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In February , Beane , who is a four-time MLB Executive of the Year award winner and named by Forbes as one of the 100 greatest living business minds , was a guest speaker at a recent private event for TMT ’ s top-tier clients . “ As small business owners , we have trouble competing with larger , more well-funded competitors because they can hire more and better people ,” noted TMT and MSP Success CEO Robin Robins . “ They have a bigger payroll and better benefits . You ’ re always fighting for talent because , at the end of the day , the team with the best players is always going to win . But who are the best players ? Billy Beane figured out how to look at this differently .”
In today ’ s competitive landscape of “ Super MSPs ” with deep pockets , many backed by private equity , you can adapt Beane ’ s principles to develop your own winning processes and build a roster of championship players who can drive growth .
In a Q & A with Robins , Beane offered These Tips for MSP Business Owners :
Ruthlessly Make Data-Driven Decisions
“ Baseball has been keeping track of player performance through statistics since the mid-1800s , yet none of it was used to make decisions ,” Beane explained . “ I turned running a baseball team into a mathematical equation .” He revolutionized baseball operations by replacing subjective scouting with analytical decision-making , turning the Oakland A ’ s into one of the most cost-effective teams in baseball .
Identify and Exploit Overlooked Metrics
“ There is a championship team you can afford ,” Beane asserted . “ You just need to find the talent that others are undervaluing .” Beane looked beyond traditional statistics , discovering that on-base percentages better correlated with winning .
Commit to Disciplined Execution
“ You can ’ t go back and forth ,” Beane emphasized . “ Data-driven decision-making only works if you do it every single time . Before the season , we could almost predict how many wins we were going to have if we just stuck with the roster . We didn ’ t panic . We did everything using data . We were running a baseball team like an actuary sets insurance rates . Using the data to pick players for us is like having the answers on a math test .”
Optimize Your Resources
Rather than pursuing and overpaying for top talent , Beane focused on building a balanced team of solid players and eliminating weak spots . “ We couldn ’ t afford the star players , so we started looking at the bottom of our roster to make sure we didn ’ t have bad players ,” he said . “ We looked for players that were at least average or slightly above .”
Expand Your Talent Pool
Beane broke traditional hiring patterns by bringing in nontraditional candidates . “ I hired Paul DePodesta , who was a nontraditional assistant general manager . He was a Harvard econ major , where most guys in that position were ex-players .”
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