Radical Hrm Innovation and Competitive Advantage: the Moneyball Story

ow is it that Moneyball (Lewis, 2003), a book seemingly about baseball, was among the Economist’s Books of 2003 in the Economics & Business category, was a New York Times bestseller, is referenced in Larry Bossidy’s most recent book (Bossidy & Charan, 2004), and motivated an argument in the National Review that American education would do well to adopt the rigorous analysis employed by Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics (Lips, 2004)? Moneyball is a book about baseball. When read through the lens of a management researcher, however, it is also a book about human resource management, innovation, resistance to change, competitive advantage, and achieving excellence. The focus of this article, therefore, will be on what HR executives and scholars can learn from the Moneyball phenomenon. While many would agree RADICAL HRM INNOVATION AND