Customer Reviews

Three Moves Ahead: What Chess Can Teach You About Business

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is one of those rare business books that is both entertaining to read and offers valuable insight into how companies make decisions in today's faster paced business environment, particularly in the high tech world. I enjoyed learning about the limitations of strategic thinking shared by great chess players and great business executives. I'd recommend this book to both seasoned business executives and younger business people. It will remind veteran decisionmakers how to focus on what's ahead of them and provide younger managers (particularly young entrepreneurs) with context for why business plans most often have to change. A fun look at business strategy from a very unique perspective.

Want to understand the financial crisis unfolding now in the world - read the thinking of this author. Sorry, I have never said such a harsh thing or been so critical of a book. However Rice's background as a hedge fund and Wallstreet financier is clear because this book is so bad - at least outside of Fortune 500 Boardrooms. This book is full of drivel - high sounding business platitudes that sound insightful but are nothing more then empty rhetoric.

How do these ideas actually help a business person? Books like these say what you must do - NEVER THE HOW.

Claim: must have first mover advantage. Okay how? You're not going to find the answer in this book.

Claim: you must establish a barrier to entry? Our economy is what 13 Trillion dollars? Are you talking to the government, Walmart or GE here? I'm a mom and pop business. How does such an idea help me? I should Castle by Rook with my King. Pass me whatever it is you're smoken.

Love this: "Moving too fast and without a consistent plan is just as bad as moving too slowly" against the later comment "Forget detailed business plans." I think it means "I'm a talking head that needs to be gagged because I really have never run a business but I defraud the American public and need $700 BILLION bailout. Run your business based on this book and you'll need a bailout as well. Here is another "Plans are essential elements of success, but randomness is an undeniable factor as well"

These business guru's make up great sounding stuff that in truth is meaningless. God I'd rather have a parrot talking to me.

* "Launch a disruptive business model" uh okay.
* "Play positionally by accumulating a lot of little advantages in mini battles all conducted to further a general, overall strategy that is constantly being tweaked." Okay, what he said.
* "Upend the basic functioning of an established industry by adopting a different infrastructure" Love those infras especially when they're inside my structures.
* "Attack from a different angle: a new pricing model, aggregation, and disaggregation" We'll I aggregated just reading those words.
* "Make sure the dream position is based on your positive imbalance" My dream position is a beach in the Caribbean and I'm positive you're imbalanced. Beyond that I have no idea what that sentence even means.
* Another meaningless phrase: "Commence your strategic planning process with imbalance analysis"

Mr. Rice - I apologize. I'm sure you're a good guy and both wealthier and smarter than me. I'm sure this book has value in the circles you operate in and that someone takes this book seriously. Also please don't think I don't "get it" because I do. I can use 'businesspeak' in my Boardroom to obfuscate failure as well as the next executive. Instead of working our businesses and becoming serious leaders we prefer "educated sounding rhetoric." While Japan, China, India, and others are making money we need a bailout. This book illustrates why.

This book most definitely lives up to its title. Mr. Rice does a great job of tying good chess playing techniques and analyses with excellent advice for developing successful business strategies. However much of Mr. Rice's advice can only be pursued by larger established businesses and corporations. So if you're an entrepreneur starting out with your own sole proprietorship, much of the author's advice will not apply.

This book could have used some additional proofing prior to publication. I found several small errors in the first few chapters. Not spelling errors mind you but phrases that were worded wrong and other mistakes that must have crept in while the book was being revised. There's a remark about Microsoft moving from XP to DOS, or text for a chess diagram that most certainly didn't apply to the diagram being shown. Errors such as these were frequent throughout the first half of the book. Chapters 6 thru 10 were relatively error free.

Being a big fan of chess, I very much enjoyed the tidbits of chess history drawn from the author's own experience. All in all, an excellent book. This is one of the rare works that can truly help you "improve your game"!

Great business book. It gives a fascinating account of how the author's personal experiences as a grandmaster chess player apply to the world of business. The book is a testament to how the knowledge and experience gained in one area of human activity be transferred to and enrich a different field. The author, a successful startup CEO, received his business education at the chess board, and that's what makes his style of thinking very unique. If you are an MBA student or in your early years of the business career you will enjoy this book and view the corporate world from an unusual angle. The book refers to many well known examples from the lives of AOL, Microsoft and the like, but by far the most interesting case studies are from the author's own experiences as a CEO.

This book gave me fresh perspective and permanently changed the way I think about business. I've read hundreds if not thousands of business books and until now, none has had this instant and profound effect. Maybe the chess analogy helped or maybe it's just some great ideas that are presented very well. Here are two ways my thinking has changed. First, I find myself thinking about the "board" (the market, points of weakness and strength) rather than focusing on the "pieces" (my business and its competitors). Second. I place a greater value on moving quickly in order to learn and improve on my plans. I highly recommend Three Moves Ahead to anyone seeking an edge in business.

This book was truly fascinating. The witty writing style, combined with an outstanding barrage of real-world business examples, combined with very concise and clear applicability in the everyday business, made for some of the best reading I've had in a long time. Simply great stuff.

My own business is at a crossroads, a very crucial and challenging time, and that's actually why I read the book. I'm trying to digest and to act with wisdom and this material is probably the largest factor in the plans, from a strategic and tactical standpoint. My only concern right now is how to move quickly since, after all, I'm "On the Clock!"

And, believe it or not, it's been years (ahem, decades) since I played chess but I'm actually planning on buying at least a cheap board ASAP, after reading the book! I'll call that a business expense, actually, and a bona fide one at that. The title is true: you do NOT need to be a chess player to get immense benefit from the book. But, the game of chess is very, very comparable and from a mind-conditioning standpoint, I think some chess is worth my time.

I met the author of this book in NYC and heard him speak. Twas great and I was looking forward to reading the book. Very, very glad I did.

This is an extraordinary work. Aside from being extremely well written (something that one can rarely say about business books), the central thesis here is that in a rapidly changing business environment it is no long sufficient to give 'cookbook' answers to solving problems. Instead, by apply chess theories (NOT 'rules'), Three Moves Ahead gives business executives (and particularly entrepreneurs with early stage companies) a framework for developing their overall business strategies in a world that is morphing faster than we can understand it. The concepts are rock solid, the 21st century examples to which they are applied are brilliant, and the result is a gem of a book that has the potential to reframe the entire discussion of success factors in business.

I read tons of business books, and so many of them suffer from the same fatal flaw. They are really aiming for a high executive or an entrepenuer. Go attack this market segment, divest this business, etc. That's all well and great, if you're in this demographic. But what about the people out there that often read these books - middle management trying to make the jump to the executive ranks in their Fortune 500 companies? Sometimes these business books don't always scale to that level. I read them, frustrated, and out of time and money.

This book was a unique read for me. If is the first business book focusing on strategy that really changed the way I looked at the problems I face on the daily basis. As a cog in the machine, I don't have the ability to make aquisitions, divest services that aren't profitable, etc. But I do have the ability to EXPAND my service offering by securing strong squares, identifying dream positions, and getting rid of bad bishops. The first thing I did when I finished this book was bought a copy for each of my direct reports, then we've torn my 18 month plan down and started from scrach. Nothing Rice tells you in here is that hard to figure out on your own; there are no ridiculous correllations between successful companies and specific moves that other books rely on. Rice just uses a few chess antecdotes here and there, and makes an analogy to the business world, demonstrated by some winners and losers. The way this is all presented is so different, and fresh. Nothing rocket science, just a different way of seeing the same thing.

I haven't played chess since I was a teenager. After reading this book, I am so impressed by Rice's passion that I think I may just need to pick it up again!

I just purchased the book and am looking forward to some good reading. Can't wait! Once I finish, I'll come back and post an update.