‘Moneyball, The art of winning’ – directed by B. Miller starring Brad Pitt. 2011 – Barney’s side

The art of winning in the game, in life and at work. A movie to draw ideas from to understand how thinking outside the box is often times the winning path and sometimes the cheapest one.

Managers and entrepreneurs, how many times did we found ourselves participating in an unfair competition: little Davids against big Goliaths! Small organisations with modest means, in a game against big competitors with virtually unlimited resources (at least seemingly). It was unfair even when we found ourselves playing in Goliath’s team.

Learn to win

There are challenges you cannot win, but there are rules you can change. Perspective that can be applied to so many areas of life. This is indeed the teaching of the movie ‘Moneyball’ inspired by the true story narrated in its namesake novel ‘Moneyball: the art of winning an Unfair Game’ by Micheal Lewis.

I am not going to give you any spoilers on how it ends but a few reasons to watch it (and rewatch it, as I did). The movie tells the story of a baseball team, the Oakland Athletics, and their manager, Billy Beane, who has to manage competitions with a scarce budget. “There are rich teams and there are poor teams. Then, there’s 50 feet of cr… and then there’s us.”  This is how the general manager describes the picture. And as if that was not enough, the Athletics gives blood, its best players, to stronger teams.

Thinking differently

The first solution (that type of solution that always needs to be ticked) is asking for a higher budget to replace the lost players and strengthen the team. Let’s imagine the answer.  

The second solution is think differently. And that is exactly what the GM of the Oakland Athletics does: he finds how to do it in the way of valuing and buying players, and in the strategy to victory. What’s wrong with the current way of thinking? “You buy players. You should buy victory”* (*through a targeted purchase of players. Just to avoid easy misunderstandings. NDA). 

The Oakland Athletics overturns the standard of that world. And it surprises everyone. I found it intruiguing, I recommend watching it. 

The tools to win with art 

It has a correlation with BusinessRM to which this blog is, deep down, dedicated.

Yes, a lot of correlations. Starting from the different attention to recourses, teamwork, valuing everyone for what they can give (always more than what prejudices let on). And the role of the “structure” in the change, in the movie skilfully represented by the manager. And the budget, which is a false problem: it is only, thank goodness, a restriction!

But, overall, from the change of the standards that it brings about: in BusinessRM the organisational model is in the cloud, not on paper. With the caveat that it is not another tool: it is the digital environment that integrates together all the business tools. And the team focuses on the work, that part of the work that legitimises the presence of skilled and motivated people.

The title? “The art of winning” I would like to have it as a payoff of BusinessRM.