Time to plan your next move.

• Position: Editorial

Chess is a like lot finance. Simply put, both have many moving parts that require the player to think on their feet.

But at a deeper level both chess and finance require the player to think several steps ahead: not just respond to the latest move, but consider the following move and the move after that. The great philosopher, mathematician and chess champion Emanuel Lasker put it best when he said "When you see a good move, look for a better one."

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Trying to make the better move; rather than the easiest one, seems to be what financial executives have been dealing with since the 2008 financial crisis and the completely changed financial and regulatory landscape. You can no longer simply respond to your competitor's move into a risky market or take an accounting shortcut in order to put a nice red bow on the quarterly balance sheet.

Want to make a "King's Gambit" and reclassify those assets in order to meet earnings? Sure, but two weeks later there is a voicemail from a regulator waiting on your phone.

Check and mate.

In many ways this issue of Financial Executive magazine is all about how to make those important decisions strategically, like a chess player thinking two or three moves ahead while preparing the company and the staff for the future.

In our cover story Lynne Doughtier and Steven Hill from KPMG describe how financial executives can translate rapid change into a competitive advantage, thus creating a...