During his tenure as director of Eastman Business Park, Mike Alt could be observed poring over reports on various prospective companies – data about technology, IP, products, market share, competition, leadership, financials – anything and everything he could access to determine the best “fits” for the infrastructure, commercialization tools and manufacturing assets available at EBP.
One of his favorite resources for all of this authoritative research: the Business and Social Science Division of Rochester’s Central Library. All that information was not only free – Mike was rarely seen visiting the library located at city center. He simply dialed 585-428-8130, or directed an email to busref@libraryweb.org.
With that crafty strategy, Mike says he was able to “obtain reports on a variety of companies in numerous key areas, focusing on those technology and financial aspects that might enable us to evaluate the business prospects most likely to consider Eastman Business Park as a tenant destination.”
Today, Mike serves as Vice President of Technology and Manufacturing at SIGNa Chemistry – an EBP resident company. But he’s still a frequent customer of the local library’s Business and Social Science Division.
Jennifer Byrnes, MLS, MPH, Business Specialist for the Business Division of the Rochester Central Library, says the department offers an “extensive collection of online resources for market research, investment analysis, and business and management periodicals.”
“Our business research specialists have extensive training and experience in delivering information professionally and efficiently, while respecting the confidentiality of our clients,” Jennifer said. As to Mike’s point, the information is also free for the asking!
Take, for instance, biomass energy, a technology area where EBP’s assets can be leveraged to their fullest.
Says Jennifer: “We found that the Biomass Energy industry has a low level of market share concentration – there are no ‘David and Goliath’-sized companies. The two top companies for biomass energy are Progress Energy and Covanta Energy, with utilities, manufacturers and waste collection services being the biggest clients for biomass.”
“Our research shows that this is a $1.2B a year industry with a projected annual growth of 4.9%,” Jennifer said. “How do I know this? Because our Business Division subscribes to IBISWorld, a premier market research resource. If you were to buy one of its reports, you’d pay $900. Do emerging growth companies have that kind of money to spend on a single report?”
“Let’s explore this a little further,” Jennifer said. “Is Covanta Holding Corporation publicly traded? Its ticker symbol is CVA and it trades on the New York Stock Exchange. Want to buy stock? There are over 129 million shares of common stock outstanding. The quarterly dividends were $0.25 for 2015.”
“All of this information came from Standard & Poor’s Capital IQ,” Jennifer said. “If your company wanted to subscribe to S&P Capital IQ it would cost more than $10K a year. So ask yourself as a small company: $10,000 towards S&P; or the same amount both for S&P and an awesome company picnic?
Hit the Ground Running
For more information on what the library system’s Business and Social Science Division can do for you, start here.