Alan Stutts | BLOG | Education Author

You’ll never know what a particular company is really like unless you work there. But talking to others who have can produce valuable insights you won’t find in any magazine or database. Start with the people you know and then find people who work at the companies that intrigue you and arrange to meet with them.

Tapping into the Knowledge of Friends and Colleagues

Don’t ignore the wealth of information about the hospitality industry and specific companies that you can glean from friends and colleagues. Ask all of your friends if they or someone they know has worked in the industry and get their impressions of the companies they worked for. If you already work in hospitality, ask your co-workers where else they have worked or what they know bout other hotels or restaurants. They have former colleagues who still work at these companies who may be willing to talk with you.

You should have been writing down the names of managers and other employees as you were doing your company research. If you didn’t, go back to the company records for those companies where you want to interview and find some names. If the original records do not have names, look for the specific property in ReferenceUSA. The listing here will have a telephone number you can call and ask for the name of the general manager, human resources manager, or public relations manager.

If you are a member of a trade association, you may be able to get the names of other local members from a local chapter or the national organization. Students members may also be able to use this resource. If the membership list is not available, call the local chapter and ask if they can refer you to members at the company you are interested in.

Asking for the Interview

With a specific name to work with, it is time to write a request for an informational interview. Don’t call! These are busy people. Even if you are lucky to get through to them, they may find your call an unnecessary interruption in their busy day. A letter lets them decide when to focus on your request.

In your letter, include the following:

Explain who you are (a student, a person thinking of changing jobs).

Mention how you found the person’s name.

State what you are interested in researching, why, and the amount of time it should take for the interview (usually 20 - 30 minutes).

Tell them you will contact them via telephone on a specific date to schedule a time that is convenient for them.

Be sure you call them when you say you will; not following through does not leave an impression of seriousness.

Since the hospitality industry is a large one, it merits coverage in the general business press and larger daily newspapers. The list below includes indexes that are most likely to index periodicals that would have articles on the hospitality industry. You will find one or more of these in any library.

ABI/INFORM: 1985 to present, updated monthly: Indexes significant articles from nearly 800 business and management journals. Abstracts of up to 150 words are included with the citation.

Business Periodicals Index: Monthly with quarterly and annual accumulations: Alphabetically-arranged subject index to approximately 350 periodicals. Good broad coverage of all fields of business.

General Business File ASAP. Provides indexing and abstracting of more than 900 periodicals and full text for 460 titles. It is an excellent source of information on management theories, business law, key industries, mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures, international trade, new technologies, small and emerging companies, marketing and advertising, job-hunting strategies, and banking. It includes indexing of the current year of the Wall Street Journal and the financial section of the New York Times, as well as the current six months of the Asian Wall Street Journal. Company ProFile and Investext Plus are sub files of General Business File ASAP. Covers 1980 to present.

Investext Plus: Use this database to find reports and forecasts prepared by top Wall Street and international brokerage firms. More than 11,000 U.S. and international companies and 53 industries are covered. Covers 1980 to present.

Company ProFile: Provides current company data, in one comprehensive resource, with an emphasis on hard-to-find private company information. Directory information for over 180,000 private and public companies, full text of the press releases from PR Newswire that cover activities in all types of companies, and indexing and abstracting of local business journals are available. Covers 1980 to present. Note: Company ProFile is a subfield of General Business File ASAP.

LexisNexis Academic: Provides full-text information from business magazines, news letters, newspapers, wire services, and other sources on a variety of topics. Some sub files covering business include: Top News, General News Topics, Company News, Industry & Market News, and Company Financial Information.

National Newspaper Index: References to articles published in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times.

New York Times Indexs: Semi-monthly. Cumulated quarterly and annually. Index and summary of the contents of the New York Times. News summaries are arranged alphabetically by subject, persons and/or organizations, with reference to location of complete story in the newspaper. Full text of the New York Times is available on the New York Times database in some libraries.

Predicasts F & S Index: Monthly, cumulated quarterly and annually: In some libaries you may find the information from this index in the PROMT database. Indexes over 750 business, industry and trade journals. Section 1 (Industries and Products) covers articles on new products, product demand, market data, and sales according to the Standard Industrial Classification code number. Section 2 (Companies) covers articles on acquisitions, mergers, sales, profits, and other corporate data by company name Indexed by expanded SIC codes and company name (in separate sections), this source is especially valuable for its coverage of numerous trade journals as well as general business publications, the Wall Street Journal, and the business section of the New York Times. This coverage makes it particularly useful for finding information on smaller companies and industries.

Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature. New York: H.W. Wilson Co. Semi-monthly with quarterly, semi-annual and annual Accumulations: Alphabetically arranged, subject and author index to articles published in about 150 periodicals, most of which are published for use of the general public.

Wall Street Journal Index. New York: Dow Jones. Monthly with annual accumulation. (Annual accumulation includes Barron’s Index.): Two sections: Corporate News is arranged alphabetically by company name; General News is arranged by subject. Brief abstract accompanies each entry.

The Trade Association Publications

The three primary trade associations for accommodations and food services publish several periodicals.
Club Managers Association of America: This association focuses on management in private and public golf and country clubs. Their primary publication is “Club Management.” The companion site on the web for the magazine is The Virtual Clubhouse. (http://www.club-mgmt.com/ )

National Restaurant Association

The NRA has two periodical publications, one on government issues affecting restaurants, Washington Weekly, and one on industry trends, TrendMapper. General industry news is on their web site, http://www.restaurants.org.

American Hotel and Lodging Association

The AHLA publishes the monthly “Lodging Magazine,” which has a companion web site at http://www.lodgingmagazine.com/ AHLA also provides an email newsletter, Lodging SmartBrief, which provides more current news than the monthly magazine can. You must be a member to subscribe, but student members receive both Lodging magazine and the newsletter as a benefit of membership.

At the beginning of your research, you may not know what information is important and what is not. Create a form you fill-out as you work that tracks which companies you have found, contact information for the company, the company Web site, where you found information about the company (directory, database, Web search), and some of the details you felt were important about them.

You can create this form on a piece of letter-size paper using a rule and pencil and then make copies of it. Make the copies on three-hole punch paper so you can keep them in a three-ring binder. Buy some alphabetical index dividers at the office supply store or the office supply area of a large drugstore or grocery store. Use these to file your individual company reports to make them easier to find as the numbers grow.

If you have a computer or access to a computer, you can use word processor or a spreadsheet to create the form. A spreadsheet is great for this kind of document because you will be able to sort the records by the various columns of information you collect.

A library with open book stacks allows you to browse the books on either side of the one whose catalog number you have and make your choices which ones to spend more time with. In libraries where book stacks are not accessible, make a list of all the books in the catalog that look helpful and request them. You need to take all of them to your table to look at and decide which to read.

Most college libraries and many large, metropolitan libraries provide access to their catalog via the Internet. During your initial research visit, find out what is required to log in from home and search the catalog. You probably need a library card and you may need to a user ID and password. Some libraries will mail materials you check-out via the Internet to your home. This is very helpful if you live a distance from the library or if you have limited transportation.

Subscription databases are resources the library purchases from commercial database services. Public libraries often give anybody with library card access these subscription databases, but they may not have as many databases as a college or university.

Colleges and universities usually restrict subscription database access to students, faculty, staff, and alumnae. On-campus, you can probably use your user identification to use a subscription database at the library. If you want to access subscription databases at home, you may need to setup a “proxy server” on your home computer. A proxy server identifies you as authorized to access subscription databases.

If a book is checked out by another a patron or is located at another branch of the library, request a hold on the book. You are notified when the book is returned to the library, or the book is moved from the branch where it is shelved to one where it is easier for you to pick-up. Your library may also mail requested books to your home. Libraries around the country share books. You may find a book title in a database that is not owned by the library you are using. Ask if the book can be borrowed through interlibrary loan.

Plan to spend most of your first visit becoming familiar with where to find things and how to use the card catalog and databases. You will need note cards to write down each book you are going to look for in the stacks, a notebook to take notes while reading, a pen or a pencil, and money for the copy machine. Take a tote bag to carry home the books you check out.

Today’s libraries keep their book catalogs on computers. Most also have computers you can use to surf the Web or use a word processor. Call before you go to find out if you need to reserve one of these computers. You may also need money for printing; take dollar bills and use the bill change rather than weighing yourself down with coins!
If you have a laptop computer, take it with you. (Invest about $20.00 in a security cable that let’s you tether your laptop to a library table.) You can take your notes directly on your computer and not have to transcribe them. Many libraries offer free wireless network access if you have a wireless network card for your computer. Call before you go to find out if wi-fi is available. When you arrive at the library, ask a librarian for instructions on accessing the network.

A personal digital assistant (PDA) can also be used for taking notes and some will accept add-on keyboards. Several companies make small, hand-held scanners that let you scan lines or paragraphs of text in a book and later transfer the text to a computer. These are most useful for scanning a few lines at a time. You will still want to use the copy machine for one or more pages in a book.

Get to the library! There is lots of information available today on the Internet, but only libraries have librarians. Whether you go to a public library or a college library, the first thing you need to do when you walk in the door is find the Reference Desk and introduce yourself. Explain to the librarian that you are conducting research on companies in the hospitality industry. Ask for a list of the resources at the library and write them down.

You want to know which books, magazines, newspapers and databases are available, and where they are located. Using databases can be intimidating. Any reference librarian will give you a personal tutorial on searching if you ask.

If you do not already have borrowing privileges at the library, find out how to get privileges. Public libraries usually grant privileges to residents of the city or county that funds the library. Libraries within a county or even a state may allow borrowing by anyone who holds a library card at another library in the county or state.

College and university libraries may allow anyone to use the library facilities, but they restrict borrowing of items to students, faculty, staff or alumnae who are members of the alumnae association. Even if you no longer live in the city where you went to college, join the alumnae association if it means you get access to the library via the Internet.