Moneyball – Trekking post

I saw the movie Moneyball on the weekend it came out.  I had read the book shortly after Michael Lewis wrote it in 2005.  Both the book and movie are terrific, although Michael Lewis admitted recently that he thought it would make a terrible movie, because of too much statistical stuff.

Moneyball follows Billy Beane (Brad Pitt in the movie), general manager of the small market Oakland A’s, as he looks for a

new business model in 2003 that would let him compete with the big market teams (hello, Yankees and Red Sox).

That means that it’s a movie about reinventing a business to adapt to evolving business conditions.  And challenging old beliefs around stolen bases, home runs, sacrifice bunts, and strikeouts with a new way of thinking around the importance of getting on base.

Beane is helped in his quest by Peter Brand,  a fictional creation based on Yale grad and numbers wonk Paul diPodesta who currently works with the Mets (played really well in a deadpan manner by Jonah Hill). Their methodologies helped them find players that were undervalued by mainstream baseball and put together a team that surprised everyone.

It all works on a lot of levels and it’s a really good movie (Siskel & Ebert would’ve given it two thumbs way up).

Go see it.  I mean it.  Then look at your business and your clients’ businesses through a different lens.