How Did Billy Beane Change The Baseball World

Managing for Success Have you ever radically changed the way something is done, in a way that was never thought to have been possible, let alone successful? Well, this is exactly what Billy Beane did in the baseball world. Beane was a front office executive, acting as the general manager for the Oakland Athletics, where he would make a lasting impact on baseball. His unthinkable and unorthodox change to how baseball organizations were constructed was portrayed in the inspiring film, Moneyball, where Brad Pitt played the role of Beane. Beane abandoned all his previous knowledge and went out on a limb to completely change the trajectory of his team. Strategic Implementation of Change In the beginning of the film, Beane is sitting in the empty

$114,457,768 (New York), the player payrolls for each team. Beane pleads to the team’s owner for more money that the owner simply cannot afford. Beane urges his scouts to think differently, creating ideas to put a roster together to compete, despite the massive payroll disparity. The Athletics were losing three key players, which prompted Beane to think differently. This scene in the movie demonstrates good organizational culture, as Beane looks to receive his personnel’s best efforts through motivation. Organizational culture describes the shared assumptions that affect how work gets done. There are four types of organizational culture: clan, adhocracy, market, and hierarchy. Adhocracy culture is the type that closely relates to the Athletics’ organization, as it is a risk-taking culture that values flexibility. While meeting with his friend, a fellow general manager for the Cleveland Indians, Beane is introduced to an analyst, Peter Brand. Beane loved his intellect and approach to analyzing players. Beane and Brand would quickly mesh their ideas, combining baseball management and economic principles, and Brand was hired as assistant general