Basics of the M7 Chaos Matrix™

Basic Concepts:

The M7 Chaos Matrix™ is an add-in for Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet program. 
M7 Chaos Matrix™ is not a stand-alone program.

The M7 Chaos Matrix™ helps you know how a group of events affects the occurrence of something else.  For example, let's say you had a store in one neighborhood and wanted to open a store in a new neighborhood.  The new store would be different size, the location would be different, the clientele might be different socially, the ethnic make-up might be different, and there would be various other differences.  What you need to know is how to configure the new store to make the most money. 

You take all the information you can from the existing store that can be mathematically quantified.  You'd take square feet for each department, average local income, average age group, the sales of each type of goods, and other similar information.  That information is the input data.  This data is arranged in columns.  Each column is a different characteristic.

After you've gathered that information, you look at the amount of money the various departments made.  That information is the target data.  You want to predict the amount of money each department will make in the new store.

You show the The M7 Chaos Matrix™ the input data and the corresponding target data.  From that information, the M7 Chaos Matrix™ will create a mathematical formula.  For example it might look like this:

12.233 + (0.335 * Square FT) + (0.118 * median income) + (1.87 * Avg Age) ....

You would enter the data from the proposed store into the formula and solve it.  Based on the historical data you presented, you will be able to tell with relative certainty what each department will make in the new store.  What's more, by looking at the formula, you can adjust the physical characteristics of the new store to optimize your profits.  Maybe the new location should have sporting goods expanded and electronics downsized, for example.

To make the M7 Chaos Matrix™ function, remember:

• The M7 Chaos Matrix™ looks a patterns of input and target data to mathematically infer the impact of input data on the target data.  The M7 Chaos Matrix™ then creates a formula into which you can plug new input data and predict what an unknown target value would be. 

• You have to tell the M7 Chaos Matrix™ what data you want to analyze.  You do this by highlighting the data with your mouse before calling the M7 Chaos Matrix™.  To highlight non-adjacent columns, hold the CTRL down as you select data.

• You have to organize the data in a rectangular format.  In other words, all columns have to have the same number of selected rows.  The M7 Chaos Matrix™ automatically will truncate rows from columns that have more rows than the column with the fewest rows.

• You have to have at least 2 more rows than the number of columns.

• You have to identify each column by placing a non-numeric label in the first row of each column.  The label can contain numbers, but it must also contain non-numeric characters.  Technically speaking, the label cannot be resolved to a number.

You can download a pre-populated Excel file, QQQ.xls, so that you see how data is selected.  Below is an example of selected data.
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