Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
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There’s no guarantee that the baseball team with the highest payroll will win the World Series. In fact, unsung individuals who play together have often beaten a group of superstars who don’t. The best baseball managers instill the ethic of teamwork. What might project managers learn from their baseball counterparts to do the same?
In baseball, it’s conventional wisdom that teams with higher payrolls perform better those with lower payrolls. In the article "If You Don't Pay, You Lose" in The Sporting News, Steve Marantz wrote, "In baseball, as in no other professional sport, championships are purchased, lock, stock and barrel." However, there are so many exceptions to this statement as to render it false. Most dramatically, the Florida Marlins won the World Series in 2003 with the 25th highest payroll out of 30. The same year, the Oakland Athletics had the fourth best record with the 23rd highest payroll. Last year, the Cleveland Indians, Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres had the best, fifth-best and eighth-best records, while having the 23rd, 26th and 24th highest payrolls.
The great Babe Ruth said it as well as anyone: “You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.” Some 80 years later, the Babe’s New York …
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