I have another question
@vera.mekhonoshina @Amma Usman what advice would you have for building your commercial awareness from scratch? I tend to dip in and out. How did you approach this and what resources did you use and still use? Thank you!
Hey there,
@Lawlife5!
This is a really good question, and I know that the task of developing your commercial awareness from scratch can seem daunting at first - I surely felt that way when I first started!
My advice would be to try and get to grips with the fundamentals of finance and economics. You want to have a solid understanding of how the global financial and economic system works - without it, you won’t be able to understand more nuanced, specialised articles.
I began by making sure I understood these concepts and terms
really well before diving into more specialised topics:
- Inflation, interest rates, and the role of central banks across the world
- Stocks, bonds, listed companies and private companies
- Private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, investment banks, insurance companies, pension companies - what is their role in the global economic system?
- Debt vs equity - why do companies use each of the modes of finance?
I would also recommend researching the timeline of an M&A transaction, key M&A documents, and developing a basic understanding of contract terms like warranties and indemnities.
You can always test your understanding by explaining these concepts and providing practical, real-life examples to a friend or family member!
As Zainab has mentioned, TCLA has a variety of tailored resources that can help you develop this knowledge
Once you get a solid understanding of these concepts (establishing
depth), you can dive into building the
breadth of your commercial awareness through articles and podcasts. The FT is a great port of first call - it will contain articles on everything you need to know in terms of daily developments.
Speaking from personal experience, reading the FT every day made one of the biggest differences to my commercial awareness and has become a habit that I carry to this day. At first, I found it to be a bit overwhelming, since I didn’t know most of the technical legal and financial terms. Don’t let this discourage you.
My advice for quick progression is to treat a commercial article like you would treat learning a new language. Highlight new ‘vocabulary’ and create a vocabulary book, where you write out the new terms and their meanings. Over time, you will start to become more and more ‘fluent’!
I would also begin my day by listening to the FT News Briefing first, and then reading FT articles on the news that caught my attention the most to understand them in more depth.
I hope this helps!
