'
resources
MC INFORMATION CENTER
RESOURCES
All employees have access to a managed reource collection, located in Purchase, which has been carefully customized
to reflect the needs of our business. This collection undergoes continuous evaluation and review in response to
changing business conditions and new corporate initiatives.
Brief Description of Major Resource Categories
-
Analyst
Reports
- Analysts who are hired for their expertise in specific
industries write investment Analyst Reports, and for this reason, their analysis
provides a significant, value-added component to the research process. . In
addition to extensive financials, these reports contain a significant amount of strategic and operational
information on public companies active in the Financial Services Sector and the
Payments Industry, as well as offering extensive coverage of other major industries and key
players. Our collection contains reports from leading Wall Street firms, including
Morgan Stanley, UBS Warburg, Credit Suisse First Boston, and
Salomon, Smith Barney. We also have the capability to search reports published by some 650 additional domestic and
international brokerage houses, investment banks and consulting firms.
- Books
- The Information Center maintains a small collection of circulating books on such topics
as general management, marketing, brand management, brand equity,
leadership, and competitive strategy.
We also maintain a very focused collection of Reference
Books, selected for their relevance to the payments industry or their usefulness
in conducting general business research on companies and industries. Our Reference
Collection includes such leading business publications as Corporate Affiliations, World Development Indicators
from the World Bank, and from Thomson Financial, the Card Industry Directory, and the
Directory of Online Banking and Financial Services.
The Diversity Collection is an important supplement to
the business and industry-specific books acquired by the Information Center for general business research. Books and selected
videos in this collection are contributed to the Information Center by the Diversity Group
within MasterCard, and have been organized into a small Diversity Collection that is easily
accessible. Titles in this collection address diversity issues of importance corporate-wide,
including multiculturalism, women in management, and international
business etiquette.
- Company
Reports
- Company Reports available through the Information Center include Annual Reports, 10-K filings and 10-Q filings for
publicly-traded companies. The Annual Report to
Shareholders is the principal document used by most public companies to disclose corporate information to
current shareholders, as well as to generate investment interest in the company and its
products. The 10-K is the annual report used by most
public companies for their official filing to the Securities & Exchange Commission. It provides a comprehensive overview of the
firm.s business, and is substantially longer than the Annual Report to Shareholders. Both
the Annual Report to Shareholders and the 10-K must be filed with the SEC within 90 days
after the end of the company.s fiscal year. The 10-Q is
an unaudited, quarterly filing with the SEC, which must be filed within 45 days after the close of the company.s quarter. A
selection of other filings is available upon request from the Information Center. For a
description of the most common corporate filings required by the SEC, visit the
SEC Web Site
- Competitive
Research
- CI Briefings were developed by the Competitive Intelligence
Group within Global Information & Research to distribute tactical,
competitive information about major and emerging competitors in the payments
industry. These one-page documents are issued monthly. Each
briefing addresses a single topic, which is researched through both published and
proprietary information sources, with key findings reported in a standardized format. Due
to the fact that CI Briefings may draw implications for our business, restrictions are placed on both their use and redistribution. Contact
the CI Group directly (x55372) to
request access to these briefings, as well as to inquire about other reports and competitive
analyses prepared by this group.
- Conference Proceedings
- The Information Center.s collection of Conference
Proceedings is presently quite small, although we welcome contributions from individuals who would like to donate conference
proceedings to our collection. Conference proceedings from selected conferences that focus on
the Payments Industry, such as the annual Credit Card
Forums and the annualSmart Card Forums,
are currently available. Selected proceedings from conferences devoted to general business
topics may occasionally be available.
- Conference Board Reports
- Research from the Conference Board, a global,
independent, public-purpose membership organization, examines the best business practices throughout the world, while focusing
attention on economic, political, demographic, and technological developments that are
having a major impact on business management. Among the Conference Board's principal
research areas are: Corporate Governance, Capabilities
Management and HR Strategies, Economics, Global Management Strategies and Performance
Excellence. To review Conference Board Reports that may be of interest, contact
us, or visit the Conference Board Web Site
- Electronic Databases
-
- Government Publications
- Magazines & Newsletters
-
- Marketing Science Institute Reports
-
- Proprietary Market Research
-
- Syndicated Market Research