PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE MONEYDRILL W hat is Moneydrill? Well, it’s a play on words for the book and movie called Moneyball. If you didn’t know, Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics major league baseball team, will be our 2015 Hal Hunt Lecturer at the upcoming Annual Conference in Oakland, Calif., on October 14. Beane was the subject of Moneyball — the highly popular book and movie about building a very successful baseball team, the Oakland A’s, on a budget one-third the size of other major market teams in major league baseball. The movie starred Brad Pitt as Beane and Jonah Hill as Peter Brand, a fictional name for Paul DePodesta, a talented statistician who used scientific methods to assess a baseball player’s abilities to help a team win games. I think our industry faces similar challenges. In order to compete, Beane hired people that were smarter than himself (always a good idea), and implemented the concept of ‘sabermetrics’ — statistical analysis of player stats that did not concentrate on batting average, how fast the player was or how nice the players swing looked, but on OBP — On Base Percentage. That’s how baseball games are won. Players have to get on base before they can score a run. Maybe the guy doesn’t hit 30 homeruns, but he draws 60 walks. He gets on base a lot. Then he can score and the Players have to get on base before they can score a run. team can win. Beane hired data analysts just like we hire engineers, operators, etc. In order to implement this concept, Beane had to go up against more than 100 years of experience in major league baseball that did not value OBP. He was innovative and thought out of the Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics major league base- ball team, will be our 2015 Hal Hunt Lecturer at the upcoming Annual Conference ... John Wolosick, P.E., D.GE President [email protected] box. Isn’t that what our industry needs to be more competitive, to take the next big step? I think about Raymond International developing the step-taper pile. Lee Turzillo inventing the augercast pile. The first truck-mounted drill rig … MONEYDRILL ... What’s the next big innovation or out- of-the-box thinking that will allow our drills to install deep foundations more efficiently and make more money for our firms? Is it going to come from that bright young engineer you just hired out of tech school? Or a talented rig or tool designer? Only time will tell. Then maybe Brad Pitt will play YOU in a movie ... J Thank You to Our Underwriters Hunt Lecturer, Billy Beane,* on Wednesday, October 14, during the 40 Annual Conference on Deep Foundations. DFI thanks the following companies for underwriting the appearance of Hal th Bauer-Pileco Inc. Bermingham Foundation Solutions Brown Strauss Dan Brown and Associates, PC DYWIDAG-Systems International Champion Equipment Sales Frank C. Alegre Trucking Hammer & Steel Lehigh Hanson Liebherr Nenzing Crane Loadtest Marco Crane & Rigging Co. PJ’s Rebar, Inc. R.W. Conklin Steel Skyline Steel Specrete-IP, Inc. *Arrangements for the appearance of Billy Beane made through Greater Talent Network, Inc., New York, NY. DEEP FOUNDATIONS • SEPT/OCT 2015 • 7
