Thanks for this Joe. Sabermetrics is effective in analyzing past results and predicting future outcomes only to the extent that it measures numbers that truly matter. This means tracking runs scored, OBP, and WHIP rather than stats like batting average that don't directly tell you anything about the likelihood of a desired outcome. I preface my comment with this, because I think it's important for aspiring managers to realize that metrics are not in and of themselves valuable unless they are tied in meaningful ways to business results. To be effective, management needs to know what you want to know, what measures can best help you answer that question, and how best to collect the data you need to understand your business environment. I'll give an example here: Social media. More than a few companies that I have knowledge of are using completely arbitrary metrics to gauge the success of their social media projects - without proper consideration for what they are trying to measure and need to accomplish to create value for end users and by extension for the business. Web hits may be a good measure of success for a news site, but it's a poor gauge for the viability of an online community. Similarly, measuring clicks without having some sort of mechanism for obtaining qualitative feedback won't tell management anything about customer value perceptions of a social media offering. The point here is that whether we're talking about baseball, Web 2.0, manufacturing, or anything else - it's not measuring that matters so much as measuring the right things. I'm curious to hear your take on this.
I was absolutely furious after the Tigers loss to the Twins earlier in the week, so I went online and started looking up sabermetric strategy pertaining to the Detroit Tigers roster. I had moderate success until I came across the blog http://fireleyland.blogspot.com. I firmly believe that if Leyland selectively implemented sabermetrics in his decision making process, the Tigers would have been moderately more successful throughout the season. It is absurd to me that there are still managers out there who make their decisions without consulting the data first. I believe that given their salary cap struggles, we will start seeing the Tigers implement sabermetrics to start optimizing the value that they currently have on their roster. I think every dugout should come standard with at least 1 statistician to help these managers out a bit. Concurrently, irreverence for actual data results in less than satisfactory outcomes regardless of your occupation and job title. Effective leaders tend to have an uncanny ability to evaluate situations independently and execute on decisions; however I would like to see them implement a more holistic full scope decision making procedure.
2 comments:
Thanks for this Joe. Sabermetrics is effective in analyzing past results and predicting future outcomes only to the extent that it measures numbers that truly matter. This means tracking runs scored, OBP, and WHIP rather than stats like batting average that don't directly tell you anything about the likelihood of a desired outcome. I preface my comment with this, because I think it's important for aspiring managers to realize that metrics are not in and of themselves valuable unless they are tied in meaningful ways to business results. To be effective, management needs to know what you want to know, what measures can best help you answer that question, and how best to collect the data you need to understand your business environment. I'll give an example here: Social media. More than a few companies that I have knowledge of are using completely arbitrary metrics to gauge the success of their social media projects - without proper consideration for what they are trying to measure and need to accomplish to create value for end users and by extension for the business. Web hits may be a good measure of success for a news site, but it's a poor gauge for the viability of an online community. Similarly, measuring clicks without having some sort of mechanism for obtaining qualitative feedback won't tell management anything about customer value perceptions of a social media offering. The point here is that whether we're talking about baseball, Web 2.0, manufacturing, or anything else - it's not measuring that matters so much as measuring the right things. I'm curious to hear your take on this.
I was absolutely furious after the Tigers loss to the Twins earlier in the week, so I went online and started looking up sabermetric strategy pertaining to the Detroit Tigers roster. I had moderate success until I came across the blog http://fireleyland.blogspot.com. I firmly believe that if Leyland selectively implemented sabermetrics in his decision making process, the Tigers would have been moderately more successful throughout the season. It is absurd to me that there are still managers out there who make their decisions without consulting the data first. I believe that given their salary cap struggles, we will start seeing the Tigers implement sabermetrics to start optimizing the value that they currently have on their roster. I think every dugout should come standard with at least 1 statistician to help these managers out a bit. Concurrently, irreverence for actual data results in less than satisfactory outcomes regardless of your occupation and job title. Effective leaders tend to have an uncanny ability to evaluate situations independently and execute on decisions; however I would like to see them implement a more holistic full scope decision making procedure.
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