Don’t Be The Old Scouts in The Room:

Be Billy Beane

There’s a famous scene in Moneyball, one of my all-time favorite movies, that perfectly illustrates the age-old battle between tradition and innovation.

The fight between the old school and the new.

A prime example of how “experience,” isn’t always a good thing.

In the scene, Jonah Hill’s character, Peter Brand, sits in a scouting meeting with a room full of old-school baseball scouts. They talk about players the way they always have.

By using gut instinct, assumptions, and “experience” collected over decades.

“His legs are gone, he’s a defensive liability, and I question whether the bat speed is still there.”

“You don’t put a team together with a computer Billy.”

“There are intangibles that only baseball people understand.”

Meanwhile, Peter Brand, armed with actual data, tries to suggest players based on cold, hard statistics, only to be dismissed every time. The scouts don’t trust the numbers. They believe their years of knowledge are more valuable than data. They’re comfortable guessing, because they fear the new technology that’s proving them wrong.

Sound familiar?

Right Now, Many Businesses Are Still Sitting in That Room

We’re seeing the same dynamic play out today, not in baseball, but in business.

In some industries companies and brands have made decisions based on intuition, past experience, and “the way things have always been done.” It’s comfortable. It feels safe.

And even when AI-powered data insights challenge that traditional way of thinking, it’s easy to dismiss them, just like those scouts dismissed Peter Brand.

But here’s the reality, and I’ll let Brad Pitts character Billy Beane answer to the scouts sum this one up.

“Adapt or die.” 

Theres no reason to be guessing, when you should be knowing. Just like in baseball, the way we can make decisions has changed forever. And honestly, you don’t want to be the dinosaur in the room.

Adapt or die.

Proprietary Data is the Moneyball Stat of Business

Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt in the movie, saw the future before anyone else. He realized that data-driven decisions were more reliable than gut instinct, and he embraced the numbers when others resisted. The result? The Oakland A’s built a winning team without big budgets or star players. They won a championship by using smarter insights.

Companies that rely only on gut instinct are, and will, fall behind. Those who leverage AI-powered insights, built on real, proprietary customer or consumer data are making smarter, faster, and more effective decisions.

Adapt or die.

The Problem: Most Businesses Are Still Guessing

Right now, many businesses are relying on the same generic market data as everyone else. They’re essentially using the same scouting reports, making the same decisions, and wondering why they aren’t getting ahead.

But the businesses that win are the ones who move beyond generic AI models and start using their own proprietary data, data collected directly from their customers. Sourced straight from their consumers.

Don’t Be the Old Scout in the Room: Be the Billy Beane of Your Industry

The old scouts thought they knew better. They laughed at the idea of replacing their intuition with data. But history proved them wrong, and soon, every team in baseball was using the very system they mocked.

The same thing is happening in business. AI and data-driven decision-making aren’t optional anymore. The businesses that ignore it, who rely on guesswork instead of real insights, will be left behind.

So the question remains.

Do you want to be the Jonah Hill of your business, or do you want to be the old scout stuck in the past?

Adapt or die. 

The choice is yours. 

Stian Løkling Pedersen

Founder & CEO

Recent blog articles from Foodback