What is commercial awareness in law?
Commercial awareness involves knowing about the current deals, transactions and issues in the business world that might affect a client. Lawyers must have an understanding of the business environment and the operational grid under which business is conducted on a daily basis.
How do I develop commercial awareness?
But you can develop commercial awareness working anywhere, including on a voluntary basis, or even by reading and studying. What is Commercial Awareness? Commercial awareness is the ability to understand what makes a business or organisation successful, through either buying or selling products or supplying services to a market.
Do we need commercial awareness in public sector job advertisements?
With the huge changes that have happened in the public sector around the world over the last five years, it can sometimes seem that citing the need for commercial awareness in job advertisements is a way of saying ‘You must have worked in a commercial organisation, and not just in the public sector’.
What do employers look for in a commercial awareness interview?
A lot of the time, school leavers will have limited awareness as they won't have experience of working in the industry. Most employers realise this and instead of looking for first-hand experience, they look for an awareness of what the role involves and how the industry operates. What are some examples of commercial awareness interview questions?
What is an example of commercial awareness?
Although it may not seem like it, maintaining a positive relationship with clients is another example of commercial awareness. Keeping customers happy is the only way to ensure a business continues to run, and you must be aware of this when interacting with them.
What is the importance of commercial awareness?
Commercially aware people think of new ideas, develop new products, spot opportunities, help reduce risk that a business is exposed, make processes more efficient, improve customer service and deliver added value to a business. This is why it's such an important skill and in-demand by almost every organisation.
How do you get commercial awareness?
You'll acquire commercial awareness from many different kinds of media: news media, trade publications, email and news updates, and even podcasts or documentaries. It's important that you're able to recognise these different kinds of publications and understand what each is useful for.
What skills do you need for commercial awareness?
Business and commercial awareness“You should bring to your role a genuine interest in business…”“Someone who can put the customer at the heart of everything they do”“Want to deliver business results”“Have the confidence to challenge existing business practices and improve market share”More items...
Is commercial awareness a soft skill?
Commercial awareness also allows employees to make local decisions that are good for the organization as a whole....What is Commercial Awareness?Overview: Commercial AwarenessTypeSoft SkillDefinitionAn understanding of the pressing business forces that shape an organization.2 more rows•Dec 16, 2015
What does commercial awareness mean in law?
Being a commercially aware candidate means understanding the environment in which law firms and their clients operate. As a lawyer, you'll need commercial awareness as well as legal skills to help both your employer and your clients achieve their goals.
What are commercial skills?
It could mean making the most of existing contracts, improving efficiencies in ways of delivering a service, identifying opportunities for new customers or exploring new business opportunities to maximise income of the council.
Why is commercial awareness important for a solicitor?
Commercial awareness is important for law firms because they invest a significant amount of money in each trainee solicitor. They therefore want to ensure that the trainees that they recruit have knowledge and understanding of the business world so that they can relate their legal advice to their clients' interests.
What is meant by commercial focus?
Commercial focus or awareness talks about understanding the strengths and weaknesses of a business in relation to how it gains profit, customer satisfaction, and the biggest challenges. How can you spot a business that view customers as cash cows? It's how they set their price.
What is retail/commercial awareness?
Commercial awareness is the ability to understand what makes a business or organisation successful, through either buying or selling products or supplying services to a market. Commercial awareness may also be refereed to as 'Business Awareness' or 'Organisational Awareness'.
How can I improve my commercial skills?
Ten ways to boost commercial skills…Hire commercial people. ... Make commerciality everyone's business. ... Collaborate with stakeholders. ... Establish what good looks like. ... Challenge specs. ... Measure the right things. ... Consider demand. ... Embrace technology.More items...•
How do trainees demonstrate commercial awareness?
When you start applying for training contracts (or vacation schemes) with commercial law firms, people will tell you that you have to show “commercial awareness”....Understanding The World of BusinessFirst Hand Legal Work Experience. ... First Hand Business Work Experience. ... Other Work Experience. ... Extra-Curricular Activities.More items...
What is commercial all about?
Commercial generally relates to anything business or commerce. A commercial is an advertisement for a business. Commercial activity is selling goods or services for-profit.
What does it mean to be commercially minded?
commercially-minded in British English or commercially minded (kəˈmɜːʃəlɪ ) adjective. knowledgeable about business; interested in making money.
What is meant by commercial focus?
Commercial focus or awareness talks about understanding the strengths and weaknesses of a business in relation to how it gains profit, customer satisfaction, and the biggest challenges. How can you spot a business that view customers as cash cows? It's how they set their price.
What is commercial awareness?
Commercial awareness is an understanding of how industries and businesses work. It’s about knowing what’s going on in the world and analysing the way it might impact your chosen sector and company. Being commercially aware is a core skill that most employers look for, particularly in the application and interview stage, ...
Why is commercial awareness important?
On application forms and at interviews, firms are likely to test your knowledge of the sector and the environment the company works in . The strongest candidates will have a clear understanding of how the changes in the business world impact the firm. Plus, fully understanding their challenges and the marketplace they operate in isn’t just useful during the application – it will give you the upper hand when starting at the firm.
How to improve commercial awareness?
Improving your commercial awareness doesn’t have to be a chore. Discover what you’re truly interested in and learn from there. When using story examples in an interview or assessment centre to demonstrate your commercial awareness, employers will be able to see if you’re truly interested and passionate about the topic.
How does commercial awareness help you predict future trends?
Commercial awareness helps you predict future trends by having an understanding of the past. You can better understand the marketplace. It can help you improve your knowledge of the top players or competitors in your sector or business.
Why is it important to know how to display your commercial awareness at each stage?
It’s important to know how you can display your commercial awareness at each stage so you have all the chances of impressing an employer. Read: How to demonstrate your commercial awareness and put your knowledge to good use.
What is commercial awareness?
Commercial awareness can be simply defined as staying up-to-date on daily happenings and developments in the business and commercial world. For aspiring lawyers, commercial awareness is an important attribute that can make the difference between becoming and not becoming a lawyer.
Why is commercial awareness important?
Solicitors provide their clients with advice and legal assistance on issues that are either related to or governed by economic, social and political events. While clients know a lot about their business, they generally are not experts in the law. This is where solicitors come in, and it is their job not only to provide legal expertise, but also to match up their knowledge with that of their client and gain an in-depth understanding of their business.
What does it mean to understand a client's business?
For solicitors, understanding a client’s business means—first and foremost—understanding what the business does and where it operates. However, this is just the beginning. For a solicitor to add value to a business, they also need to become fully acquainted with how the business functions internally, who its competitors are, and how other external factors might affect any legal action they decide to take. A solicitor should be able to advise a business in understanding what the consequences of taking legal action might be and knowing the best ways to help them achieve their business aims.
What is the best way to gain commercial acumen?
That being said, work experience is probably the most practical way to gain commercial acumen.
How to gain commercial knowledge?
Research is the easiest way to gain commercial knowledge. There’s no textbook on commercial awareness, but you should try reading newspapers, business publications and company newsletters, relevant books, watching relevant TV programmes or downloading business podcasts.
When will firms test your commercial awareness?
Firms will be testing your commercial awareness as soon as you begin applying for training contracts. Most application forms have sections that are devoted to gathering information on how tuned-in to the business atmosphere you are as a prospective solicitor.
Does becoming commercially aware happen overnight?
Unfortunately, becoming commercially aware does not happen overnight. It must be developed over a period of time, beginning with your basic legal education and growing as you embark on your legal career and climb the ladder. Advertisement.
Technique Overview
Commercial awareness refers to an individual’s broad understanding of how businesses operate internally and of the wider market and environmental issues affecting organisations (Owens et al., 1998). It is also the ability to apply this knowledge and understanding in practice to benefit organisations (Stephenson and Cook, 2005).
Further Reading
Cox, A., Chicks and, D. and Ireland, P. (2005) Overcoming demand management problems: The scope for improving reactive and proactive supply management in the UK Health Service. Journal of Public Procurement, Vol. 5 (1), pp.1-22.
What is Commercial Awareness?
Commercial awareness is about knowing the products of the business, its competitors, how it makes money, the challenges and its customers.
How is commercial awareness developed?
Commercial awareness is developed by examining critical traits of the company, the industry to which it is related to and the market niche all in all. To put it plainly, having an awareness of a business and market niche makes you a superior employee by impacting both how you function and how you think.
How to incorporate Commercial Awareness?
If you aren’t aware of what your organization does or have the surface level knowledge, then it’s high time to start researching on it more.
Why is commercial awareness important?
Commercial awareness is a must for every individual in the working sector and staying up to date helps one to participate better in the meetings and also get promotions in the future. Being aware is essential for a rookie who is yet to step into the corporate world and also the ones who are already working.
Why is knowing your competitors important?
Also, knowing the competitors is extremely useful and is a part of commercial awareness. Once you understand what they do and their weaknesses, you can suggest ways to improve your business. It’s a great way to know and show your knowledge on the same.
Why is it important to know the products you are working on?
Understanding them can help you in generating ideas to improve the products for the success of the organization.
What happens when you ask about the products and services offered by a company?
The interviewers are impressed with what you’ve done, but when they ask you about the products and services offered by the company, you come up with something at the moment and end up losing the offer.
What is commercial awareness?
In a nutshell, commercial awareness is all about having a good working knowledge of the industry (area of work) that you're hoping to work in. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that the term is only concerned with big business or entrepreneurs, but this isn't the case.
What are some examples of commercial awareness interview questions?
It's important that you know when an employer wants you to demonstrate your awareness. To help you identify when you should show these skills, we've put together a list of commercial awareness interview questions and sample answers:
Why is it important for employers to know your skills?
Employers see these skills as being important because it enables them to hire candidates who might one day be able to take a step up the career ladder. It also shows that candidates are genuinely interested in working in a certain industry. Although employers look for people who are able to carry out the job advertised, they also want people who understand how things work in the industry, so that they have additional insights into the role.
What is the importance of background knowledge?
This includes knowing what the business is worth (the money they make minus the costs they pay), how they make their money and what the current marketplace is like (what other companies the business is trading with, and how easy it is to trade).
How to get insider knowledge of the marketplace?
Speak to people you know who already work in the industry - they can provide you with some insider knowledge of what's happening in the marketplace.
Do employers expect you to know everything about the industry?
Remember, as a school leaver, employers won't expect you to know absolutely everything about the industry. A lot of your industry awareness will come from actually working with a company. In the meantime though, doing your research and keeping up to date with the latest trends in the industry will impress any employer.
Is commercial awareness easier?
Whereas gaining first-hand experience as a school leaver can be tricky, developing your commercial awareness skills is a lot easier but does require a bit of research. Here are a list of ways that you might want to explore in order to improve your awareness:
What is commercial awareness?
Commercial awareness is an understanding of how industries and businesses work. It is about knowing what is going on in the world and analyzing the way it might affect your chosen sector and company.
How to develop commercial awareness?
How to develop your commercial awareness. One needs to conduct thorough research on the employer immediately before you apply – but you can start to develop your general knowledge of the industries you wish to enter and your awareness of political and economic events well in advance of applying.
Why is commercial awareness important?
Commercial awareness is one of the main qualities listed as important to employability by many employers, but sadly one that many people are unable to demonstrate. In work ads, discussions among recruiters, and career advice websites, it comes up repeatedly. Graduate recruiters prize commercial awareness across all industries and in ...
What is economic awareness?
Economic and political awareness – is one aware of how the current economic and political issues, nationally and internationally, affect businesses and public services?
What is an understanding of business?
That is, a knowledge of its activities or products, how it makes money, how it is managed, and how the role applied for contributes to the organization.
