- Sep 9, 2024
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Hi @legal18 thanks a lot for the kind words, I really appreciate itHey @Andrei Radu hope you’re good! Really valued your insights last cycle and was wondering if you had any thoughts on this question:
What is your understanding of how a business generates and maintains a profit? (Please provide examples) (500 words)
As for your question, here is how I would approach it:
- Firstly, explain the concept of profit in simple terms, as earnings minus costs, and exemplify with sources of earnings and sources of costs most businesses have.
- Having explained how generating profits essentially boils down to either increasing earnings, or reducing costs, or both, I would then describe in layman terms the general strategies a business can use to maximize earnings. Things I could mention include increasing market share (perhaps via geographic expansion, increased hiring, or M&A) to improve the total volume of business and therefore the margins of profit; or finding gaps in the market, where you can tap on existing demand no one else is servicing; differentiate your business' brand via effective marketing, invest in talent or research and development of tech products that will result in a better quality offering to your client base. etc. Whatever general strategy point I would choose to mention, I would the illustrate with the best example I could find of a company successfully doing this.
- The second half of the answer would instead be focused on minimizing costs, where I could mention strategies like: creating economies of scale to increase the efficiency of supply and distribution chains and improve market bargaining power; structuring operations and transactions in a tax efficient manner; automating processes (especially now with generative AI), outsourcing, etc. Once again, I would seek to illustrate these strategies with the best examples of companies who have efficiently implemented them.