Have you read the book or seen the movie Moneyball? It’s really a story of Big Data.
Below is a favorite scene of mine from the movie. In case you don’t know the talent acquisition side of professional baseball, each club has an army of scouts that evaluate new talent forthe upcoming season. Billy Beane, the General Manager and main character, is listening to his scouts make their recommendations for the draft and free agency.
Grady Fuson: Artie, who do you like?
Scout Artie: I like Perez. He's got a classy swing. It's a real clean stroke.
Scout Barry: He can't hit the curve ball.
Scout Artie: Yeah, there's some work to be done, I'll admit that.
Scout Barry: Yeah, there is.
Scout Artie: But he's noticeable.
Matt Keough: And an ugly girlfriend.
Scout Barry: What does that mean?
Matt Keough: Ugly girlfriend means no confidence.
Scout Barry: Okay.
John Poloni: Oh, now, you guys are full of it, Artie's right. This guy's got an attitude and an attitude is good.
Scout Pote: He passes the eye candy test. He's got the looks. He's great at playing the part. He just needs to get some playing time.
Matt Keough: I'm just saying his girlfriend is a six at best.
I think it does a good job illustrating how many of us have made decisions over the years. It made me think about how we used to evaluate sales talent.
- “He’s got a classy swing.” = She was a former athlete so you know she’s competitive.
- “Ugly girlfriend means no confidence.” = I noticed his car in the parking lot and I highly doubt he’s had much success selling.
- “He’s got the looks. He’s great at playing the part.” = He just looks like a natural born salesman.
Are you guilty of something like this? Our process for bringing on new sales talent has evolved over the last few years. It involves assessments and data. We’re trying to take the human bias out and focus more on the objective analysis. Guess what? It’s worked. Our success ratio has gone way up. Now if only we could figure this out for the rest of our business, too….
Recently my IT Director and I sat down with Rich Carlton, President of Data Realty to talk about business intelligence, big data, and how mid-sized companies are beginning to use these powerful tools to transform their businesses
First off I wanted to know what “BI” or business intelligence really meant. Rich said, “It’s taking what happened yesterday and using it to predict tomorrow.”
The way I look at it, many large organizations have been using data for predictive purposes for years now. So what has changed and why all the buzz about “big data”? “True.” Rich acknowledged. “But old data analytics focused on small sample sizes and then extrapolated conclusions - and sometimes incorrectly. The sample size had to do with the cost of data storage. All that has changed.”
It’s also becoming more dynamic. As the tagline for Rich’s organization says, it’s “where data lives.” To be truly valuable, your data source needs to constantly update. That’s where organizations like Data Realty come in. They are morphing from just a massive offsite storage company to an analytics partner.
Rich commented that organizations should prepare and implement a “culture of data driven decision making.” Wow that hit home. Like those scouts in Moneyball, many people on our teams may not be ready to supplement or replace the intuitive decision making they’ve relied on for many years.
“It’s time to take a serious look at harnessing your data,” said Rich. “You may not be, but I bet your competitors are!” He went on to talk about how the Obama campaign used big data to drive much of their decision making and strategy. Their predictive analysis proved to be much more accurate than the traditional polling methodologies. He also shared a story about Target predicting a woman’s pregnancy based on what she was buying in the months leading up to the pregnancy.
By now, my mind was racing about how we might be able to develop our own form of Moneyball here at Gibson. My IT Director was thinking the same thing and remarked, “What if we could comb through all the emails, logged activities, etc., and start identifying trends? We’d have a goldmine of new ways to add value to our client relationships!”
The potential is huge. Rich points out how much more feasible and economical it has become to harness the power of your data.
What’s The Risk?
When I asked him what he saw as the greatest risk, it didn’t take long for him to respond. “Inaction! The wave that is coming is too strong to be stopped. It’s already inside politics, sports, and quickly moving into mid-sized businesses as well.
So Rich had me thinking but it still seemed like a big undertaking. It sure would be much easier to chalk this up to being the latest business buzz and take a “wait and see approach.”
“Those that don’t take it seriously risk losing market share and missing opportunities," he continued. "They’ll be left wondering why they didn’t pursue this as customers leave them in favor of competitors that get it and are using the data to help them succeed.”
So what will your Moneyball be?
