Moneyball and Business: Doing the Most with Limited Resources
What would you give to have Apple’s marketing budget? or Coke’s? or Ford? It would be awesome to have near endless funding to market the company. But short of this, what should you do?
The movie and book, Moneyball, tells a story that answers just this question.
“For $41 million, you built a playoff team… You won the exact same number of games that the Yankees won, but the Yankees spent $1.4 million per win and you paid $260,000 per win,” says the Boston Red Sox owner to Billy Beane. This making an important point about ROI or Return on Investment.
Every company, no matter how big, has to be very diligent about how they spend money to get the most ROI. In Moneyball, Billy Beane and the Oakland A’s cannot compete with the wealthier teams by using the same methods. They think outside of the box to create a competitive team. They could not have a team with one or two All-stars who carried the team. The wealthier teams would seduce the great players and the A’s would be left with a void. The team had to be built around the team mentality, not the individual. By focusing on creating a team that worked together and was strategic, the A’s were able to compete with the wealthier teams and create a greater ROI.
The same can be true in your business.
Focusing on a single star employee, product, or high paying client, will not work out in the long run. The employee could leave, the product could become obsolete, or the client could move on to another company. You would be left with a massive void.
Whereas, if the focus is on building a strong team, product line, or diversifying your client base, it create a much better ROI in the long run. It is easy to covet the resources that major companies have but ultimately superfluous. As much can be accomplished with a small budget or resources if you are strategic about what do. Wasting time by playing the “what if… game” will get you nowhere. Play the “How do we… game!” Get creative and plan how you can accomplish absolutely everything possible even with limited resources.
