Xenia and her partner Yolanda sat on their beauty Salon's patio, sipping refreshing glasses of ice tea and playing their favorite afternoon game.

Suddenly there seemed to be a flurry of activity across the street. A big board was being set up at an empty shop. A closer inspection led them to read lettering on the board —"Olivia's Beauty Salon"!

Catastrophe!

Competition in a small town like theirs would be disastrous. It seemed their whole world had come crashing down!. They would have to think of ways of keeping themselves afloat while dealing with the competition.

Xenia decided she needed to get to know her competitor.

Olivia was invited to tea as a "welcome to our neighborhood" gesture!

While they made the customary introductions, Olivia glanced at the unfinished game in front of her. This did not go unnoticed by Xenia, who offered to play a game of Tic-Tac-Toe with her.

Round 1: Xenia marked her X in the corner. Olivia marked her O on the right side bottom square. Five moves later, Xenia had won!

Round 2: Olivia went first. She took the center space, Xenia countered by placing her letter in a corner. They played out into a draw!

Round 3: Xenia went first. This time too, she took a corner. Olivia went with the middle piece: seven more moves resulted in a draw!

What started as a fun activity turned into a business management lesson for Xenia! She saw that the first player could control where the other player goes. The second player always reacts to the first.

She realized that a tic-tac-toe strategy could be relevant to her current situation. There were just three steps to follow:

1. Go for the win
2. Defend against a loss
3. Make strategic moves to set up future wins.

Suddenly the person in front of her didn't seem like an enemy anymore.

By now you would have understood that there's much more to Tic-Tac-Toe.

Don't miss an opportunity to unleash the strategist in you, because it is as easy as Tic-Tac-Toe.