here we are again talking about every lawyer's favourite term commercial awareness now before
I start I want you to excuse my nails they've been doing better now back to what we were
actually supposed to be talking about something that used to crop up for me time and time again
when I was rejected from law firms was that I was not displaying enough commercial awareness
and I remember feeling quite frustrated because I don't think I really kind of understood how I
could improve it further other than just watching and reading the news however I soon realized that
revising BBC News the day before the interview or actually on the train to the interview is
probably not the best way to show that you have a consistent commercial awareness and if you have
watched one and if you have watched my content before you will know that one thing that I talk
about as a tip for improving your commercial awareness is to keep a commercial awareness
Journal now when I started using some form of makeshift jam it was actually just a notebook
where I just jotted down my soul thoughts I realized that when I was an introduced I was able
to talk about new stories with a lot more clarity and a lot more knowledge and I was able to link my
current story that I was talking to to another story this is because I was able to track how
stories developed over time and I was able to form links between one new Story and Another new story
which then became an interesting discussion for you in interviews now in this video I want to show
you something that I've come across and I'm so so happy to announce that they are sponsoring this
video is a commercial awareness Journal created by the lawyer Sports in collaboration with little
law you can pre-order this journal right now via the link in the description box below and also
the pinned comment however what I'm going to do is rather than explain to you the pros and benefits
of this book which are very very clear to me on the onset I actually want to show you how I would
use this journal and also show you how you can use it as well before you buy so in order to show you
how I would use Journal I'm actually going to analyze a news article in real time right now
but before I start let me show you the two things that the lawyer spot have provided to me so the
first thing is this memo sheet almost it's like a cheat sheet and it basically explains how to use
the commercial awareness journal and on the back of the paper here it has a four section summary of
how to use a book and I found this so useful then the next thing that I've provided was the actual
commercial awareness Journal itself I can tell straight away luxury just the feel of the paper
it's elite the pages are thick and also inside you can see that there are five sections uh one is the
headline and then there's a section called looking out a section called looking in a second called
Law Firm involvement and then a place to put your notes in so I will be using this in the video
today and sharing how I can analyze a particular news story now this new story in question is
actually in relation to something that's very a Hot Topic right now and it's about sustainability
so I saw an article from the guardian and it was published on the 2nd of September 2020 and
the headline of the article is selfridges wants half of transactions to be resale repair rental
or refills by 2030. so essentially what selfridges are trying to do is become a lot more sustainable
in their practice and encourage customers to not only buy their products but buy from second hand
go to their shops to repair products resell their products and rent out products as well
so they are really really trying to take on this more sustainable practice and they have got this
ambitious Target of half of their interactions with customers to be around the sustainable motive
in 10 years time on our way eight years final my brain is actually still processing that I'm in
2020 it's really bad now a little bit background of ourselves which is that kind of knew already
before delving into all of this there was a buyout with selfridges I think around 2021 I think it was
late 2021 the selfridges was primarily owned and originally owned by this family called the
western family and they then sold selfridges for I think around four billion dollars to this Thai
um something uh property development company don't quote me on that though I'm just trying to
remember off the top of my head I just remember to figure because that is a lot of money the
article also refers to this as well and says the new owners are very happy about the fact that
selfish are adopting this more Greenland so we've got the headline here the next thing we want to
look at is the next section in the journal which is looking out now if we look at the candy guide
and cheat sheet that has been provided looking out is a section where you want to look at the
external factors that are being indicated in the story you've picked these are also called macro
factors a good prompt for this section is to think about pestle factors these are political economic
social technological legal or Regulatory and environmental so I've talked a little bit about
pestle in previous videos as well so hopefully if this is something that you're not aware of
and you don't know what Castle is just feel free to click on that video where hopefully I'll show
it on either side of me so I'm going to adopt the same castle technique here for this story
about selfridges so if we look at political first I think one thing that comes to my mind straight
away is that the government has announced a new net zero Target by 2050 and there is now becoming
increasing pressure or companies regardless of size to contribute and help fulfil this Net Zero
Target and I think one of the ways in which self producers is doing that and it's trying to show
consumers the government everyone that they're doing this is through this new initiative and goal
that they have set for themselves there may also have been some political factors that governed
selfridge's decision to set this target by 2030 as well because maybe they wanted to look like they
were the leaders in the retail industry there may even be future regulations that selfridges
may have to abide by so maybe this initiative and Target that they've set sets them ahead of
the curve and helps preempt any future regulations for example I had a look on the government website
and there was a section on there that stated that if there are particular markets that are
failing to help achieve this Net Zero Target then regulation may be necessary and I think
it's fair to say that the retail industry with the rise of fast fashion isn't necessarily the
most sustainable practice out there and we could predict some more sustainable regulations being
enforced on retailers in the future so potentially self producers trying to say look we've got this
target here we're ahead of the curve look at us now the next section is economic and I'm
not gonna lie this is the one that I personally struggle with the most in terms of thinking of
what to say so if you've got any better Solutions please do comment it in the comments below one
thing that came to my mind straight away from the economical factor for selfridges to think
about is the fact that when you do become more sustainable as a business inevitably it will
cost you more so for example on the ask for one thing that they've mentioned is that they are now
going to offer repair services outside of London this can mean increasing costs for selfridges in
terms of delivering products outside of London and really I guess opening up that service and
making it more accessible to those outside of London there are obvious costs there involved
however I'm sure salvages have probably managed to balance this out with expenses on Revenue
elsewhere as well so I guess that kind of about just the scales a little bit another economical
factor to consider is competition with other retailers which I've talked about briefly with
competition with other item retailers like House of Fraser for example and also another economic
factor that may have pushed selfridges to do this is increasing popularity of sites like default so
one thing that salvages may be doing is really monitoring how to depop do their business what
their strategy is social I think that was quite easy for you to think quite fair to say that a
definitely amongst the younger generation we are a lot more likely to buy products or engage in
services from a particular business because their practices are more sustainable or ethical so I
think that's a social perspective and I think it's clear to say in the article as well it also states
that due to increasing demand so if we just have set this target so I think it's also selfridges
have acknowledged that they are responding to increasing pressure to become more sustainable
I think it's also clear I think on the front of selfridges it has that whole yellow slogan
at the moment be the change or something and I do remember baby on Twitter that having some backpack
because it was like well are you actually doing anything to change so potentially selfridges is
responding to that pressure as well I mean for example look at Brands like pretty little things
for example pretty little thing have recently launched pretty little thing Marketplace and
albeit at first this may look like a really good Steamers I think you know for me I think it's a
push in the right direction PLT have also been accused of green washing which I also see as
equally Fair TLT doesn't necessarily have the best ethical practices in place anyway and what green
washing essentially means is when it's clear to people that businesses are using sustainability
as almost a tick Box challenge and they will actually care about initiating and undertaking
great practices so essentially the reason why they adopt these sustainable practices is because
supportive and that's what PLT have been accused of and I don't I'm not surprised that they have if
I'm honest with you in the situation selfridges from a social perspective it's probably wanting
to avoid that kind of same backlash and that's why I think they've adopted a strategy they've
adopted targets and goals and publicized that to individuals technological is also an important
factor for selfridges to consider in this new story there is a mention in the article
that they are looking to make repairs and booking repairs easier online so I think that element is
definitely something where it teams have to have been involved website designers for example have
had to be involved to ensure that that process is as efficient as possible and I think one thing is
one thing about consume including myself is that we have such a short attention span so albeit
we want to be more green and more sustainable sometimes we are prevented from doing so because
it's not easy to do so and it's not instant so I think that's one thing that self-adjusted tries
to tackle with their technology here and also they may have developed they may want to develop
more technology in the future that allows for easier rentals or products and easier resale
of products and easy repair of products as well so I wouldn't be surprised if there is anything
in the future that shows that cell videos have invested in some new technology that allows them
to do this now legal I think this was one that was pretty clear to me and I think one thing
that a legal and law firms have been doing more often is setting up their own ESG practices and
teams within the firm itself some of the in-house councilman selfridges may have a spot in the board
of directors and take part in board meetings and I have read about how in-house legal team
are always spearheading ESG related initiatives in companies and this may have been the case here
with selfridges as well so if you're an in-house lawyer and you are advising your sole client which
is the business that you are operating in one of the things that lawyers are coming the more and
more aware to is how to make their business more strategic from an ESU perspective and I'm pretty
sure that's been the case here with selfridges as well there may also be the case where selfridges
are entering into agreements with third parties so for example parties that offer reselling event
abilities or parties are able to repair Trainers for example so entering into those agreements with
those suppliers and those people who provide those Services there's also something that legal teams
have had to be involved in and also just looking at the legal implications of selfridges doing this
in the first place it kind of links to political in that I think selfridges are preempting that in
the future they'll probably be future regulations regarding sustainability in the retail sector
in which the service say that we are already responding to this so for them I think it may
be about being reactive rather than proactive now the next and final section of the castle
section is environmental I think I'll be talking about the environment and sustainability for the
most of this video so I think that bit is pretty obvious selfridges have adopted an initiative
and a Target that allows them to reach a new goal of half the interaction with his husband
in relation to their reselling repairing renting business so essentially in the situation there is
increasing increasing demand for companies will become a lot more environmentally friendly and
adopt more sustainable practices and salvages are trying to prove that they are doing exactly
that now let's move on to the third section which is about looking in and it's essentially placing
yourself in the shoes of a person working in the organization so for example a director or the CEO
and you're essentially thinking about internal factors so the example was given here the thing
you might want to look at is revenue profitability competition employee well-being reputation and
brand and so on so with this story in mind itself which is there's a few that I've pointed out and
I've thought about which are not wanting to be accused of greenwashing or have reputational
damage which companies like PLT have had after announcing a sustainable practice I'm sure as
a CEO or director I would also be monitoring the competition very fiercely companies like depop and
for example I've already mentioned other reselling companies like vintage that are increasing in
popularity as well I would look at new technology so potentially work with Consultants that provide
technology in the retail sphere and allow them to advise the business on new strategies to allow
us to accomplish that goal I think it's also important as the old director to ensure that
there is a means in place to I guess checkpoint that we are actually meeting and on the road to
meet that Target in 2030 because it'll be a bit embarrassing if we weren't able to do that having
potentially another team that's an employment perspective of hiring a new team or new people who
are solely focused on ensuring that selfridges are reaching their target I think it's also important
that there is a means like I mentioned like a checkpoint so every year there's an evaluation
of how close selfridges is to achieving this Target and what's going well what's not and
evaluation using that so that that Target is able to be reached by 2013. you could be as a CEO and
the director I could probably be instructing my in-house Council to make sure to look out for
governmental regulations and ensure that there is that we are kept up to date on the new sustainable
regulations that the government may be enforcing and as a director or CEO I may also be looking to
build new relationships with other suppliers and third parties so attending networking
events or relying on other Professionals in the business to be introduced to you
so you are able to bring in fresh ideas and work with new people both within selfridges and outside
so the last section is about Law Firm involvement so essentially talk about how a law firm that has
potentially been instructed would engage in the issues that have Arisen from the story now the
few that I thought about here of course there are environmental lawyers that may be involved here
the sperms ESG sole PhD practices that they have standard ESG practices and they have could also
be involved here commercial teams may be involved in procuring contracts and agreements with other
third parties like reseller companies or companies that are prepared Trainers for example lawyers
could be involved in hosting workshops and training on how to be more sustainable how to
actually reach that goal by 2030. that that's more of a business development perspective so BP could
also be involved at alongside lawyers as well so it interviews it's important to think about
not only from a Lord's perspective but literally everyone in the first how can they be involved in
this particular story with the client and the last thing I thought of there's probably loads more
partner that could assist with this but IP as well so say yourself I just wanted to trademark
a particular name that is the brand name for the reselling uh repairing I'm not sure they've
done this already it's just something that I've thought of um they may look to IP lawyers for
that to be trademarked so that's another way in which selfridges may engage a law firm in
that way I really really hope you have enjoyed this video I really really love the commercial
awareness Journal I think it's a great I think little law are a great company they are reputable
they've been providing commercial awareness and they even helped me when I was applying
for training contracts years ago so I think they are great I think The Lawyer Spot t is great this
is a great quality product and again if you would like to pre-order your Journal please
feel free to click on the link below thank you so much for watching I'll see you in the next video