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Newsletter No. 120


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                             Free Pint
         "Helping 52,000 people use the Web for their work"
                     http://www.freepint.com/

ISSN 1460-7239                              5th September 2002 No.120
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                           IN THIS ISSUE

                             EDITORIAL

                       MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES
                         From Helen Baxter

                           FREE PINT BAR
                    In Association with Factiva
                   a Dow Jones & Reuters Company

                                JOBS
                Information Manager/Public Relations
                     Internal Sales Consultant
                         Knowledge Manager

                           TIPS ARTICLE
                         "Offshore Funds"
                         By Trevor Harvey

                             BOOKSHELF
          "Inside Yahoo! Reinvention and the Road Ahead"
                      Reviewed by Duncan Parry

                          FEATURE ARTICLE
"From Fortune 500 to Handelsblatt's European 500 one year on - another
       look at some useful European and International Rankings"
                          By Helen Clegg

               EVENTS, GOLD AND FORTHCOMING ARTICLES

                        CONTACT INFORMATION

             ONLINE VERSION WITH ACTIVATED HYPERLINKS
            <http://www.freepint.com/issues/050902.htm>

         ADOBE ACROBAT VERSION WITH NEWSLETTER FORMATTING
            <http://www.freepint.com/issues/050902.pdf>


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         Online Information 2002: the world's no.1 event for
               information professionals, librarians,
                 knowledge managers and publishers
               
               3-5 December 2002, Olympia, London UK
                          More details at
      http://www.online-information.co.uk/online/conference.asp
           >> Book now for super early bird discount! <<

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                      >>>  ABOUT FREE PINT  <<<

Free Pint is an online community of information researchers. Members
receive this free newsletter every two weeks packed with tips on
finding quality and reliable business information on the Internet.

Joining is free at <http://www.freepint.com/> and provides access to
the substantial archive of articles, book reviews, jobs, industry news
& events, with answers to your research questions and networking at
the Free Pint Bar.

Please circulate this newsletter which is best read when printed out.
To receive the Adobe Acrobat version as an attachment or a brief
notification when it's online, visit <http://www.freepint.com/member>.

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                             EDITORIAL

I have always understood the holy grail of information-related work to
be "Getting the right information at the right time to the right
person at the right price". This is why many content vendors are at
last focusing on 'content engineering' and many content purchasers
are using such techniques to develop systems which integrate external

content with that published internally.

Achieving this goal has a lot to do with understanding your audience,
putting the information into context, integrating it with other
knowledge and systems, and presenting it effectively. If we get it
right as an industry, we should be able to reap significant rewards.

Of course, this is not before time. One vendor is celebrating its
thirtieth birthday this year, but only now are they and their peers
starting to realise that it's not about how much information they put
into their massive databases; it's about how to dig out the
nuggets at just the right time. This is where the real value lies.

Back to Free Pint, and we managed to hit the nail on the head a year
ago when we ran Helen Clegg's article on business rankings. It was
re-published by various business schools to all their MBA students,
received widespread publicity, and was reviewed in a major
international business magazine. We couldn't resist a re-visit one
year on, and so I'm sure there will be as much interest in today's
update to that article.

Electronic Copyright is also a hot topic, and our Exchange event on
that subject in October is already full. You may want to check out the
new 'Telecommunications Exchange', which sits alongside those on
Competitor Intelligence, Data Protection and Private Equity
<http://www.freepint.com/exchange/>. These Exchanges have a few places
left, but they won't for long.

Don't forget to check out the fully-formatted version of today's
newsletter at <http://www.freepint.com/issues/050902.pdf>. You can
receive the formatted version by email, or a notification that it's
online, by modifying your account at <http://www.freepint.com/member>.

I hope you enjoy today's Free Pint, and will pass the word on to your
colleagues.

Cheers
William

     William Hann BSc(Hons) MCLIP, Founder and Managing Editor
      Email: <william@freepint.com>   Tel: +44 (0)1784 420044
Free Pint is a Registered Trademark of Free Pint Limited (R) 1997-2002

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            Targeted Science and Engineering Information
Nerac delivers hard-to-find information from worldwide resources
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          >>>  Free Pint Telecommunications Exchange  <<<
            Thursday 24th October 2002, West London, UK
                <http://www.freepint.com/exchange>

      "This Exchange is intended to equip participants with an
 awareness of the key sources of information on telecommunications,
     an ability to research the sector efficiently, and a basic
     understanding of telecommunications networks and services."

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                       MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES
                         From Helen Baxter

* Time and Date.com <http://www.timeanddate.com> - allows you to set
  up a personal world clock page showing current local times in
  selected cities. Invaluable as I live in New Zealand and telework
  with Europe, it automatically takes into account daylight savings
  changes.

* Babelfish <http://world.altavista.com/sites/gben/pos/babelfish/trns>
  - Supplements my basic French, German, Spanish and Italian.

* Dictionary.com <http://www.dictionary.com> - For quickly checking
  words. Also has links to an online thesaurus and other useful
  services.

* Ananova <http://www.ananova.com/> - The Press Association's website,
  with news from around the world.

* Universal Currency Converter <http://www.xe.net/currency> - a useful
  tool when you run a global mail order business.

Helen Baxter is Editor of <http://www.knowledgeboard.com> the European
Knowledge Management community. KnowledgeBoard was created as part of
the European KM Forum to support and identify commonality in KM
terminology, application, implementation and to define 'KM Made in
Europe'. She also runs a dance music record label and promotions
company from her home in New Zealand <http://www.tmet.net>.

Email your top five favourite Web sites to <penny@freepint.com> or
see the guidelines at <http://www.freepint.com/author.htm>.

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      MANY MORE SESSIONS ADDED TO FACTIVA'S LEARNING SCHEDULE

   Factiva Learning Programs has organised many more Factiva.com
  introductory and advanced learning sessions both online via the
    Web and as face-to-face seminars. To learn how to search our
 unmatched collection of sources more effectively register today at
              http://www.factiva.com/learningschedule

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                           FREE PINT BAR
                    In Association with Factiva
                   a Dow Jones & Reuters Company
                           
If you have a tricky research question or can help other Free Pinters
then do post a message at the Bar <http://www.freepint.com/bar> or
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To have the latest Bar postings sent to you every other day, register
for the Bar Digest at <http://www.freepint.com/member>.

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            >>>  Free Pint Private Equity Exchange  <<<
             Tuesday 8th October 2002, West London, UK

    "An afternoon workshop giving an understanding and awareness
      of the key sources of information on private equity and
              an ability to research it efficiently"

                Find out more and book your place:
                <http://www.freepint.com/exchange>

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                           FREE PINT JOBS
                   <http://www.freepint.com/jobs>

As well as the selected listings below, check out the weekly Bar
postings which list the latest additions to Free Pint Jobs.
This week's can be found at <http://www.freepint.com/go/b19689>.

Here are some of the latest featured jobs:

Information Manager/Public Relations <http://www.freepint.com/go/j1996>
  Unique role for consultancy. Central London. To 38,500 pounds
  plus bonus.
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Knowledge Manager <http://www.freepint.com/go/j2004>
  Global executive Search company requires Knowledge Manager to
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  Recruiter: RecruitMedia

                [The above jobs are paid listings]

Free Pint Jobs is a great place for finding and advertising
information-related vacancies.

Job seekers can search the database for free, and set up a profile to
be notified weekly of relevant new vacancies.

Recruiters will receive significant publicity for listed vacancies,
and jobs will be matched against the 600+ stored job seeker profiles.

       Find out more today at <http://www.freepint.com/jobs>

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                            TIPS ARTICLE
                          "Offshore Funds"
                          By Trevor Harvey

Offshore funds are located in jurisdictions which are characterised by
light regulation and favourable tax regimes in order to encourage
investment; these jurisdictions often have their own legislature which
is distinct from the nearest country to which they are geographically
related (e.g. the Channel Islands are a UK Crown Dependancy). "Offshore
has no precise dictionary meaning: the word simply reflects the fact
that most low tax jurisdictions are islands. It is estimated that more
than half of the world's money is offshore" (Lowtax.net).

In the past the word 'offshore' has been a loaded one, carrying with
it associations of secrecy and underhand dealing. This is a false
assumption and the wealth of information on the internet about
offshore matters certainly dispels the mystique.

The premier internet resource for the offshore funds researcher is
Lowtax.net <http://www.lowtax.net>. The initial reaction on first
using the Lowtax site is that the layout is confusing and the links do
not always make logical sense, but perseverance pays off as it is a
very impressive resource on which a lot of time and effort is
obviously spent. The offshore business review section of the website
is an overview of the sector which covers the different functions that
can be found offshore, primarily investment funds, banking and
insurance. Detailed information is provided on 33 offshore centres: "a
map and information about the country, climate, economy and currency,
tax system, special offshore regimes and company forms, links to
consultancies, banks and other service providers, and a comparative
assessment of the value of each jurisdiction as an offshore financial
centre" (Lowtax.net).

Some jurisdictions covered by Lowtax.net have been designated
'supersites'; for example, there are over 50 web pages of information
on the Isle of Man including articles from leading players in the
offshore industry. You can also sign up for a regular email
newsletter. Other pages on the Lowtax site include the 'Offshore-
Onshore Knowledge Base' which describes the low-tax opportunities open
to international companies and investors and 'Offshore-Onshore
Emerging Offshore Regimes' which covers countries new to the world of
offshore (e.g. Hungary).

I shall now examine other web resources which are currently available
for the following major offshore centres: Bermuda, Cayman Islands,
Guernsey, Jersey, Isle of Man, Ireland and Luxembourg.

Bermuda
-------

The Bermuda Monetary Authority <http://www.bma.bm/> is a very
comprehensive site covering a wide range of information. The BMA is
responsible "for the licensing of banks, deposit companies and
investment businesses, the issue and redemption of Bermuda notes and
coins, supervision of Bermuda's financial institutions, providing
advice to Government on banking and other financial and monetary
matters and the vetting of individuals and entities wishing to set up
corporate entities in Bermuda" (BMA website).

Cayman Islands
--------------

"There are more than 580 banks and trust companies with assets of
approximately US$747.6 billion, 517 captive insurance companies with
assets of US$14.3 billion, and 3,041 mutual funds with estimated
assets of US$215 billion registered in the Cayman Islands. Some 40,000
offshore companies are also registered" (CIMA website). The two
organisations responsible for financial services regulation are the
Cayman Islands Monetary Authority <http://www.cimoney.com.ky> (CIMA)
and the Stock Exchange Authority <http://www.csx.com.ky/>.

Guernsey
--------

The Guernsey Financial Services Commission is the regulatory authority
for the Bailiwick of Guernsey being responsible for banks, investment
funds and insurance companies <http://www.gfsc.guernseyci.com/>. A
sizeable section of the website is given over to fiduciary business
(international trust and corporate services) with links to codes of
practice and regulations.

Jersey
------

The Jersey Financial Services Commission <http://www.jerseyfsc.org/>
has information on the supervision and regulation of the finance
industry in Jersey. It lists very much the same kind of information as
the Guernsey site (e.g. news items, company registry, guidance and
regulations) but a useful addition is a legal section via a link to
the Jersey Legal Information Board at
<http://www.jerseylegalinfo.je/Law/LawsInForce/byAlpha/i/default.asp?URL=12-1996.htm>.

Isle of Man
-----------

The Isle of Man Government site <http://www.gov.im> contains
everything you need to know about the island: tourism, economy,
agriculture, government budget, transport, communication, and business
directories. The Island prides itself on the fact that it has been
voted the "best offshore financial services centre" for four
consecutive years.

Offshore operations include a range of banking, investment and fund
activities conducted by major institutions from around the world, all
supervised by the Financial Supervision Commission
<http://www.gov.im/fsc/>. The website has an online handbook (for
subscribers only) detailing all the FSC's regulatory requirements. A
section of the site is devoted to the Manx Companies Registry with
information on company searches and filing requirements. Insurance
operations are supervised by the Insurance & Pensions Authority
<http://www.gov.im/ipa/>. The mission statement posted on their
website says that the IPA will "provide security for investors,
prevent and deter the Isle of Man being used for the purposes of
financial crime, preserve the international reputation of the
Isle of Man and ensure a flourishing environment for Isle of
Man business".

Ireland
-------

Ireland has completely transformed itself over the past 15 years
enthusiastically embracing the benefits that EU membership can bring
and proving a very attractive location for foreign companies,
particularly from the USA. In 1987 the Government recognised the
growth potential of the financial services sector internationally and
that Ireland had the capacity to develop a strong international
financial service. It was against this background that the Government
decided to establish the International Financial Services Centre 
<http://www.ifsc.ie/>. The principal regulatory authorities are the
Department of Finance <http://www.irlgov.ie/finance/> (which oversees
overall policy and fiscal issues relating to the IFSC), the Department
of Enterprise Trade & Employment <http://www.entemp.ie/services.htm>
(which regulates the insurance industry) and the Central Bank of
Ireland <http://www.centralbank.ie/> (which regulates all insurance
related activities). Investors should also be aware of the country's
Stock Exchange site <http://www.ise.ie/> where listing requirements
and statistics can be found amongst a range of sources.

Luxembourg
----------

The Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF)
<http://www.cssf.lu/fr/index.html> is the regulatory authority for all
types of financial institutions in Luxembourg. The site is mainly in
French and includes links to publications, statistics and legislation.
Investors in funds domiciled in Luxembourg should be aware of the
requirements of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange 
<http://www.bourse.lu/english/index.shtml>. It has all the standard
information found on most Stock Exchange sites: share prices,
admission to listing rules and press notices.


International Organisations
===========================

There are a number of international organisations responsible for
setting standards in the financial sector; their supervisory and
monitoring role is of particular relevance to offshore centres who
must be seen to be transparent and open in their transactions. The
International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO)
<http://www.iosco.org/iosco.html> proclaims on its website that one of
its aims is "to co-operate together to promote high standards of
regulation in order to maintain just, efficient and sound markets".
There is also the Financial Stability Forum <http://www.fsforum.org/>
which was convened in April 1999 to "promote international financial
stability through information exchange and international co-operation
in financial supervision and surveillance". Both sites list
documentation and guidance.


Money Laundering
================

Money laundering is the process whereby money gained through criminal
activity is controlled so as to confuse its distribution or origins.
All offshore jurisdictions place great emphasis on anti-money
laundering legislation and the prevention of financial crime; there
are a number of initiatives in place to assist them.

In response to mounting concern over money laundering, the Financial
Action Task Force on money laundering (FATF)
<http://www1.oecd.org/fatf/> was established by the G-7 Summit in
Paris in 1989 to develop a co-ordinated international response to the
money laundering problem. The FATF have drawn up 40 recommendations
which set out the basic framework for anti-money laundering efforts
encouraging a co-ordinated response across all jurisdictions.

Other organisations who have worked on anti-money laundering
initiatives are the International Association of Insurance Supervisors
who published their 'Anti-Money Laundering Guidance Notes for
Insurance Supervisors and Insurance Entities' in January 2002,
<http://www.iaisweb.org/1/pasc.html> and the Bank for International
Settlements who published the 'Prevention of criminal use of the
banking system for the purpose of money laundering' in December 1998,
<http://www1.oecd.org/fatf/pdf/basle1988_en.pdf>.

The UK has a strong commitment to anti-money laundering legislation;
HM Treasury is currently consulting on amending the 2001 Money
Laundering Regulations
<http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/Newsroom_and_Speeches/Press/2002/press_48_02.cfm?>.
The JMLSG (Joint Money Laundering Steering Group) gives practical
assistance in interpreting the UK Money Laundering Regulations
<http://www.jmlsg.org.uk/>. The EU has also produced a directive on
the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of
money laundering (1991/308) plus an amending directive (2001/97)
both of which can be accessed via Europa's Eur-Lex site
<http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/search/search_lif.html>.

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Trevor Harvey is Information Officer for the Financial Institutions
Group at City law firm Clifford Chance
<http://www.cliffordchance.com>. He has previously held posts at St
Quintin property consultancy and the RICS. He writes here in a
personal capacity.

The author's article on Investment Funds was published in Free Pint,
Issue 86, April 2001 <http://www.freepint.com/issues/260401.htm>.

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Related Free Pint links:

* "Finance and Business" resources in the Free Pint Portal
  <http://www.freepint.com/go/p50>
* Post a message to the author, Trevor Harvey, or suggest further
  resources at the Free Pint Bar <http://www.freepint.com/bar>
* Read this article online, with activated hyperlinks
  <http://www.freepint.com/issues/050902.htm#feature>
* Access the entire archive of Free Pint content
  <http://www.freepint.com/portal/content/>

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      >>>  Free Pint Competitive Intelligence Exchange  <<<

 Arthur Weiss looks at ways of finding information on competitors,
  what to look for and how to communicate it to decision makers.

           Thursday 19th September 2002, West London, UK
          <http://www.freepint.com/exchange/ci190902.htm>

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                        FREE PINT BOOKSHELF
                <http://www.freepint.com/bookshelf>

            "Inside Yahoo! Reinvention and the Road Ahead"
                       Written by Karen Angel
                      Reviewed by Duncan Parry

The story of Yahoo is the story of the dot com dream; a multi-million
dollar company that grew out of the hobby of two Ph.D. students and
soared on the stock market. But it also embodies the flip side of the
dot com dream; shares in the company fell steeply in 2000 as investors
became nervous about dot coms, and the closures of high-profile
websites like Pets.com and boo.com led to a steep fall in Yahoo's main
revenue stream, advertising. As the books' author, journalist Karen
Angel points out, now may the best time to take stock of where Yahoo
has come from and where it is going.

'Inside Yahoo!: Reinvention and the Road Ahead' tells the story of
Yahoo from it's humble beginnings as a distraction for students Jerry
Yang and David Filo from their dissertations (and yes, the popular
myth is true, they did once run the site from a trailer), through the
heady days of the growth of the dot coms, the so-called portal wars
between Yahoo, Lycos, Excite and others; through to the fall in
technology stocks and the economic realities of 2002.

Although Yahoo declined to contribute to the book - a fact Angel notes
contrasts to the company's past enthusiasm for the media - she has
drawn on sources around the former and current management of Yahoo,
former Yahoo staff members and Wall Street analysts to tell the story
of the company and assess what the future may hold.

These contacts and Angel's own research provide interesting insights
in the culture of many of the dot coms that existed in the mid 1990s.
These provide startlingly examples of the virtual 'land grab' that was
taking place between portals including Yahoo, Excite, Lycos and AOL.
For example, Excite.com paid $780m for e-card website Blue Mountain
Arts in 1999. At the same time, Yahoo's then director of e-commerce,
Elizabeth Collet, hired an intern to build an e-card service for Yahoo
- at a cost she estimates of about $10,000. Excite filed for
bankruptcy early in 2002; Yahoo has struggled on, posting a profit of
$21.4 million in the second quarter of 2002.

However, as Angel discusses, Yahoo has faced its own challenges since
the heady days of deal making in the late 90s. The company's
diversification away from relying on advertising for revenue has
resulted in changes that have been controversial with some users - for
example the annual fee for listing a commercial website in the Yahoo
directory, and the company's partnerships with pay-per-click search
engines.

'Inside Yahoo!: Reinvention and the Road Ahead' is an accessable,
interesting read for anybody interested in the story of one of the
companies that shaped the Internet into how we know it today. It
paints a clear picture of the rapid-fire deal making, acquisitions and
entrepreneurial spirit that characterised the growth of the dot coms,
and the painful reality which hit in 2000. It will be interesting to
see what form Yahoo exists in when the author writes an updated
edition of this book.

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Duncan Parry works in the UK editorial team of European pay-per-click
search engine Espotting <http://www.espotting.com/>, whose partners
include Yahoo! Europe and Ask Jeeves in the UK. When time permits he
writes for EuropeMedia about the UK Internet industry
<http://www.europemedia.net/editors.asp?EditorID=113>, and is studying
for a degree with the Open University. Previously he worked on the
directory of Lycos UK <dparry@lycos.co.uk>.

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Related Free Pint links:

* Find out more about this book online at the Free Pint Bookshelf
  <http://www.freepint.com/bookshelf/inside.htm>
* Read customer comments and buy this book at Amazon.co.uk
  <http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471007935/freepint0c>
  or Amazon.com
  <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471007935/freepint00>
* "Inside Yahoo: Reinvention and the Road Ahead" ISBN 0471007935
  published by John Wiley & Sons written by Karen Angel
* Search for and purchase any book from Amazon via the Free Pint
  Bookshelf at <http://www.freepint.com/bookshelf>
* Read about other Internet Strategy books on the Free Pint Bookshelf
  <http://www.freepint.com/bookshelf/strategy.htm>

To propose an information-related book for review, send details 
to <bookshelf@freepint.com>.

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           >>>  Free Pint Data Protection Exchange  <<<
           Thursday 26th September 2002, West London, UK
                <http://www.freepint.com/exchange>

 This workshop will look at setting up data protection and privacy
  statements, tracking users, securing and processing client data.

  "Paul Pedley is an excellent speaker. Very knowledgeable. Would
  definitely come to another event. Price was reasonable as well."
  
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                          FEATURE ARTICLE
	 <http://www.freepint.com/issues/050902.htm#feature>

"From Fortune 500 to Handelsblatt's European 500 one year on - another
       look at some useful European and International Rankings"
                          By Helen Clegg

Introduction
============

Readers may remember my article on web rankings, which appeared in
issue 95 of Free Pint on September 6th last year
<http://www.freepint.com/issues/060901.htm>. In this article I
looked at European and International company rankings on the World
Wide Web and reviewed their functionality and coverage. As change is
the only certainty in today's world, I've taken another look at the
rankings one year on to see whether they have been updated, superceded
by others or deleted from the Web altogether.


Europe
======

UK
--

Sure enough, the Financial Times has produced it's rankings survey for
2001. I started to search for it by going to the home page of the FT,
at <http://www.ft.com>, which is where I found a link to it last year,
but no joy this time. Instead, I kept getting directed to the new
special subscription-only section of the site, so I decided to
substitute last year's URL of
<http://specials.ft.com/ft500/may2001/global.html> with
<http://specials.ft.com/ft500/may2002/global.html> and it worked! I'm
sorry to report, however, that upon reconstructing this "trick" a few
weeks after I discovered it, I found that the FT has obviously
discovered it too and removed the hyperlink. So surfers have no
alternative but to subscribe to FT.com. The Global FT 500 covers all
major industry sectors and the rankings are by market capitalization.
There are tables for Japan and Asia, the USA, Latin America and
Canada, Europe and the UK. Other regions covered include Eastern
Europe, the Middle East, South Africa and top sub-Saharan companies.
However a subscription to FT.com doesn't come cheap. The cheapest
option is priced at GBP 65 per year, the more expensive one is GBP 150
per year. You can get round this by taking out a trial subscription
for a few weeks, but the site doesn't make it particularly easy or
obvious how to do this. It's a real shame that the FT can't provide
the rankings on a pay-as-you go basis, as so many people find them
extremely useful. My suggestion is therefore to buy a copy of the FT
each day through the second week in May, when the rankings survey
usually appears - that way at least you'll have the rankings for a
fraction of the subscription price. Come on FT, make your rankings
accessible once more, even on a pay-as-you go basis!

As well as the Global 500, the FT also compiles an interesting
European Performance League ranking, which this year appeared in July.
It ranks those companies that offered shareholders the most profitable
investments over one and five years. Sure enough, it's only available
to subscribers of FT.com.

Germany
-------

Last year I drew attention to the German daily newspaper, Handelsblatt
<http://www.handelsblatt.com>, which published a number of good
rankings for Germany. This year I couldn't find them anywhere on its
own web site, but Handelsblatt's ranking of Europe's Top 500 companies
is available through the web site of the German business magazine
WirtschaftsWoche, as both the newspaper and the magazine are published
by the same publisher. The Handelsblatt/WirtschaftsWoche ranking of
Europe's Top 500 is reviewed later in this article.

Manager Magazin <http://www.manager-magazin.de>, one of Germany's
stalwart business magazines, has updated its rankings this year and
even added a couple more:

* E-100 im Internet - what Germany's Top 100 companies are doing with
  regard to the Internet
* Web Test - how the 100 best German companies leverage
  Internet technology
* Euro 500 - ranking of the top European quoted companies
* Top 100 Banken - Top 100 German banks
* Die besten Unternehmen Amerikas - the best American companies

To locate the first two rankings, click on the "E-business + Medien"
hyperlink at the top of the home page, then choose E-100 or Web Test
at the top of the following page. The E-100 is an interesting
ranking, it lets you search for the name of a company and find out how
it's incorporating Internet technology in its corporate strategy. I
checked out the publishing giant, Bertelsmann, and found that it has a
very comprehensive Internet strategy. You can also search this
ranking by industry sector, so if you want to find out which are the
top German companies in the construction industry making the most
innovative use of the Internet within their businesses, this is the
place to search. In the construction industry for example, it's
Bilfinger + Berger.

The Web Test ranking basically lets you rank those German companies
which have excellent web site capabilities. So if you want to find
out which company has the best navigable web site, or best interactive
web site, check this ranking out. I used the default settings and
found that Fresenius came top with the best web site, scoring 373
points.

To pinpoint the Top 100 German banks and best American companies,
simply type in the word "ranking" into the "Archiv" search box on the
home page. These two rankings appeared in different issues of the
magazine and haven't been given their own web page, so you'll only
pick them up by doing a keyword search through the articles in the
archive. The Top 100 German banks list was published on June 28, 2002
and the best American companies on April 7, 2002.

If you navigate to the "Geld + Boerse" hyperlink at the top of
Manager Magazin's home page, you'll find a link to the Euro 500
ranking. Scroll down the page to "Ranking: Direkt zum Euro-500
Vergleich" and follow the link. With this European ranking you can
rank the companies by shareholder value performance, revenue growth,
market capitalization, number of employees and industry sector.
What's new this year is the addition of sixteen other European
countries, making this site a real treasure-trove.

In last year's article I commented that if you're looking for rankings
for smaller European countries, probably the best option was to use
the Corporate Information web site
<http://www.corporateinformation.com>. Well, now you have a choice.
Granted, the Manager Magazin web site is in German, but it's worth
getting to grips with some basic vocabulary just to use this ranking.
So if you're looking for the top quoted companies in Belgium, Spain,
Ireland, Greece, Denmark or Italy, I'd recommend picking the
appropriate country in the filter box in this Euro500 ranking. Here
are the countries you can choose from, followed by the number of
quoted companies available:

Austria	(02), Belgium (11), Germany (48), Denmark (11), Finland (08),
France (65), Greece (08), Great Britain (177), Ireland (08), Italy (46),
Luxembourg (01), Netherlands (29), Norway (07), Portugal (09),
Sweden (26), Switzerland (27), Spain (24).

If you want to refine your search further, and limit by an industry
sector, go to WirtschaftsWoche <http://www.wirtschaftswoche.de>,
another leading German weekly business magazine. As mentioned earlier,
here you'll find the following useful ranking:

* Europas Top 500 - die 500 Groessten Unternehmen im Vergleich - a
  comparison of Europe's Top 500 companies

From the home page, choose "Unternehmen", you'll then see a hyperlink
to "Europas Top 500". This is a dynamic ranking, as you can decide
which information you want to display in the four available columns.
Choose from market capitalization, change in stock price, revenue,
number of employees. The ranking covers seventeen European countries.
Perhaps you're looking for the top transport/logistics companies in
the UK? Then pick this sector from the industry list and combine it
with the UK from the drop-down country pick list. Exel Logistics is
ranked Number One and Stagecoach as Number Five.

France
------

Last year I recommended the rankings provided by one of France's
leading business newspapers, Les Echos. The rankings are available
this year too, in a similar format. On the home page of Les Echos web
site <http://www.lesechos.fr> you'll see a number of broad industry
categories towards the bottom of the page. Clicking on one of these
will take you to a page dedicated to that particular industry
category. Now all you have to do is to click on the "Classements CA"
hyperlink, which is in the boxed column on the left and choose
"Palmares", which will take you to the ranking. The functionality of
the rankings offered by Les Echos has improved over last year.
Although the default ranking is by revenue, you can also rank by net
profit, export value or number of employees and limit by French
"department" or county. And there's a new type of ranking on offer
too - check out the hyperlink called "Dynamisme". Here you can find
out the number of companies that have been created or that have
collapsed in a particular industry sector from 1999 through 2001, for
example, the number of bankruptcies in the advertising sector in the
Ile de France from 1999 to 2001. The only annoying thing about the
rankings posted by Les Echos is that you have to keep returning to the
home page, in order to choose a different industry category.

You'll notice that when you generate a ranking from using Les Echos,
it appears as a separate frame, which has a different URL -
<http://www.cofacerating.fr>. My curiosity got the better of me and
so I navigated to <http://www.cofacerating.fr> to find a real gem of
a rankings site. It's one of the web sites belonging to the Coface
Group, whose businesses are credit management and credit insurance.
From this site, you can generate rankings on really specific industry
sectors - I have never seen anything like it and had a field day
testing these rankings out. I generated a list of shoe manufacturers,
aerospace manufacturers and a list of the top demolition companies in
France!

The more unusual rankings offered by L'Expansion last year
<http://lexpansion.com>, such as the Top 250 European companies which
have implemented good corporate governance and the Top 10 companies
ranked by number of patents, don't seem to be available this year.
Instead you can find more general rankings for French companies, split
into four broad categories:

* Les 1423 groupes industriels et de services - 1423 industrial and
  service companies
* Les 238 entreprises commerciales - 238 commercial organizations 
  Les 159 banques et institutes financieres - 159 banks
  and financial institutions
* Les 41 compagnies d'assurance - 41 insurance companies

You'll find the rankings under the hyperlink "Fiches d'entreprises -
les 1000" on the left-hand side of the home page. Don't be put off by
the odd numbers! The numbers simply refer to the number of companies
in each database. So if you want the Top 50 French industrial
companies ranked by turnover, simply choose the first option from the
list, as the default ranking is by turnover. Once you've got your list
on screen, you can retrieve more detailed information on specific
companies by clicking on the company name. This will include some
financials, the number of employees, percentage of sales derived from
abroad as well as hyperlinks to the last three articles on the company
from L'Expansion. If you want to generate your own rankings from
within each of these four categories, you can do. For example you can
limit by geographic region or rank by sales from abroad. If you want
to manipulate the data further and access even more company
information, then it's best to buy the rankings diskette, available
from L'Expansion.

Luxembourg
----------

If Luxembourg is your point of interest, navigate to the web site of
Luxembourg's official statistics office at
<http://statec.gouvernement.lu>. As is always the case, I came across
this great resource while doing an enquiry. The Luxembourg Statistics
Office has compiled a couple of company rankings that are available
for free. The easiest way to locate them is to open the site map and
scroll down to "Download files", where you'll find the following lists
in pdf format:

* 2002 - Les principales entreprises par taille (Top companies ranked
  by number of employees)
* 2002 - Les principales entreprises par branche (Top companies by
  industry sector, ranked by number of employees)

For comparison purposes, the previous lists for 2001 are also
available to download. If you're looking for a ranking of companies
in Luxembourg by turnover, you'll be disappointed by these lists,
because they don't include any financial data at all, but you do get
the full company name and address, and if it's a group of companies,
all the subsidiaries are also listed.

Spain
-----

Last year I reported that Spanish rankings were available from the web
site of one of Spain's leading business magazines, Actualidad
Economica, but not for free. This year is no different. You can find
the rankings at <http://www.actualidad-economica.com>. Scroll down to
the section called Servicios and click on the hyperlink called Bases
de datos. Here you'll find information on how to access the rankings.
It seems that publishers are now starting to classify rankings as
premium content and moving to either a subscription-based model or
pay-as-you go model for supplying such data.

Sweden
------

While doing some serious surfing a couple of months ago, I came across
some Swedish rankings, compiled by the Swedish business magazine,
Affarsvarlden <http://www.afv.se>. The lists give data from 2000, but
hopefully they will be updated in the near future to include 2001
figures. This is the place to go for a list of the top Swedish
companies or the top IT companies in Sweden. To reach the rankings,
click on the tab marked "Research" at the top of the home page. The
rankings available are:

* 500 Storsta - Sweden's top 500 companies
* Tema IT - Top IT companies in Sweden
* Tema Affarsjuridik - Top commercial lawyers in Sweden 
* Tema Regioner - Regional ranking

The default ranking of Sweden's top 500 companies is alphabetical, but
you can rank by turnover (Oms.) or number of employees (Anst.) as
well. In the top IT companies listing, there's an additional option
to limit by sector, but you really need to be able to read Swedish to
make use of this feature. The regional ranking gives details of
salaries in the different regions of Sweden. You can also download
this ranking into Excel for further manipulation. The above rankings
are all in Swedish - if you know a little German, then you'll probably
be OK, but otherwise it's worth getting someone to help with
translating the basic headings.

Switzerland
-----------

Since last year, the Handelszeitung of Switzerland has also decided to
classify its rankings as premium content. At
<http://www.handelszeitung.com> you'll find a hyperlink to the "Top
2002: Die groessten Unternehmen in der Schweiz" on the left-hand side
of the home page. Prices range from CHF 1 for a simple query, CHF 5
for a fixed table, to CHF 40-100 for generating a ranking based on
your own criteria. However, if all you're looking for is the Top 10
Swiss companies, check out the Swiss magazine Bilanz
<http://www.bilanz.ch>. The magazine produces an annual ranking of the
Top 100 Swiss companies each July, but only posts details of the Top
Ten on its web site. You'll find these at
<http://www.bilanz.ch/service/ratings/index.cfm>.


International
=============

Russia
------

My best find this year has to be a comprehensive ranking for Russia,
which is lurking on the RA Expert web site at
<http://www.raexpert.ru>. It's a bit tricky to locate, as you need to
thread your way through the English language version of the site and
the sectoral classifier. For some reason, the actual hyperlink to the
rankings only seems to work for the Russian version. So here's the
quickest way I found of locating the rankings - go to the English
language version, click on "Sectoral Classifier", choose "Industry"
and then scroll down to "Expert 200" - this is the name of the
rankings database. Now just follow the links to the database. I came
across this great source while searching for something else, which
happens to me all the time. Expert 200 provides historical rankings
too, starting at 1995 making it a double-bull's eye in my opinion!

These Russian rankings are compiled by the Expert RA Ratings Agency,
based in Moscow. According to its web site, "Expert RA is an
authorized agent of the Central Bank of Russia and the Federal
Securities Commission". It was founded in 1997 by Expert Weekly. The
agency aims to provide information and analysis for companies
conducting business on the Russian market." On this basis, I would
dare to trust the rankings that it produces, which are:

* 20 largest Russian companies by net sales
* 20 most profitable companies
* 20 largest companies by market capitalization
* List of the 200 largest companies by net sales
* List of the 200 largest companies by market capitalization
* 20 companies with the greatest productivity

These rankings give financial information in roubles and US dollars.
I was curious to see the ranking of the 20 companies with the greatest
productivity. Interestingly, ranked Number One is Severnaya Verf, a
shipbuiding yard; but Mars, the confectionery giant, comes in at
Number Two. If you click on the company name, you'll get more
details, including growth rate (51.3% for Mars in Russia), net sales,
pretax profit, net profit, net margin, personnel in thousands and
labor productivity measured in thousands of roubles per person.

USA
---

Fortune magazine <http://www.fortune.com> is still the most famous
source for US rankings and its rankings this year are much the same as
those on offer last year. The nice thing about Fortune is that its
easy to navigate to the rankings and they're free. From the home page
there are hyperlinks to the following rankings:

* Fortune 500
* Global 500
* 100 best to work for
* Global most admired
* 100 fastest growing
* Small business 100
* 50 best for minorities
* Washington power 25
* CEOs

The ranking of the 100 best companies to work for is worth checking
out, as it includes a list for the USA, a list of the best companies
for women, and new this year is a Top list of 10 great companies to
work for in Europe. This list includes Skandia, ING Group, Pret a
Manger as well as L'Oreal and Morgan Stanley. It will be worth
watching this list to see if Fortune adds other companies to it in the
future. Staying with Europe, if you check out the Global 500 ranking
you'll find a European section. True to form, Fortune offers a number
different ways of ranking the companies under the Top Performers
hyperlink, such as by growth in profits, growth in revenues, revenues
per dollar of assets, total return to shareholders and return on
revenues. You can also generate rankings by industry. For example
according to Fortune, the fastest growing industry in the USA by
revenue growth is the energy industry, followed by the food production
sector.

The other notable American magazine which publishes a number of
rankings is Forbes <http://www.forbes.com>. This year's offering
from Forbes has changed little from last year but the web site itself
has been completely revamped. The best way of finding the rankings is
to scroll down to "Lists" from the sectors in the "jump to" box on the
home page. You'll find:

* Forbes 500
* Forbes Global 500
* 200 best small companies
* 400 best big companies
* 500 largest privates

However, this year you have to register with the Forbes' web site in
order to access any of the rankings, but at least registration is
free. Once you've registered, you can view the Top 25 companies in
each list. If you want to see the complete list, you have to pay, as
Forbes seems to be moving toward the premium content model. Ranking
options include market value, assets, profits or sales.

If you're looking for the top IT companies, then Business Week
<http://www.businessweek> is a good source to use. The best way to
find Business Week's rankings is to check out the "investing" section
of the web site. As well as the Info Tech 100/200 scoreboard, there's
the annual BW50/Standard & Poor's Top 500. New this year are the
Standard & Poor's Mid Cap 400 and Standard & Poor's Small Cap 600.
Unfortunately last year's rankings on the Top 40 best places to be
single and Best value bosses seem to have vanished from the site.

Australia
---------

The best place to start looking for Australian rankings is Business
Review Weekly at <http://www.brw.com.au>. Most of the rankings are the
same as last year's offerings, but the Top New Zealand companies list
seems to be new. BRW's rankings include:

* The BRW 1000
* Top 500 public companies
* Top 500 private companies
* Rich 200
* The 100 fastest growing companies
* State of the nation - lists Australia's best and worst performing
  industries
* Top 20 law firms
* Top 100 accountancy firms
* Top 50 entertainers - brand new stars
* Top 50 sports earners
* Top 50 advertisers
* New Zealand's biggest companies

To retrieve the rankings, navigate to the "Lists" section on the home
page. The Top 500 public companies list is dynamic, so you can sort
by company name, ASX code, market capitalization, revenue or net
profit. With the Top 500 private companies list you can sort by
revenue, number of employees and company name. The BRW 1000 ranking is
also dynamic and lets you generate rankings by net revenue, profit
after tax, shareholder funds or total assets. Furthermore, you can
refine your ranking to a specific industry sector. In each case,
you'll need to choose the "Search the list" option in order to
generate your preferred ranking. New Zealand's biggest companies are
tucked away under the "Fact files" hyperlink on the BRW 1000 web
page.

If you're a fan of the inimitable Steve Irwin, presenter of The
Crocodile Hunter TV series, then have a look at this! Australia's Top
50 entertainers - brand new stars ranking shows that the highest-
placed newcomer on this year's list is none other than Steve Irwin,
together with his producer-manager, John Stainton - they enter the
list at Number Five, with gross earnings of AU$16.3 million. As Steve
himself says, "It's insane, mate. I'm bigger than 10 bears. I reckon
you'd be pretty right if you said I'm the best known Aussie in the
world" [Bigger than 10 bears, mate. By Chris Johnston, Melbourne,
The Age, August 20, 2002].



Conclusion
==========

Well, that's it on rankings for another year. As well as the rankings
recommended in this article, remember to check out Gary Price's List
of Lists at <http://www.freepint.com/gary/listof.htm>, a great
resource if you're searching for all sorts of rankings. It does tend
to have a US bias although there are sections on Japan, Saudi Arabia
and Canada. Price's List of Lists is currently being overhauled and
rebuilt.

If you're looking for rankings for the smaller European countries like
Belgium, the Netherlands or Luxembourg, don't forget the German
Manager Magazin web site at <http://www.manager-magazin.de> mentioned
earlier in this article or you could also check out the Corporate
Information web site <http://www.corporateinformation.com> maintained
by Wright Investors' Service, an investment management and financial
advisory firm based in the USA. It will give you the Top 10 companies
for most countries of the world.

Finally, it will be interesting to see whether the stealthy move
towards classifying rankings as premium content continues during the
coming year. Let's hope not!

> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Helen Clegg is Marketing Analyst with R.R. Donnelley Europe in
Amsterdam. She holds an M.Sc. in Library and Information Studies and
is a Board Member of the European Chapter of the Special Libraries
Association of America. She writes here in a personal capacity.
Helen can be contacted at <helen.clegg@rrd.com>

> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Related Free Pint links:

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                           FREE PINT GOLD

Well, we're really keeping it in the family this week. Duncan Parry
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