Is your team on the Moneyball?
As we continue to consider the impact of data and analytics in sport, ahead of our Changing Behaviours lunch with Eddie Jones, the parallels in business become clear – the development of a ‘perfect team’ is a complex project! In most cases, there are distinct physiological differences required in sports teams compared to business, yet the fundamental need in both is to have complementary capabilities in the overall make-up of a team.
If you’ve seen the movie Moneyball you probably remember how Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), General Manager of the Oakland Athletics baseball team, goes against all conventional wisdom and teams up with a statistical academic to outsmart the big money clubs.
Together, they identified unique skills in players that had been considered irrelevant by top scouts, but to Billy, these players brought new talents to the mission – to increase his team’s winning potential.
By identifying unique skills in supposedly ‘worn-out’ players, analysing their historic successes and mapping them the team’s skills gap, the Oakland A’s used the art of probability to determine how these players could help the overall success of the team.
Whilst this approach disrupted the traditional culture of scouting, it demonstrated that with an open mindset – and considering all factors – behaviours can change. Adapting to circumstances, focussing on fact-based decisions, taking a data-driven approach and building a team and game strategy returned huge success for the A’s, winning an unprecedented 20 consecutive games and breaking an American League record!
Building business teams with the same detail-oriented approach can achieve anything, from breaking through a cultural mould to delivering commercial success beyond expectations. The key ingredient to this? Insight derived from your data.
Join us on Sept 7th to meet Eddie Jones, Head Coach of England Rugby, to hear how he’s delivering a fact-based decision-making model for the upcoming Rugby World Cup in Japan.
CI Group is a collective of smart marketing agencies delivering success across sectors. Pearl Analytics, the newest member of the group, can help you better understand your business transformation. Contact Robert Mol to find out more about our Analytics offering.