Yes, that book is excellent!
You might want to do one or more of these analyses for your corporation to flesh them out:
SWOT:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWOT_analysisGrowth–share matrix:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth%E2%80%93share_matrixPorter five forces analysis:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_five_forces_analysisI like to take notes on index cards, often in diffrent colours and then do a quick write up on my computer. At that point I connect keywords into brief paragraphs and come up with names. Usually by using a name generator, as I find the naming process tedious.
The beauty of strategic analysis diagrams like SWOT or growth–share matrix is that you immediately see where competitors might try to get "into" your corporation's portfoliio, i.e. where they might use runners and what runs might be about.
That's the economically guided approach that let's you flesh out your corporation and the world your runners interact with it. Then there is the story--approach. Just blank numbers and product names or portfolios make up for a bad story. You might want to think about how to involve you runners personally. Maybe one of Strex Corp's aim is to introduce a new product A in market field B, which happens to be either a cash cow (see growth–share matrix) for another major corporation or even organized crime. So they might contact the runners. Or Strex Corp has a product that is not selling well and barely breaks even, so they try to sell it off, but they need to fix some numbers, before someone might want to buy it. Or maybe, they want to lower investment costs into the product, so it becomes a cash cow. But lowering investment costs translates into dumping hazardous materials into the wilderness, calling the attention of some eco-activists, shamans or a govermental organization.
