What's the focus on your trading desk?

I just started a markets analyst program in a local European bank. I find that my current role suits me very well, I'm working on software development for the desk at the moment. During the past week, I tried out sitting on a different desk. There, they had a significant focus on what they called the "trade of trading".

My impression was that the other team was very focused on buying / selling procedures (market making in an illiquid market), but didn't seem to devote a lot of time to analysing data that was coming in to gain an information advantage in terms of their clients' positioning / possible future flows etc. They purported to be focused on managing risk, but I was slightly confused as they didn't seem to try to do that by hedging(or couldn't due to market illiquidity), so I was left wondering what the management of risk actually meant.

My preconceived notion going into trading was that the actual buying / selling of securities wouldn't be the focus, but rather that gaining information advantages and a better understanding of the market would be the priority on a trading desk. Even if you are a sell-side market making operation, especially in this case as these guys end up with pretty large directional risks that isn't being hedged.

Of course, I'm quite ignorant since I'm new. It just seemed like a counterintuitive approach to me. Please let me know your thoughts on the above, what is the focus on your desk? Are you trying to "understand" the market more than actually "buying / selling" and seeing the "buying / selling" as a result of your understanding rather than the focus? Or is it the other way around?