Researching Industries
An industry is a group of companies or corporations that produce a similar product or provide a similar service. Companies or corporations in an industry can range from local family businesses with 1 or 2 workers to major corporations with thousands of workers.
Knowing the industry performance for the industry in which your company operates is helpful in judging your company’s performance. If you are researching Dell, you would look at data on the computer hardware market, market share for companies, where the companies are located, industry trends and outlook for the industry.
When starting to work on industry research, keep in mind that there is not the same amount of information for every industry. The amount of available information varies widely from industry to industry. Industry size, technological advancements and age of the industry are some of the factors which determine the amount of information you find.
Where your research begins depends on what you want to find:
- Are you analyzing an industry for a class project?
- Are you looking for competitors for a particular company?
- Are you looking for employment opportunities?
- Do you need detailed statistics for an industry?
- Are you researching a particular company?
