Has anyone got an idea on how to approach BCLP's VS question of,
What is your understanding of how a business generates and maintains a profit? (Please provide examples)
Max 500 words
Seems like it can be appraoched in any number of ways. Are the examples they are wanting any businesses, or law firms specfically?
Hey
@adrk1234! You are right that this can be approached in a number of ways. I think that law firms sometimes ask questions like this just to see what approach you might take, so feel free to be creative! To your question, I think you could talk about law firms
or businesses
or both, but bear in mind what they want to see from you, which is that you
understand the commerciality of law firms and their clients. How do clients make money, and as a result, how do law firms make money? This is an element of commercial awareness which is often overlooked, but is very important to be able to articulate for interviews etc. further down the road!
My approach would be to pick two or three (depending on how you are doing for word count) things that you think are fundamental to a business generating
and maintaining profit, and then support them with examples from either a law firm perspective or a client perspective. If you can find examples from BCLP clients then that would also be a nice touch.
For example, some initial ideas:
How businesses
generate profit:
- Innovation: How innovation generates profits is an easy one to articulate, and you could use examples of companies such as Apple, or if you want to be more specific to BCLP i'm sure you wouldn't struggle to find a client who has done something innovative (Deliveroo, etc...)
- Expanding market share: Businesses often need to take up increasing market share in order to grow, you can use this to talk about any M&A, IPO, or other equity deals that BCLP may have helped their clients with which take your interest.
- Diversification: This could really go into generate or maintain, depending on how you look at it. But an example would be Tesco (a BCLP client) diversifying their business model by creating Tesco Bank
How businesses
maintain profit:
- Reputation: Consumers and investors are increasingly concerned with social and ethical impacts of businesses, and this will affect how companies implement ESG & DEI strategies, and in turn how they maintain profit over competitors. You could, for example, talk about a deal by BCLP's renewables team, and highlight how businesses transitioning to sustainable practices enables them to maintain profits in the long run.
- Risk management & compliance: Businesses need to ensure they are managing and mitigating risks in order to protect their bottom line. Law firms help immeasurably with this in terms of regulatory compliance, avoiding litigation and penalties etc.
If you wanted to be even more BCLP-centric, you could try to locate some examples focusing on real estate, as this is their main specialism and will show that you understand the firm and the needs of their clients. A great resource to find client names and deals is the
Legal 500.
These are just some ideas, but hopefully have given you an idea of how to go about structuring your answer. Let me know if you have any questions at all!
