The movie Moneyball

The movie Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game was based on the bestselling non-fiction book by financial journalist Michael Lewis. I read the book and I think that the book is more informational than a story, the book provide charts that help to show information that is very hard to convey in the movie. The film tells the true story of how Beane and his youthful economics assistant turned around the fortunes of the Oakland Athletics by using a new approach called “sabermetrics”. This involved the use of statistics to analyze how many times players stayed on base, which could increase their probability to score runs, instead of relying on the traditional method of valuing players’ batting average. This new approach allowed Beane to buy players he could actually afford, and take on the top major league teams using a different strategy.

Using the movie as starting point to discuss how statistics can help with business decision; first we need to understand that not all the decisions that managers could make will be correct whether or not they are based on statistics managers need to be prepared to face the consequences because of the risk-taking. Beane was going after lesser known players while all of his competitors were going for the big and famous players. He minimizes the risk by doing an intense research about the players, evaluated the probability the players have to stay in base, and uses any new information that might affect the decision. In other words, he compete using statistical analysis and buying players that were undervalued by other teams and sold the ones that were overvalued by others. I think that regardless of the type of business the use of statistics can be very useful but managers need to understand the relevance and interpretation of it.

Both the movie and the book made me reflect a lot because it broadens my perspective of the importance of using data and business intelligence as a resource to understand some hidden aspects of business regardless of what type of industry business are in. In the business world, it is really important to be aware of the benefits that statistics and analytical tools bring in a business environment. Managers should focus more on the aspects of business intelligence, statists, the data gathering, analyzing, interpreting, and quantitative analysis to create a plan or path that could help to measure business performance.