BUSINESS COURSE GUIDES
SOM210 Lab 1: Select a Public Company for Team Research Project

The Lab 1 assignment is designed to familiarize you and your teammates with the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS), and a business database called the Business & Company Resource Center (BCRC). This week your team will conduct online research using BCRC to identify a company that you will study this semester. During the rest of the semester, your team's lab assignment will use the BCRC database and other databases to locate articles and financial information related to the company chosen by your Team.

• Create a list of U.S. based, publicly traded companies defined by NAICS code and sorted by annual sales.
• Select one US based, publicly traded company to research throughout the semester.
• Post a URL in Team Work Space that links to your company's profile in the BCRC database.

THE NORTH AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM (NAICS)

• The US government uses the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS - pronounced "Nakes") to classify American companies into industry categories (1,170 NAICS industries). 
• NAICS was established in 1997 through a trade agreement between the US, Canada, and Mexico called the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). NAICS has gradually replaced the older Standard Industrial Classification System (SIC).
• NAICS classifies US industries from broader industry sectors (2-digit) to narrower industry categories (6-digit). For example: Industry Sector 51: Information >> Industry Group 5133: Telecommunications >>  US Industry 513322: Cellular & other Wireless Telecommunications.

Create a list of US based, publicly traded companies defined by NAICS Code and sorted by annual sales.

1. Start Internet Explorer (IE) and logon to the Core Courses Portal. Click on the Home Page link for SOM 210.
2. At the Home page for SOM 210, Click TEAMS, then click the DOCUMENTS folder. Select your lab section and team.
3. Click the TEAM RESEARCH URLs folder, and then click Business & Company Resource Center (BCRC).
4. The BCRC search interface opens - click the COMPANY icon (under Additional Search Options).
5. The company search interface opens - click the NAICS RADIO BUTTON (under Industry Code/Description Box).
6. Type your 6-digit NAICS Code in the Industry Code/Description box.
7. Type United States in the STATE/COUNTRY box. Click the green SEARCH button. Your results screen should look like this example.

Select a US based, publicly traded company to research throughout the semester.

1. From the company list on the results screen, choose a company using the following criterion: The company must be a publicly traded company (public companies sell stock on stock exchanges, e.g., New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ). Identify US publicly traded companies by the presence of a stock ticker symbol following the company name  For example: Allegheny Energy (AYE). Exclude private companies.
2. Review several public company profiles by clicking on the company name. Make a final company selection based on the consensus of your team members. 
   
   NOTE: Across the top of each Company Profile screen is a "Tab Bar" that links to other important documents about your company. Nine tabs are listed. Please ensure that the News/Magazine, Investment Reports, and Associations tabs are not "grayed out." These tabs will be used during upcoming Lab assignments.

Post a URL in Team Work Space that links to your company's profile in the BCRC database.

To complete this lab assignment, you need to understand BCRC Infomark technology. An Infomark symbol at the top of a BCRC webpage signals that the URL for that webpage can be "bookmarked" (example). Infomark URLs are also called persistent URLs or durable links. For lab teams, the bookmarking process will require you to carefully copying a URL and then pasting it into your Team Work Space. You will post URLs from the BCRC database to Team Work Space throughout the semester - creating a permanent research archive about your company. 

1. View your company's profile page in the BCRC database. Move the pointer to the Address Box and highlight the URL (click left mouse button). Press CTRL C on the keyboard to copy the URL. 
2. Return to your Team Work Space. Click NEW - located under "Add/Update Team Research URLs".
3. The Add/Update Team Research URLs box opens. Press CTRL V on the keyboard to paste the Company Profile URL into the Address Box.
4. Move cursor to the Display Name Box. Carefully compose a citation to your Company Profile using the following citation format as a model (APA citation format): Your Team's Company Profile (2003). Retrieved September XX, 2003 from the World Wide Web: Business and Company Resource Center: http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/mlin_w_umassamh?id=endurance&db=BCRC.
5. Click the SAVE Button to save the URL and citation in your Team Work Space. Test the link to make sure it goes to your company profile.
6. After reviewing the company profile and adding its link to your workspace, open a new document in Microsoft Word, and write a one-page report about your company. In your report, describe where your company is located, the number of employees it has, what ticker symbol it uses, who are the top-level executives (5 or six executives), and what other NAIC codes might represent your company. This report should be double-spaced, using left and right margins of 1.25 inches, and top and bottom margins of 1 inch. The font for your report should be Times New Roman (12 point). At the very top of your file, list the name of the file on the first line, and Team members on the second line. These 2 lines should be placed against the right margin. The rest of your file should be placed against the left margin.
7. When you finish this one-page report, save it to your diskette in the A: drive. Then, using the Add Document option in your Team Work Space, Add the Word file with your report to your Team Work Space.