Playing the Numbers: Baseball
Despite popular interpretation, Playing the Numbers doesn't have to favor the bad guy, and it doesn't mean grasping at wild luck, via the Lottery or something similar-it's actually quite the opposite. Instead, let's look at Baseball, which is rife with statistics-some insightful and some absurd.
To most the Grand Slam is the exciting part, one heroic effort that yields a huge result, long term gain. This is the proverbial Whale, for Business Development. But as Smith & Searcy co-write in Whale Hunting, this enormous effort has higher stakes than just putting all your eggs in one basket.
To carry this further, an all-hands on deck approach to landing a Whale can be an invigorating experience, but should that Whale slip away, the result can be catastrophic-way beyond stranded base runners and a "game" lost.
Playing the Numbers can yield great results, predictable results, which is always good in business. From Bill James, the god-father of Sabermetrics, to Paul DePodesta, through Billy Beane (all made famous in Moneyball) and clear to Daryl Morey, Jeff Luhnow & A.J. Hinch, a strategy of building the best all-around solution has placed these franchises at the top of their leagues, year after year after year.
How does this relate to business? It's evaluating your people, your process, your product-to understand the most receptive markets. It's identifying your team's 'OPS rating,' bringing on great offensive players instead of putting all your chips on a single savior/once in a lifetime player.
Would you rather put everything on the line to try to win one customer and be utterly dependent on that customer's vitality and consequential revenue for the long haul, or would you prefer to land a wide diversification of customers who are right-sized to your solution.
Typically that thought process is turned upside down: right-sizing your solution for the customer. We've stated before, it starts with knowing your customer and then creating a product that solves their pain point.
In the coming weeks we'll Play the Numbers, look at how you can pull the right levers to stay in your lane; the lane that brings the greatest overall degree of successful outcomes for your company.
As always, we love hearing from you as to what you're experiencing as you drive growth for your company; please reach out below.
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