How can you use military strategy frameworks to anticipate and respond to market changes?

any framework has limitations, it is rather useful to pay attention to the situations of using the framework. this framework is suitable for the general process of constant monitoring of the external situation (observe), monitoring the best practices of competitors (orient), choosing the best variation (decide), developing and implementing an action plan with feedback monitoring (act)

I reckon the most useful model from the military is the '80% and go rule'. You're never going to be 100% sure on information or intel, and trying to get that extra 20% isn't worth the time lost. So, be 80% sure and send it.

Continue to focus on what are the strategic goals and objectives in your business and constantly adjust your "tactics", your daily changes, to meet continuing market changes and challenges. Don't lose the focus. Adjust the "troops" to meet the new situations and take advantage of opportunities as they arise, if they are in line with the overall strategic objectives.

SWOT, used properly and sparingly, is a good tool. It's usually overused and poorly done. Again, please don't use it because you feel that you have to.

Traffic Analysis was created in World War 2 by the Bletchley Park-based genius Gordon Welchman. At the time, encrypted messages could not be read, so he concentrated on what could be understood. The first few letters and numbers of each message were not in code; these were call signs - addresses Welchman started to track these, who was communicating with whom, how often and in which direction. This simple observation that a message must include details of the sender and the receiver allowed him to see the enemy's network using the power of traffic analysis. You cannot understand what your competitors say to their customers, but you can see who is talking to whom. Patterns emerge, and a great picture can be created. Just takes time & thought

What Do You Really Want? In the military, projects are started by first defining what needs to be done and what the key problems are, and from this, a distinct goal of what is to be achieved can be determined. The military's first requirement is the defence of the realm. In the corporate world, it is rare for companies to understand what their key elements are. The challenge is much more than simply beating your competitor. After you have beaten them, it is vital to have a strategic plan for what comes next. Organisations need to have clarity as to their end game. Is it to outlast their competitors, to sell the company, float on the stock exchange, or to totally dominate the industry?

Sun Tzu's Art of War is a must-read for everybody who is in marketing. All of the previously mentioned frameworks are great tools, but they are also very limiting due to the nature of the frameworks. General understanding and shift of perspective, to marketing as a warfare often is more useful as it provides more flexibility. Your budget and assets=war chest Current market=battlefield The best victories are the ones where you don't have to fight or empty your war chest too much. Therefore focus on quick and easy wins first, make your conversion rates, offer, support, and onboarding the best you can, before even attempting to go on a "battlefield"

What's very important is not to try and fit a model into your analysis because you feel you have to. Only use models when you need them. Never use any model as a filler. It hides the actual intelligence insight. Key findings up front and in the reader's face. Pretty models distract if they don't add something to the message.