Commercial Awareness

Jenny Keaveney

Careers and Employability Service

• Best summarised as “an understanding of the marketplace and environment in which an organisation operates”

• Equally important in both the public and the private sectors

What is commercial awareness?

What is commercial awareness?

"At heart, commercial awareness is about being able to talk to clients, finding out what they want, why they want it, what they will do with it and what they are prepared to pay, and then delivering it in the way they want.

To do that you need to understand how organisations work, the issues they face and the role of people within them.“

Christopher Stoakes'All You Need to Know About Commercial Awareness'

Employers look for “commercially aware” applicants who …

• understand the organisation’s mission and aims • are aware of the political and economic issues

affecting the organisation • are aware of the major competitors • understand the sectors the organisation

operates within • understand the commercial priorities of the

organisation

Do they find them?

• We (a financial services firm) were surprised by the number of candidates who were unable to say – why they had applied to us– what we do – what appealed to them about the job – how they could contribute

• Candidates who are well-prepared, have done their research and can demonstrate commercial awareness stand out like shining lights in the wilderness! (Solicitors’ firm)

Analysing organisations

• What does the organisation do? (make a product, provide a service, etc)

• What roles are involved in doing this? (probably more than you might think!)

• How is the organisation structured?• What restrictions are there on how the organisation

operates? (professional, legal, regulatory etc)• What other organisations do similar things? Are they

direct competitors?• What outside factors may contribute to the organisation’s

success or failure?

Businesses involve a lot of different people and activities

Legal

Some key roles and what they involve

Human Resource Management: getting the right people with the right skills in the right placesMarketing: Finding the most motivating concept & inspiring people to buy the product Finance: Providing financial support to the factories and costing uphousehold brandsSupply Chain: Getting a product all the way from raw material state through production to the shelvesSales: “creating unmissable opportunities visibility through all shopper touch points”Manufacturing: Improving efficiency of the production lines throughcoaching, training and problem solvingEngineering: Managing projects, to install the best technologyQuality Assurance: Ultimate responsibility for product safety, uniformity and customer satisfaction

Some current hot topics

• Retail– http://targetjobs.co.uk/news/309637-want-to-be-a-retail-star-use-

comet-s-demise-to-flaunt-your-commercial-awareness

• Finance– Banking regulation; the Public Accounts Commmittee hearing on

taxing multinationals

• Law– http://targetjobs.co.uk/career-sectors/law-solicitors/291163-

commercial-awareness-and-how-to-achieve-it-by-trainee-solicitors-and-law-recruiters

• General Business issues – BAE Systems/EADS merger; M&S profits drop

Following up• Read:

– The business press. This doesn’t have to mean the Financial Times (unless you are applying for investment banking) but you should read the business pages of a quality daily newspaper

– Graduate publications/websites such as Real World, TARGET jobs and sector-specific titles such as Lawyer 2B; Accountancy Age; e-financial careers

• Watch/listen to:– Business-related programmes on TV and radio such

as Working Lunch, the Money Programme, Bottom Line, Law in Action, Dragons’ Den, The Apprentice

– BBC podcasts www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/genre/factual/money

Ways to develop commercial awareness

• Get actively involved in student societies

• Use your work experience

• Research and analyse employers and job sectors that interest you

• Take the Careers Employability Award

Student societies

• Management/leadership experience

• Organising activities and events

• Financial planning/budgeting/fundraising

• Marketing and promotion

• Sourcing materials e.g. T-shirts

Work experience

• Think about your work experience

• Who did you work for?

• Who are their competitors?

• What do they do well/not so well?

• How is the company run?

• Present it in a positive and relevant way to employers

Researching employers• Follow a company in the press for a month or so • Review a company’s annual report• Perform a SWOT/PEST analysis on a company

or sector of interest to you • Analyse the market sector in which a specific

company works – what are the current issues?• See www.kent.ac.uk/careers/EmployerSearch.htm for

some useful information resources• The British Library produces “industry guides” –

covering everything from Advertising to TV & Film http://www.bl.uk/bipc/dbandpubs/Industry%20guides/industry.html

Moodle Careers Employability Award

• Develop and test your commercial awareness• Includes a “how commercially aware are you?” test and

an assignment to produce a report on a company or organisation of your choice

• By successfully completing this assignment you can gain 40 Employability Points– Go to https://moodle.kent.ac.uk/moodle and enter your Kent login and

password

– Then "search modules" (via the search box) for careers

– The module is called "CEM: Careers Employability Module": enter by double clicking on it

– Enrol by clicking on "Enrol me".

Further advice• Book: “All you need to know about Commercial

Awareness” – in Careers Resources Room• www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/commercialawareness.htm

• Some advice for law students from Herbert Smith Freehills http://bit.ly/TB1TMz

• A useful article from Target Jobs http://targetjobs.co.uk/news/206850-what-is-commercial-awareness

Commercial Awareness – the employers’ view

• www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlwB3awsRd0

THE CAREERS & EMPLOYABILITY SERVICE

• Open 9-5, Monday-Friday• Careers Resources Room• Careers & Employability Advisers – book an

appointment or just drop in• Networked PCs and IT resources

www.kent.ac.uk/ces