the company website for several reasons. Usually as soon as you get there, you will get clues to corporate structure and attitude. In my example, contrast Amazon's site with GE's. Amazon is full of colors and ways to easily buy stuff. You get the feeling that the culture is casual. General Electric has a home page that even looks hierarchical and formal with links to their various business units.

Take a look at the Investor Relations or For Investors sections. These pages give you an idea about the company and the public face it wants to represent as well as clues to the type of culture the company has. These links are often at the bottom of the Home Page.

• Amazon's latest Annual Report talks a lot about their selling partners and then dives into Amazon's culture and attitude.
• General Electric's Annual Report is much more traditional and speaks immediately about what the company is doing to strengthen itself and steady the ship. It also outlines results by division, etc.

You can almost feel the difference in corporate structure and outlook.

Yahoo Finance is a good place to learn the basics about a company, as well as getting a link to the company web site.