The thesis (non-explicit but totally obvious) underlying Moneyball is "Everything Baseball Needs to Know About Franchise Management, it Can Learn From Wall Street". It applies lessons Lewis has learned in his years as the Western World's finest and most readable insider financial journalist. The book takes those lessons and shows how a small (but growing) cadre of youngish professionals have taken those lessons and used them to squeeze value out of resources that others undervalue, all driven by their own lack of resources.
Lewis
doesn't know a ton about baseball, but, extra-bright guy that he
is, he learned a goodly amount while working on the book, easily
surpassing the average fan's understanding. So how's Management
By Baseball different?
The thesis of my work, about 170 degrees away from Lewis', is: Everything You Need to Know About Management You Can Learn From Baseball. It applies lessons I learned as a baseball reporter and management consultant. The work takes those lessons and shows how people can become better managers in any kind of organization by applying lessons learned from the National Pastime.
Some of
the people I interviewed for my work had already talked with
Lewis. Perhaps Lewis interviewed some people I had already spoken
with. So we're pretty different...bearing just about opposite
takes on common subjects.
Having said that, if you haven't read Moneyball yet and you want to learn many gripping things about the way teams scout and acquire players, do succession planning and manage resources, as well as get some gossip on some current baseball people off- and on the field, I strongly urge you to buy it & read it. It's both insightful and fun.
This blog arms you with practical examples and proven techniques you can use to improve your managerial effectiveness. Management consultant, baseball writer, and columnist for InformationWeek, Computerworld, and InfoWorld, I draw from my managerial experiences to show how anyone can become a better manager by taking lessons from the National Pastime.
Management by Baseball delivers lessons structured around a model: the baseball diamond. Like that diamond, the model has four “bases”: skill sets (operational management, people management, self-management, and change management) managers have to master to be effective at their jobs. Like a baseball player trying to score a run, a manager has to touch all the bases and do it in sequential order.
First Base — Managing the Mechanics
Every day of the baseball season, skippers skillfully juggle complex decisions from choosing a lineup to calling for a steal. In the dugout, they handle abstract concepts like time management and training techniques. In the office, they pore over research reports and apply them to the problems at hand. Readers will learn from the masters the methods of successful operational management—and lessons in what to avoid from baseball’s biggest bunglers.
Second Base — Managing Talent
Great baseball managers know how to get the most out of a team over a long season by understanding how to evaluate and motivate players, and when and how to hire and fire them. Readers will learn how to apply those models to their own teams.
Third Base — Managing Yourself
The most successful managers in and out of baseball learn enough about their own habits, biases, and strengths to overcome preconceived notions. Readers will boost their own skills through examples of how baseball’s best and worst came to grips with intellectual and emotional blind spots that undermined their effectiveness.
Home Plate — Managing Change…and Driving It
The best baseball managers know how to adapt to significant changes in the game. So should anyone who works outside a ballpark. Lessons from baseball will improve readers’ ability to thrive in times of change and actively drive changes to their company's advantage — and their own.
If you look closely enough, baseball can teach you almost everything you need to know about management, whether it’s project management, getting the most out of staff, strategic planning, facing difficult organizational challenges, or engaging big changes in a specific industry or the economy.
At a time when managerial ability is both scant and absolutely necessary for hard-pressed organizations’ survival, Management by Baseball shakes up readers’ notions of management, peppering them with practical examples and proven, practical tools. It will open their minds so they can create and polish new approaches to the challenges that chew up their peers and competitors.
Drawing from my frontline management consulting experience, exclusive interviews from my baseball reporting, and fascinating research from baseball's best contemporary observers, I deliver practical and entertaining lessons from over a century of the National Pastime for fans and businessfolk alike.