As institutions grow in quantity and complexity, the demands in leadership change. The same old moves won’t cut it any longer. In Chess Not Checkers, Mark Miller tells the story of Blake Dark brown, recently appointed CEO of the company troubled by poor efficiency and low morale. Nothing at all Blake discovered from his prior roles seems to help him cope with the problems he now faces. The problem, his new coach points out, is normally Blake is playing the wrong game.

The early times of a business are like checkers: a quickly played game with mainly interchangeable pieces. Everybody, the leader included, does a little bit of everything; the speed is frenetic. But simply because the organization expands, you can’t just keep jumping from activity to activity. You must think strategically, plan forward, and leverage every employee’s specific abilities—that’s chess. Market leaders who continue to play checkers when the name of the game is chess lose.

On his journey, Blake discovers four essential strategies from the overall game of chess that transform his leadership and his organization. The effect: unprecedented overall performance!