I recently finished reading Michael Lewis’ Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. It’s an excellent book about the Oakland A’s baseball team’s visionary General Manager, Billy Beane, and how he is able to succeed while only spending a fraction of what other teams spend. Beane’s philosophy was to question the formula which determines a player’s worth and reevaluate the data and process which leads to a team’s success.
Beane began to implement computer programs which would search for key stats to find players who would often be overlooked by player scouts due to size or speed. He found flaws in some of the most accepted statistics which were used to determine a players worth. And he developed his own formula for finding the most cost-effective way to build a winning team.
The thinking behind Beane’s philosophy reminded me of Data Troop’s Small But Smart Business plan. Finding a way to get big business technologies on a small business budget and reevaluating the status quo of how to run a small business. Using programs like Google Adwords as opposed to Yellow Book advertising, our 24/7 monitoring system (Elite Care managed service plan) rather than break/fix retainer contracts and off-site PBX systems are solutions which are slowly but surely catching on in the SMB market.
Every business is unique and each has various needs which can benefit from different technology solutions. But with all the available low cost options today it’s imperative to periodically reevaluate your use of technology and find a better way to run your business.