My name is Matthew Hughes, and I am a MSc Strategic Fashion Business Management student in London, as a member of the Fashion Business School, which provides key management attributes and business analysis skills to students.

Q&A:

How would you describe yourself?

‍I would describe myself as an agile learner, a strong team member and a young professional who wants to try and make a difference with the work I do for the world and everybody on it, this is why I am drawn towards investment, providing the right advise for clients, people and the planet.

I would also say I am a strong communicator, with my time across retail in places such as bond street and Selfridges I have had countless interactions with non-native English speakers and have made them feel welcome, respected and listened too, as corporate financing is such a global activity I think this will be a strong skill for me to have so I can work closely with my global network to assisting in finding the best partner no matter where they are in the world.

Why did you choose to study Business Management?

Throughout my time at college, I chose to study Mathematics, business, and economics as from a relatively young age I found myself strongly suited to the analytical and puzzle-based mindset that is constantly used throughout these roles. However, to challenge myself further I also started an additional A level in my second year of Fashion design, to express my creative and increase my adaptability further. In doing so I found the fashion industry to be a great example of the fast pace at which I like to work and feel comfortable in, being that business have as few as 4 and as many as 52 collections a year, this requires constant innovation and critical thinking. This lead me to the fashion business school, where I would be able to advance my business application skills further ready to enter a corporate finance role upon graduation such as studying financial statements and analysis businesses for opportunities and weaknesses, but also allowed me to explore the Retail and leisure industry further and discover more about the critical environmental challenges it faces and strategies that are being introduced to solve them

Why did you think you are suited to Investment Banking?

I think I am suited to investment banking as an analyst because I enjoy learning and remain consistently acquisitive towards new players within industries, I have focused multiple academic reports towards the importance of innovation, and this will suit when I join an industry group where I was be able to research and analyze clients there competitors and be able to recommend investments to clients from within my own knowledge.

I have intrinsic motivation towards investment banking being I want to help. I have previously heard a high-ranking investment banker speak at a conference It which they described banking as the oxygen needed for all global industries to survive and grow.

Another reason draws upon my most recent investment appraisal experience throughout a previous university project. focusing on a critical analysis of the current business strategies adopted by both boohoo group PLC and marks & spencer’s PLC, in which I evaluated the effectiveness of their planned investment actions for delivering value in the current COVID-19 retail environment. Throughout this report, I utilised techniques commonly used through the workload inside of investment banking such as asset-based Valuations for investment opportunities, cross analysing the health of both businesses financial statements whilst evaluating risks factors in both business short term cash flows and presenting trading comparable to a group of stakeholders to secure a new rental contract for M&S against competing firms for a rental contract.

As a result of this project, I enjoyed using the skills involved throughout investment banking and found my key strengths and characteristics such as analytical thinking, research and understanding of client strategy, competitor researching/ financial statements analysis and strong presentation skills would make me a perfect fit for the skillset required in investment banking and believe my personality traits shown to lead my team throughout this project alongside my core competencies would align perfectly to the workload inside of a investment banking division and would be one that not only I feel passionate and engaged by, but one I enjoy and strive for perfection within.