“We have more than 250 operating companies in 60 countries employing approximately 115,000 people.” Statements like these illustrate how large companies, almost by definition, are highly confusing entities. They encompass all sorts of legal entities for tax and other purposes that have little to do with running the business. Even the actual lines of business can be highly complex because of the sheer number of products and departments. They acquire and divest businesses all the time, mash them up in a variety of confusing business units, and sometimes obfuscate their reporting to avoid giving away too much information to competitors. Private companies are often even worse, of course, because they are not required to report as much information.
Brekiri is working on solving this problem by providing a clear, simple set of metadata to help you get your bearings on a company you’re researching, whether it’s a potential customer, competitor, or partner. We show you the business unit structure, categorize those units into more specific industry segments than other sources, and give you a jumping off point for searching for financials, people, or other topics.
We’re still fine-tuning the application, but you can already take a look at a few examples of the company profiles we’re putting together:
As you can see, we’re focusing on the life sciences and information technology sectors initially.
The full Brekiri application combines this information with financial filings search, web search, and industry data to create an integrated starting point for all your company research projects. We want you to be able to spend less time searching through Google, finance sources, and SEC filings, and more time getting your actual work done.
Check it out and let us know what you think. What’s your biggest pain point when researching companies?