Special Section:
Introduction
What's your next move?

CTO view
It's time to develop a strategy

Beyond business
Following a different pattern

Man on the street
Players own the board

Governance
Winning at the game of kings

What's your next move?

Don't let your focus on tomorrow's challenges
keep you from playing today's strategies.

by Keith Ferrell

xperienced chess players will tell you that the key to the game is being able to hold the entire board in your head at any moment—visualizing not only the pieces as they are positioned at that instant but also the multiple paths the game can take. It's not simply the moment or even the move at hand, but also the consequences and opportunities that arise as a result of each potential move and counter-move.

It's a picture of every business’s goal: to have a single view of a complex arena, evaluating multiple variables, minimizing losses, maximizing results—making better, faster decisions.

Beyond a certain point, chess as a metaphor for business loses its effectiveness—chess is, after all, a game, while business is decidedly not. The essence of the metaphor, however, lies in the informed foresight that makes the best chess players successful.

The essence of data warehousing has never been solely about the consolidation and centralization of organizational information. It also encompasses the idea of accessibility of that information to users throughout the organization. The way in which users configure and analyze that information provides the foundation for the business’s operational sense of itself—its relationships with partners, vendors, employees and customers, not only within the context of its products, services and markets but also within the context of their place in a larger and ever-changing world.

Everything comes together in context, whether you like it or not: market conditions and economic variables, internal governance and external regulations, technology and human factors, variables and more variables. The future will ultimately take care of itself and arrive right on schedule, one day at a time. The prepared organization is always ready to meet it and the challenges and opportunities it brings.

IT'S YOUR MOVE. WHAT WILL IT BE?

ALL CHESS IMAGERY CREATED BY BOB PONZONI AND TROY SPRINKLES