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by Michael Lewis

How do you turn a bunch of undervalued baseball players, • Forget the traditional measures. In choosing players,
many of them deemed unfit for the big leagues, into one Beane makes much greater use of sophisticated sta-
of the Major League’s most successful franchises? The tistical analysis than other general managers, and he
Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane did it by hav- looks at different measures. For example, he favors
ing a different vision than the rest of the pack. Beane’s stats such as on-base percentage over batting aver-
unique vision and strategy built one of Major League age. Beane believes the ability to get on base—even
Baseball’s winningest teams with one of its smallest with a walk—is a valuable long-term asset, whereas
budgets. Unlike successful teams such as the New York traditional measures such as batting average or base
Yankees, which can afford to lavish millions on high- steals may mean nothing over the long haul.
profile free-agents, Beane looks for the hidden talents • The stats always rule. Scouting is de-emphasized in
among unwanted or undiscovered players. Oakland. Other managers sometimes reject a player
because he doesn’t “look” like a major leaguer, but
FINDING A DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH not Beane. If the statistics say an overweight college
Beane’s skill at finding baseball’s hidden gems comes catcher that nobody else wants should be a number one
partly from his own rocky experiences as a big-league draft pick, Beane goes for it. One player was signed on
outfielder, where he learned that there’s more to being without anyone from the A’s ever seeing him.
a good ball player than raw talent. The other part is his
unique vision and strategy for fielding a ball team. Here
THINKING RADICALLY
are some of Beane’s guiding principles:
The new statistical models and sophisticated tools Beane
• Buy low and sell high. Beane and his managers look is using to spot high-potential players have been around
for players at all levels—from high school and college for years, but they were used mostly by amateur baseball
to the minor and major leagues—who are undervalued enthusiasts: software engineers, statisticians, Wall Street
by others, whether because of a quirk in their play- analysts, lawyers, physics professors, and just run-of-the-mill
ing style or other managers’ narrow mindsets. When geeks. Billy Beane looked at the cache of numbers com-
other managers don’t see a player’s potential, Beane piled over the years and saw a new vision: the traditional
can swoop in and get him for a bargain. Then, he has yardsticks of success for baseball players are fatally flawed.
the discipline and sense of timing to trade a player By thinking differently and paying attention to obscure num-
once he’s turned him into a star who is highly desired bers, Beane has built a highly successful organization—and
by other teams. Beane picks up several new, low-cost perhaps revolutionized baseball management.
players with combined talents that roughly equal that
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis, is
of the player traded. published by W. W. Norton & Company.

an excellent chance to succeed in a competitive environment. But to do so, leaders
have to ensure that strategies are implemented—that actual behavior within the
organization refl ects the desired direction.

Deciding How to Get There
Strategy is implemented through specific mechanisms, techniques, or tools for

directing organizational resources to accomplish strategic goals. This is the basic
architecture for how things get done in the organization. Strategy implementation is Strategy implementation
Strategy implementation
putting strategy into action
the most important as well as the most diffi cult part of strategic management, putting strategy into action
by adjusting various parts of
and leaders must carefully and consistently manage the implementation process by adjusting various parts of
the organization and directing
the organization and directing
to achieve results. One recent survey found that only 57 percent of respond- resources to accomplish
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resources to accomplish
strategic goals
ing fi rms reported that managers successfully implemented the new strategies strategic goals
they had devised over the past three years. Other research has estimated that
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