Other articles by Cecil Johnson:

Minorities get a stiff reminder that good is not good enough Economic competition between nations is fiercer 'Executricks' a guide to how to retire while still holding down that job Buffett, other business figures are profiled in splendid anthology Markets often sense world shifts before so-called experts Success in business, like gambling, a matter of boosting luck Organizations can resemble 'tribes' in their shared values India's ability to assimilate, synthesize, modernize hailed Shifting to LNG just trades devil for witch, energy expert says Tale of ex-Wall St. chief details remarkable climb

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RED SKY
LINE COOK, SOUS CHEF, PREP COOK Trades/Construction
CIMETTA ENGINEERING
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Surgical/Medical Biller/Coder Sales and Marketing
Electric Supply, Inc
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ADMIN ASST
JEWISH FEDERATION OF SO AZ

Novice chess players, says chess aficionado and versatile businessman Bob Rice, look at a chessboard and see a confrontational array of kings, queens, bishops, rooks, knights and pawns — but grandmasters see something else there.

In his thought-provoking, chess-themed book on business strategizing, Rice asserts that beginning and intermediate players tend to focus on which pieces are positioned to take or be taken, but when grandmasters examine the board they look at the squares.

"Maybe there are pieces on them, maybe not, but they see the fight as one to control squares: lines of them in any direction (diagonals, files and ranks), color complexes (light or dark), or even … just one single square. The pieces are means of controlling space, not ends in themselves," Rice writes.

He finds a corresponding pattern in the business world, noting that run-of-the-mill executives focus on pushing, attacking and defending products (pieces), whereas great executives endeavor to control markets (spaces).

Rice examines the falling and rising fortunes of two prominent companies Sony and Apple — to make his point.

Sony's recent problems, he maintains, arise from the internal competition among development teams that have become caught up in an invention contest to deliver new designs and features to win the approval of their marketing and financial experts. Rice says the company, which used to see market squares, now emphasizes product pieces.

Apple is prospering, Rice says, because it knows who its customer is and what that customer wants: young users, graphics professionals, people who want computers to be simple and easy.

"Apple understands the squares it's after and then finds a 'piece' to control them, whether that's a brand new appliance, like the iPhone, or just an intuitive application that makes common tasks easier, like iMovie. Apple focuses on the squares," he says.

Rice makes fitting comparisons between chess pieces and actors in the corporate world. Lowest-level workers are compared to pawns, middle managers to knights, director-level executives to bishops and vice presidents to rooks.

The central theme of this book is that you have to have a plan, even if it's a bad one, to succeed in both chess and business. The idea is to adjust your plan as the game proceeds in response to the moves of the opposition.