Playing Chess Could Help Business Strategists Perform Better in their Leadership Functions

By Cenen Herrera

Writing from the City of Olds, Iowa
United States of America

Business leaders are under constant pressure from stakeholders to meet their respective interests in the organization and increase the firm’s competitiveness in the market. As a result, corporate leaders continuously strive to sharpen their analytical skills, focus on long-term thinking, improve their strategizing abilities, and look at the “big picture” for assessing risks and potential rewards.

In my long years of playing chess, I learned a number of important lessons which allowed me to perform better in my career.

First, just like in chess where you expect the moves of your opponent, I learned to expect the moves of my boss. When I was a young professional, I practiced the art of expecting the next two to five moves of my boss. As I mature in my career, not only did I learn to think several moves ahead of my boss (up to 25 moves), but I also learned a number of important lessons that helped me increase the accuracy of predicting the requirements of my job as well as winning the excellent ratings from my boss.

Second, I learned that both business and chess rely on exchanges, and successful trades usually end up to one benefitting from the exchange and the other losing in the exchange. Thus, hard work, perseverance, learning from mistakes, and other intellectual and character traits are needed to successfully play chess, and the same is true in business.

Third, I learned that ethical behavior is important in both business and chess. Winning in chess is better if it results from a superior strategy rather than just as a result of a careless move by an opponent. The same is true in business; having a superior strategy creates a win-win situation that ultimately results to the company's positive performance.

Fourth, I find the classic chess gambit as the equivalent of opportunity cost in business. Chess gambits are normally applied to a chess beginner, and while it normally involves gaining a piece or two, the chess beginner normally ends up in an awkward position.

Fifth, I learned that flexibility in chess means the ability to have contingency plans for every move that the player takes. Flexibility refers to the ability to quickly change strategy in light of the development in the markets, i.e., depending on the opportunities and threats. I fully agree with Robert S. Graber of University of Arkansas – Monticello that there are a number of parallels between chess strategy and business strategy.