How do you answer “how will this news story affect our firm/business”?

[avlasova]

Hi Watson’s Daily team!

Today’s question is: how do you answer the “how does this affect our business” questions when talking to a firm or a company? How do you prepare for it using Watson’s Daily?

[Ines Pinheiro]

Hi Apollonia!

When it comes to that question, I always start by asking: What are the strengths of the company/firm?

In considering this, it’s important to note things such as international presence, whether they adopt a sector-focused approach, what are these sectors, and how are they relevant to the economy? What are the main clients?

Once this is clear, I use Watson’s Daily, weekly and monthly to read the highlights in those industries. After choosing the most relevant stories, I find it helpful to use the archive feature to find out more about the topics I’m interested in. Then I narrow everything down and use Peter’s analysis of my fav stories to guide my analysis. But I also find it helpful to contrast these points and read opposing views to inform my argument!

Finally, I use models such as the SWOT analysis and the stakeholder approach to determine how this analysis affects the firm/company.

Is this similar to your method?

[avlasova]

Great tips Ines, thank you!

I find it helpful to focus on specific sectors that are often highlighted in the Daily, like tech, energy, or real estate, and analyse how those might impact a firm’s clients or the firm itself as a business. The latter is an important bit to remember – the firm is a business too, it pays energy bills, rent, salaries, and its goal is to stay afloat and develop its short- and long-term growth through keeping up to date with the commercial trends. I think it is also crucial to know your target firm’s clients, as they are who you will ultimately be working for and giving commercial advice to.

The analysis of the wider economic landscape is important to pay attention to as well, and it’s always good to think who will be the winner or the loser in a specific scenario (e.g. see lots of PE and M&A activity we saw in the past year, in particular due to low interest rates, and similarly lots of insolvencies which kept law firms busy). Also, thinking about how the specific firm makes money is key (a great piece of advice I learned on one of Peter’s Zoom calls) – which sectors it or its clients might think about growing in or retracting business from following more general trends like developments in tech, economic forecasts?

I support your advice about using SWOT, Ines! It may seem like a rigid structure, but it doesn’t have to be, and it allows you to look at whether your target business may profit or lose from a given scenario, and where their opportunities lie.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by avlasova.

[emilybuttrick]

Great analysis Apolloniya and Ines, I agree with the points raised! I think it’s particularly important to understand the firm’s clients, and their long and short term goals.

I have found the SWOT analysis to be a great tool in answering these sort of questions in applications – structure is key!

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