Looking at how a ‘Moneyball’ approach is able to lift supply chains

In the early 2000s, the Oakland A’s, led by General Manager Billy Beane, turned to a concept dubbed “Moneyball” in an approach to compete with higher-payroll Major League Baseball teams.

That approach defined the next 20-plus years of ballplayer evaluations, turning each player into a data-rich repository that, if parsed correctly, could cobble together a championship roster.

As supply chain leaders continue to push for greater influence within the C-suite, many still find themselves viewed through a dated lens—as cost managers rather than strategic growth drivers. That perception, according to Al Mendoza, business consulting principal at EY, needs to change.

“We recently did an analysis at EY and we found that of the C-suite, 89% still classify supply chain as a cost center,” Mendoza tells Supply Chain Management Review. “We found that they said that about 70% of companies are almost back in their pre-pandemic mindset around thinking of supply chain as once again where the most cost is and then driving costs as opposed to customer satisfaction, enabling growth, and driving innovation.”

It's time to turn the supply chain into the early version of the Oakland A’s. Rich with data, supply chain managers have the opportunity to create a narrative around the value of each of their key functions. Companies like Procter & Gamble have done it by focusing on a concept called “One Supply Chain.”

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