Every executive search assignment starts with the same question: where do the people we need actually work? A weak map means a shallow longlist and a client who wonders what the fee paid for. Company register data turns mapping from an art into a procedure: define the niche precisely, pull every employer that matches, and work from a complete universe instead of from memory.
Memory-based mapping does not scale
Traditional mapping relies on the researcher's knowledge of the market. That works in a niche you have served for a decade and fails the moment a client asks for an adjacent sector, a new geography or a profile that sits between industries. Worse, it is unauditable: nobody can see which companies were missed.
Register-based mapping inverts this. The universe is defined by filters — sector codes, size bands, geography, corporate structure — so it is complete by construction, reproducible by a colleague and defensible in front of a client.
The mapping procedure
Start with a calibration set: five to ten companies where the target profile definitely works. Read off their sector codes, size bands and structures, and build the filter from those fingerprints rather than from assumptions. Then run the filter across the register universe for the target geography.
Enrich the result with the fields that matter for the search: site locations, parent structures (is this an independent company or a subsidiary of a group that is off-limits?), officer names and recent changes. The output is not a list — it is the map: every employer in the niche, with context, ready to be worked top-down.
Keeping maps as an asset
A map built on register data does not expire; it updates. Companies enter and leave the filter automatically as their filings change. Search firms that maintain maps per niche own a compounding asset: the next assignment in that niche starts at eighty percent done.
Drimble provides the register coverage, normalised sector codes and corporate-structure fields this workflow needs across the UK, France, Spain, Ireland, Denmark, Belgium, Canada, Australia, Greenland and India. We do not provide company data for the Netherlands.
Frequently asked questions
How complete is register-based mapping really?
Registers cover every incorporated employer in a market by definition — that is their function. The practical limit is classification quality: some companies file broad sector codes. Calibrating on known employers and combining multiple codes closes most of that gap.
How long does a register-based map take to build?
With calibrated filters, an afternoon for a defined niche and geography — including enrichment. The traditional desk-research version of the same map typically takes a researcher one to two weeks.
