Chaos is the science of surprises, of the nonlinear, of the unpredictable. Expect the unexpected. While most traditional science deals with some approach to try to predict phenomena, Chaos Theory deals with nonlinear things that are effectively impossible to predict or control. e.g. weather, the stock market, company culture.

Competitive Strategy and Competitive Intelligence are disciplines that can be confused as being constantly trying to predict next steps, therefore considered a traditional science. Like a Chess Master trying to predict the next moves of his opponent, in order to prevent him from gaining an advantage.

But how do we try to predict, when there is chaos? Simple answer, we can’t, but we can look for beauty (i.e. patterns) in chaos.

Most recently I've been trying to generate a Competitive Intelligence dashboard. In it, we want to provide dynamically and manually updated info on the competitive intelligence services of the team. As such, the controversial SWOT analysis was brought up as an option. Some people mentioned a TOWS analysis, and the battle of acronyms started. I then set myself to analyze: are these really useful and what's the difference?

There are millions of sales principles, tactics, trainings. Sellers know how to articulate value propositions, execute discovery, qualify opportunities, and close the deal. A basic, and often unanswered question is: how can I respond to objections that my competitor planted in my prospect and is affecting perception? Here's a simple workflow to help with that.