Business Basics: Organizational charts

Brief introduction to library resources for general business questions.

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About org charts

Organizational charts are not a required disclosure item in the US. That means that companies can choose whether or not to include them in public documents (company filings) and on their websites. They may consider this proprietary information.

Company filings:

If they choose to make this information public, the most likely source will be the company 10-K report (assuming it's a public company) or Proxy Statement. Search on the company's investors' webpages, EDGAR, or use a financial information provider. Be aware that you may have to construct a chart yourself, that the information may be there in narrative form only.

EDGAR Company Filing Search
Free, and directly from the SEC.
There's a Quick EDGAR Tutorial, and a longer guide to Researching Public Companies Through EDGAR: a guide for investors.
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EDGAR = Electronic Data Gathering And Retrieval
Electronic filing became mandatory in May 1996 (it started in 1993, but was optional). EDGAR contains most filings; submission of ARS' is voluntary.

Workspace from LSEG (formerly Refinitiv Workspace) This link opens in a new window
Individual account registration required. More information on linked page.
Chrome and Safari are the recommended browsers. Intro training videos available here.
For public companies provides: financial data; annual & other reports/filings; analyst & market research reports; M&A, new issues & syndicated loans data. Coverage: ~12,000 US companies & ~41,000 non-US companies.
Download limit of 150 pages / 24-hour period for After Market Research module (aka AMR or Investext).
Formerly called Thomson ONE.

The Official Board

The Official Board website
On their website, you can view 15 org charts for free. After that, you have to pay.
The Official Board (via Nexis Uni)
- This link opens in a new window
VPN required.
1. Click on "Continue" when View Link prompt appears.
2. Use the Search Within Results textbox in the left margin to enter your company name.
Although visually not as appealing nor easy to read as their own website, here you can search as much as you like.

Google search strategies

Sometimes this information finds its way into other types of company or investor documents. Try Google searches on your company's name with different keyword phrases and filetypes (PDF and PPT are the best bets).

For example:

[company name] organizational chart filetype:pdf
[company name] organizational chart filetype:ppt
[company name] organizational structure filetype:pdf
[company name] organizational structure filetype:ppt
[company name] leadership structure filetype:pdf
[company name] leadership structure filetype:ppt
and so on ...

Allow time for this! You will likely have to scroll through far more than one page of results, and need to skim through the actual documents retrieved. Use your browser's Find In Page search ...