Tag Archives: Moneyball

What I Learned About Business from “Moneyball”

By Davies Hood, Induron Executive Vice President

Thank goodness baseball season is here. I absolutely love looking at baseball box scores first thing in the morning. I like following my team (The San Francisco Giants) through the inevitable ups and downs of a long season. I appreciate the intricacies of the game, like bunting a runner into scoring position, the hit ‘n’ run and the subtle shift in fielders’ positioning based on a certain hitter’s tendencies, as well as what and where the pitcher intends to pitch to him.

I was expecting the recent box office hit “Moneyball” to delve into these parts of my passion. However, what I got was an entertaining (thank you, Brad Pitt) business lesson. This article in QP (Quality Progress, which unfortunately requires site login) really digs into the statistical part of the movie and fleshes out some of the real lessons that Billy Beane and his Oakland Athletics learned over the years.

These valuable lessons are:

Focus on measurements to create a culture of success. Quite simply, measure what’s important, because people focus on what it is that’s being measured. In “Moneyball,” Beane focused almost exclusively on “On-base percentage,” instead of batting average and the beauty of a player’s “swing.” This leads to the second lesson… Continue reading What I Learned About Business from “Moneyball”