FourWeekMBA’s company pages (revenue, profits, employees, segments, brands and ownership) are built to one standard: every number can be traced to a primary source, and every chart can be rebuilt from it. This page explains how.
1. Primary sources only
- US-listed companies: annual reports (Form 10-K), quarterly reports (Form 10-Q), earnings releases (Form 8-K) and proxy statements, taken directly from SEC EDGAR, including the structured XBRL financial data filed with them.
- Non-US companies: the company’s audited annual report, interim reports and official results releases, from its investor relations site.
- Ownership and control: proxy statements and shareholder registers as disclosed by the company, with the date of the disclosure.
- We do not use aggregator sites or unsourced figures. If a company doesn’t disclose a number, we say so. Where a widely cited outside estimate exists (for example a private stake or a component-cost teardown), we show it only labelled as an estimate, with its source, date and method, and never as a company figure.
2. Every figure carries its period and source
Each figure is stated with the period it covers (fiscal year, quarter or date) and the filing it comes from, and the sources are listed under every chart and data box. Where companies use non-calendar fiscal years, we say so. Adjusted or non-GAAP figures are labelled as such, next to the reported figure.
3. Charts are rebuilt from the filings
Charts and featured graphics are generated from the same filing data as the text, so the numbers in the picture match the numbers on the page. Each graphic names its source. Where a visual layer is illustrative (for example, the outer ring of a brand map), the graphic says it is not to scale.
4. Checked before publishing
Before a page is updated, each figure is checked against the filing, totals are reconciled (segments must add up to the reported total), and claims about causes use the company’s own wording (for example, what management says ‘primarily’ drove a change). Analysis and opinion are labelled as such: sections headed ‘The Business Engineer view’ are our interpretation, built on the disclosed facts.
5. Refreshed after every earnings report
Company clusters are refreshed after each quarterly or annual report. Each page shows the latest period it covers. Earlier figures are kept, marked as history, so readers can see how the numbers changed.
6. Corrections
If you find an error, tell us by replying to any FourWeekMBA or Business Engineer newsletter. We correct factual errors promptly and note material corrections on the page.
Who is behind the analysis
The research is led by Gennaro Cuofano, a CRO and tech executive working in AI since 2015, with a Master’s degree in Law, an International MBA in corporate finance, and a background as a financial analyst and assistant controller. He created FourWeekMBA and writes The Business Engineer, a newsletter on AI and business strategy with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. The two are his research hubs: FourWeekMBA covers how companies make money, built from their filings; The Business Engineer goes deeper into strategy and AI. Sections headed “The Business Engineer view” apply those frameworks to the disclosed facts.
Read our editorial standards and corrections policy.