Agnieszka Lukaszuk (GDL 2012/3) reviews the 12/11/2012 visit of Christopher Stoakes, bestselling author of All You Need to Know About Commercial Awareness and All You Need To Know About The City:
Commercial awareness operates at different levels:
• money
• strategy
• business
Money
• why companies need money and how they use it
• capital, debt and equity
• ‘gearing’ - term used to describe the level of a company's net debt compared with its equity capital, and usually it is expressed as a percentage or ratio
• sources of funding
• loans and bonds
• profit and loss
• balance sheet
• distributable profits (what it's all about)
• market perception
• share price
• M&A
Strategy
• vision
• mission
• normative strategy (see the Harvard Management Update, "Beyond the Carrot and the Stick: New Alternatives for Influencing Customer Behavior")
The Boston Consulting Group growth-share matrix (see Bruce D. Henderson's article, "The Experience Curve - Reviewed IV. The Growth Share Matrix or The Product Portfolio")
[Image source: hbr.org]
Organisational uses of scenarios (see Arie de Geus's article, "Scenarios and Decision-Taking")
• ‘what if…?’
• contingency planning
PESTL
• Political
• Economic
• Social
• Technological
• Legal
Technology
• IBM v Microsoft (vision of the world)
• not the best but the most (Sony VHS v JVC Betamax)
• convergence of platforms (mobile/TV/laptop/MP3)and of content (mobile/videogame)
• import of viewing habits
• digitalisation (photography)
• disintermediation (iTunes)
• long-tail effect (Amazon)
• hidden value (eBay)
• social networking (Facebook, MySpace)
• virtual world (Second Life)
Porter's five forces (see Michael E. Porter's article, "The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy")
[Image source: hbr.org]
Business and corporate structure
• chairman, director, CEO, MD and executive
• role of the board
• remuneration committee
Organisational design
• functions (marketing, R&D, logistics)
• role of general counsel
• brand management
Commercial awareness operates at different levels:
• money
• strategy
• business
Money
• why companies need money and how they use it
• capital, debt and equity
• ‘gearing’ - term used to describe the level of a company's net debt compared with its equity capital, and usually it is expressed as a percentage or ratio
• sources of funding
• loans and bonds
• profit and loss
• balance sheet
• distributable profits (what it's all about)
• market perception
• share price
• M&A
Strategy
• vision
• mission
• normative strategy (see the Harvard Management Update, "Beyond the Carrot and the Stick: New Alternatives for Influencing Customer Behavior")
The Boston Consulting Group growth-share matrix (see Bruce D. Henderson's article, "The Experience Curve - Reviewed IV. The Growth Share Matrix or The Product Portfolio")
Organisational uses of scenarios (see Arie de Geus's article, "Scenarios and Decision-Taking")
• ‘what if…?’
• contingency planning
PESTL
• Political
• Economic
• Social
• Technological
• Legal
Technology
• IBM v Microsoft (vision of the world)
• not the best but the most (Sony VHS v JVC Betamax)
• convergence of platforms (mobile/TV/laptop/MP3)and of content (mobile/videogame)
• import of viewing habits
• digitalisation (photography)
• disintermediation (iTunes)
• long-tail effect (Amazon)
• hidden value (eBay)
• social networking (Facebook, MySpace)
• virtual world (Second Life)
Porter's five forces (see Michael E. Porter's article, "The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy")
Business and corporate structure
• chairman, director, CEO, MD and executive
• role of the board
• remuneration committee
Organisational design
• functions (marketing, R&D, logistics)
• role of general counsel
• brand management
