What I learnt about leadership and strategy in 15 minutes playing Chess with Richard Branson
by DBL Managing Director, Josh Mackenzie That’s my first pawn gone. That’s my second. I’m moving my Bishop out to attack. He moved another Pawn forward. His Queen is now wide open to my Bishop. I just took his Queen. He just took my Knight … and my Rook … and another Pawn. This is moving quickly … the outcome seems inevitable now… Check Mate. What just happened? So there I was. Sitting face to face with one of the world’s greatest business strategists and leaders. Having read about Richard Branson for almost 20 years and having never met him properly, I suddenly found myself sitting across a chess board early one Sunday morning in his beach club on Necker Island. I was there with the Change Makers Rule Breakers program, having only arrived the previous night. It was a chance rendezvous. I had taken myself exploring the island after breakfast and stumbled on to the tennis courts and in to beach club. The place was empty – it was early Sunday morning after all – with only a ...