Hi,
Thanks for your question!
Questions like these generally exist to test an applicant’s commercial awareness. In addition to this key skill, however, a candidate will also want to ensure structure and coherence in their answers. As you can imagine, there are many things one could touch on regarding how a business could generate and maintain a profit. Ideally, you would want to focus on a few metrics and expound on each one in depth. This will ensure that you cover a single point thoroughly and take it to level two, or even three! Going up each of these levels will demonstrate to graduate recruitment that you truly understand how businesses operate, considering that any business’s primary objective is to ensure that its sales revenue exceeds its operational costs—profit generation! A law firm’s clients will be businesses, as well as the law firm itself, so take your time with this question.
Such application questions tend to be between 200-300 words, meaning you would want to touch on 2 to 3 key points in extreme depth. For example:
- USP: A business having a unique selling point, perhaps introducing a product or service that has never been introduced in their chosen market, could potentially boost sales revenue compared to the costs incurred.
- Strategic Hires: Hiring experts in their chosen industry allows for enhanced efficiency in the production process, as these individuals will often have years of experience. With such experience, these individuals have the capacity to complete large amounts of work in short time periods, enhancing productivity and thus the amount of money generated in each financial year.
Another thing to note is that the second part of the question asks ‘how businesses maintain a profit.’ As you can see from above, the two points I explained only cover how businesses ‘generate’ a profit. Often, candidates forget that hybrid questions like this require an expansion of both sides of the coin fully. However, it’s important to remember that you do not need to equally divide the word count between these two parts, as some areas may require more detail than others. It’s a matter of discretion and determining what fits the needs of the given situation.
So, remember to touch on the processes by which businesses work to continuously sustain a profit. This could be, for example, by adapting to evolving market changes. Take the rise of AI, for instance. These software tools significantly cut production timeframes, allowing businesses to spend more time on value-added and billable tasks. Here, profit is both generated and sustained through the continued implementation of AI. If the word count allows, you could also briefly mention the challenges associated with profit generation. However, ensure this aligns with whatever you are discussing, as you wouldn’t want to go off on tangents.
Another point I’d like to emphasize is structure. As previously mentioned, there are many things you could touch on. One thing that particularly helped me in guiding my application reviewer through questions like this was prioritizing a short but comprehensive introduction. You could ‘briefly’ state what key pillars you will mention, then elaborate on them in each paragraph. This will guide your reader.
In relation to the last part of your question, I see no harm in mentioning a business that has successfully generated and maintained a profit through one of the metrics you state. It will even strengthen your application as it shows good commercial awareness and an ability to link a business concept with global trends and events.
I hope this helps, and let me know if you have any more questions!
