Moneyball. Ivy League analytics. Why it could kill your efforts.

[Dien Rice]

Hi Gordon,

Sorry I haven't posted for a few days... I'm also a part-time band manager on the side, and the band I manage was preparing to perform at a big festival this weekend, which means I had to chase up a few last minute things in the background...

Hey, but it's pretty cool getting to go to a festival - and getting paid to be there!

Now, there's more than one way to "skin a cat" (whenever someone says that, cats everywhere are cringing )...!

And I think there's definitely more than one way to succeed in business...

For example, one way is by being a master of technology innovation. A lot of companies in the pioneering "tech" space do well because of this... This I would say is Elon Musk's main strength (for example), with Tesla and SpaceX...

Another way is through superior marketing. I would say that the main "competitive advantage" that Ben Suarez and SCI have is due to Ben's superior marketing skills...

For others, the competitive advantage could be through squeezing every single drop of efficiency from the operation... And beating the competition through that.

That's probably the original competitive advantage of the McDonald brothers...

By making burgers on an assembly line, they could make burgers faster than anyone else, sell them at a lower price, and have high quality too...

But I'm with you, Gordon... the Harvey Brody business model is ingenious!

He essentially runs a "virtual corporation"... Where he manufactures quality products, sells them in high volume... and does it with just three people, including himself...!

I feel we're lucky to have had an "inside view"...

Best wishes!

Dien

Originally Posted by GordonJ

I loved the movie MONEYBALL, Jonah Hill being the Yale dude who could read a spread sheet.

Today, Baseball and FOOTBALL (NFL) have been overtaken and enamored with analytics, so too has Internet Marketers. Some thoughts:

My team, the BROWNS, have a head coach from this new school of thought and we see him on the sideline with his big HOTSHEET, a custom tailored analytical view of how to play the opposition.

And they stink. Most embarrassing game ever last week after a bye. Of course, the analytics only hold up IF the players on the field meet their analytical expectations. When a player under performs, like all 11 defensive players, well there has to be an adjustment made on the spread sheet. The ivy league coaches, apparently, don't recognize this.

OK, ok, my rant against my team, well, hardly worth the effort, we have 50 years of suffering, probably will never make it to the superbowl. Our wonderkind new quarterback might break his toes on his first play in two years and be out for this season, and some of next...wouldn't that be justice of sorts?

But here is the thing with IM and analytics. You need to have sales first.

The analysis of no sales is: your marketing sucks.

Now, coming out of a Ben Suarez run company, and he may have been the first of the business analytic geniuses, and a lot of what makes 7 STEPS TO FREEDOM II so boring is the analytical section. It is also a key to making a lot of money if you aren't bored and actually apply what he teaches.

Here is my take. I believe there is exponential slop and mess as you grow your business to the point where analytics of a change of a word on a promotion, is akin to squeezing milk from a stone, when you have a carafe of fresh milk in the fridge.

Maybe because Dien and I both have had so much contact with Harvey Brody, and we like the boutique business model, one man with a little help, and have seen what a well oiled NO employee, NO team, few moving parts business can look like...and still produce enough money for FREEDOM.

Point elGordo? If you are focusing on analytics to get to freedom, maybe work toward freedom first, and let your accountant, banker and lawyer be your analytics team.

I could be wrong.

GordonJ