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  • in reply to: Amazon Prime Raising Prices #13549
    Peter Watson
    Keymaster

    Hello Hannah! Apologies – I’ve been away! I agree with what you say there. I have found it surprising that so many people leave it. Disney+ continues to go from strength to strength it seems!

    in reply to: Musk-ing on Twitter #12060
    Peter Watson
    Keymaster

    I think it’s an interesting partnership for sure. There seems to be a lot of mutual respect between Dorsey and Musk, so I wouldn’t expect any particularly radical departures (after all, Musk was thinking of starting another platform from scratch). However, I just worry that they are effectively changing one leader who spread himself too thinly (Dorsey) with another (Musk). If that is the case, they are not really solving the problem…

    in reply to: Are Sanctions The Best Way To Punish Russia? #11776
    Peter Watson
    Keymaster

    That is a really good point, Hamsi. I guess that NATO countries will have to be rather careful about that! It’s so incredible that no-one knows what’s going to happen because we haven’t seen this before (in living memory, anyway). Usually it’s possible to get a better steer on these things but we really are in uncharted waters right now.

    in reply to: Are Sanctions The Best Way To Punish Russia? #11694
    Peter Watson
    Keymaster

    I think that they are the only way for now. As Ukraine isn’t part of NATO, troops can’t be sent in from the west without causing HUGE problems. The difficulty is going to be about finding a balance between putting enough pressure on to make Putin step back from the brink but not overdoing it to the extent that he will over-retaliate. If China gets involved in some way I think that this might help because it seems to me to be Russia’s most powerful backer. It is obviously way too early at this stage to tell but I wonder if China will get concessions from the US, Europe and UK (e.g. lift various restrictions/tariffs) in order to get Russia to the table. Then you could have Ukraine becoming a member of the EU but not NATO perhaps. This would help Ukraine economically but also keep China and Russia happy about not expanding NATO. NATO countries could, however, pump money into Ukraine to help them make their own forces better whilst also upping their own defensive budgets, like Germany for instance.

    Peter Watson
    Keymaster

    I think it’d be fair to say that prices have been rising for some time before the Russia/Ukraine situation. However, I think that current tensions are just making things worse – especially in terms of fuel costs! The utility bill in the Watson household has gone up in a major way – have you noticed much of a difference yet? Food prices are also noticeably higher…

    Peter Watson
    Keymaster

    Hi there Apolloniya! I’m just getting back into the swing of things in the forum, so please forgive my absence! I think that a good way of doing research is trying to look at areas on a sector basis (no company exists in a vacuum). One way of doing this is to find an index (e.g. the FTSE100) and then looking at the companies in the real estate sector, for example. Once you’ve got the company names, you could use the search function on Watson’s Daily to look up individual companies and make your own notes on there (you can also do this on the website). You then need to take a step back and look at what is driving the companies across the sector at the current time, what challenges they may be facing and then look at how this is affecting the particular companies you are following. It may be that they are prospering while others are failing – so you need to ask yourself why that is, what’s different about them etc. It may also help for you to then think about how the company you are applying for can get business out of it. Although this sounds like a bit of a mercenary way of looking at things, it’s this commercial awareness that firms are looking for – in other words, how can the firm I am applying to make money out of this situation??

    in reply to: Lack of EV charging stations, could this limit growth? #11538
    Peter Watson
    Keymaster

    I was actually thinking that there may be more households with two cars – one EV and another petrol. Maybe if they already have a petrol car they just keep it rather than sell it and then buy an EV for those day-to-day needs. I would say that most of the trips I do are very short distance (a couple of miles perhaps?) but having a petrol just gives you peace of mind if you wanted to visit relatives/drive to Europe etc.

    in reply to: Tell me about a story you have found interesting and why? #10947
    Peter Watson
    Keymaster

    You are spot on with the first two, Emily. I couldn’t possibly comment on the third point 😁. I’d say that the main thing is to concentrate on what’s important for the firm you are applying to. At the end of the day, your job will be all about listening to what your client wants and delivering rather than necessarily delivering what you want to the client. If, however, it happens to be something that interests you then that’s great. However, if it’s something that REALLY interests you then you should be wary because if you have a great depth of knowledge and confidence in something, there is a big chance that you might have to stop yourself going off on one! Make sure that you stick to the point! At all times, it is imperative that you listen to and understand your audience. Then you can deliver what they want in the way they want it πŸ‘

    Peter Watson
    Keymaster

    Don’t forget the joys of wikipedia, Hamsi! That is always on your phone and is generally pretty good at being up-to-date πŸ‘

    Peter Watson
    Keymaster

    Those are great ideas, Ines!

    Peter Watson
    Keymaster

    Another way of improving your commercial awareness is to test yourself constantly. While walking along the high street, think about who owns what shop/restaurant/pub etc. Try to break everything down – wikipedia’s great to get this kind of information while you are out and about. You can do this breakdown with anything.

    Peter Watson
    Keymaster

    Of all the newspapers I read, I would say that the best “normal” newspaper is the Daily Telegraph in terms of business news. The added benefit of this newspaper is that every now and again they do a “Fantasy Fund Manager” game where you can actually win cash prizes for stock picking. It’s actually a really good way of concentrating your mind when reading the news. They often do a subscription promotion when the competition starts as well πŸ‘
    Remember also, though, that if you are at uni, most places have a FREE subscription to the FT. Definitely take advantage of this! As you said, it is an expensive newspaper so if you are going to read it you might as well not pay for it!

    Peter Watson
    Keymaster

    Hello Andrew – for the first question, the interviewer is probably trying to a) see whether you doubt yourself, b) put you on the spot by relating what you’ve said to the effect it might have on other people (a sign of maturity/emotional intelligence) and/or c) force you to defend yourself.

    In the second question, again the interviewer is trying to get you to defend your position to make sure you have robust reasons for saying what you do. You could talk about making sure that expectations are set at a realistic level because you want to “delight” your client rather than “disappoint” them. If you were feeling particularly confident (and this is risky) you could throw the observation back to the interviewer and say that you prefer to concentrate on the “over-deliver” part of that phrase than the “under-promise” part because you always strive for excellence 😜

    Peter Watson
    Keymaster

    Well, Xenia – I guess this is just a different way of asking you “what are your strengths”? There are lots of ways for interviewers to try and ask this questions e.g. “how would your friends describe you?”, “how would co-workers describe you?” etc. This is just one of them! If you don’t understand your own strengths and weaknesses then it’s going to be a lot harder for you to convince someone else! It’s definitely worth you spending time to understand both and – crucially – HOW THEY RELATE TO THE WORKPLACE!

    in reply to: Commercial awareness interview questions… #10738
    Peter Watson
    Keymaster

    One thing I would say, Andrew, about Google alerts is that – depending on what your alerts are for – you will end up with a lot of “noise”. If you end up seeing a lot of “noise” in your inbox, the likelihood is that you will stop monitoring it and then you’ll be back at square one. I would suggest that you maybe think about a set of topics and themes that you are interested in and then keep on top of those (the FT and the Wall Street Journal have decent search functions). Also, I would recommend that you somehow try and use the information that you have gleaned by writing about them or discussing them because this will solidify your knowledge.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 21 total)