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.
