You need a hook, one beyond the appropriateness of the invention you are hawking. I like to look at an executive’s background for some connection to me—where he or she grew up, went to school, or spent summer holidays, along with common interests, and so on. If I can find this out before our first meeting, all the better. It just might help me get the meeting.

I have lost count of how many times I have been able to break the ice through some connection. At one company, I actually found a distant cousin through marriage. I use a variety of sources:

Internet search engines. Three of my favorites are Google.com, Bing.com, and Dogpile.com.

Who’s Who. There are many versions of this directory, including Marquis Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in Manufacturing, Who’s Who in Entertainment, Who’s Who in the East, and so on. In addition to detailed biographical and career information such as schools, birthplace, names of spouses and children, government service, awards, and so forth, I have even found home addresses.

Annual reports/websites. Public companies frequently run bio sketches of senior management. These can be found on company websites; via stockbrokers; through the SEC (www.sec.gov), Hoover’s (www.hoovers.com), ZoomInfo (www.zoominfo.com), OneSource (www.onesource.com), or Dow Jones (www.dowjones.com); and so on.

Industry associations. If the executive is an officer of an industry group, the organization will likely have his or her background information.

Media archives. I love to run names through Lexus/Nexus or another full-text news information service.

Trade publications. Often magazines specific to an industry interview or otherwise profile a person. While these articles are not heavy with personal information, I can get great insights into a person from a good interview.

You need the company, or you would not be there. So while it’s important that you show yourself as independently creative, take the we approach, not the I approach. There is no i in the word team, and companies function through teamwork. The faster the invention goes from my concept to our concept, the better.