Red Sox hire outside consulting firm to audit organization

Gash Prex

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Some details for the paywall victims?
“We are using an outside consulting firm to help me wrap my arms around this operation,” said Breslow. “It’s big. It’s grown a ton in the last three or four years. And with that comes the need to understand: Who are our people? What work are they doing? Is it impacting our on-field outcomes in a meaningful way? Do we have inefficiency and redundancy or are we operating in a really efficient and effective manner?
“I think the development of sound systems and efficient processes is the difference between boom or bust cycles — which will have a run of success at times — and long-term organizational health,” said Breslow. “Very rarely are organizations successful because they get a single big decision right. They’re successful because they get a number of marginal or incremental decisions right. And I think a sound, efficient infrastructure is what allows that.”
“In-season, there’s a certain amount of crisis response that pops up,” said Breslow. “In a lot of ways, we’re kind of playing Whack-a-Mole. That can distract from the bigger-picture structural organizational attention. The thought here is that if I can articulate and lay out the vision that I have for a front office, then I can employ an unbiased executor to help achieve that.”
Breslow said the audit started in the last few weeks, and that he requested it.
 

AlNipper49

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Pete should probably read the entire article. The consultants are there to assess organizational efficiency.
 

snowmanny

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True but this quote by Breslow: “Very rarely are organizations successful because they get a single big decision right. They’re successful because they get a number of marginal or incremental decisions right”

isn’t exactly correct when it comes to sports teams. Trading Mookie Betts, drafting Mitch Trubisky over Patrick Mahomes, or drafting Rick Robey over Larry Bird, are not moves that can be overcome by getting ten marginal decisions correct.

Now Breslow knows this (hopefully) and was making a different point (presumably). But Abraham was right to point out that there are singularly good and bad decisions out there, at least from the fan perspective.
 

moondog80

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Pete should probably read the entire article. The consultants are there to assess organizational efficiency.
Some people are simply never going to get over trading Mookie Betts, and will ham-fistedly insert it into every conversation.
 

AlNipper49

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Exactly what it sounds like to me.
Not necessarily. We do this a lot on the tech side and have organizational consultants bring us in. I mean…there can be layoffs but it’s usually ‘wait, nobody can tell me what this fucking person actually does???’ or ‘why do we have three departments doing the same job.

The majority of time we’re in there it’s to become more profitable through increased efficiency. As Breslow stated off of the bat, he gets caught up in random bullshit all the time, not surprising, and would rather use his brain juice (and clearing the way for others to do the same) on problems that have a bigger impact on the organization.

With that said, I wonder if Theo was consulted on this. He seems like the type of guy who has done similar things in the past.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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True but this quote by Breslow: “Very rarely are organizations successful because they get a single big decision right. They’re successful because they get a number of marginal or incremental decisions right”

isn’t exactly correct when it comes to sports teams. Trading Mookie Betts, drafting Mitch Trubisky over Patrick Mahomes, or drafting Rick Robey over Larry Bird, are not moves that can be overcome by getting ten marginal decisions correct.

Now Breslow knows this (hopefully) and was making a different point (presumably). But Abraham was right to point out that there are singularly good and bad decisions out there, at least from the fan perspective.
To quote a baseball executive from the 1980's: "The Cubs traded a horse and wound up with two ponies."
 

joe dokes

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I'm not getting that ...
Nor did I.** I read it as everything *except* talent acquisition and disposal. More of evaluating the internal org structure that leads to those outcomes.

**Unless one considers having fewer mid-level executives to be a disguised money-saving move. (I dont).
 

RS2004foreever

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For those who have not been in Corporate America:
1. Step 1 - a new CEO is appointed
2. Step 2 - the new CEO dreams of "operational efficiencies" - in other words he/she wants to fire a bunch of people and they need cover to do it.
3. Step 3 - McKinsey or someone like that is hired to advise, and the consultant bill is so high the RIF is larger than it needs to be.
4. Step 4 - RIF!!!
 

ColdSoxPack

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I don't know what RIF means but I have experience with consultants and hiring a company with no baseball experience to evaluate your business sounds like a bad idea.
 

joe dokes

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I don't know what RIF means but I have experience with consultants and hiring a company with no baseball experience to evaluate your business sounds like a bad idea.
Breslow said the audit started in the last few weeks, and that he requested it. Sportsology is a New York- and London-based consulting firm that has advised a number of professional teams in the US and abroad. Clients identified on its website include the 49ers, Rams, and Eagles in the NFL, the Mavericks and Wizards in the NBA, and Inter Miami, Cincinnati FC, the Chicago Fire, and LAFC in MLS.
I'm not concerned about the apparent lack of baseball experience -- though its hard to be sure -- as it does not appear they will be consulting much about actual baseball. I've never been in corporate-world, but I'm assuming this is more about communication within the organization, redundancies or lack thereof -- things that translate to sports in general.

Plus, they have a guy named Manhire on their website. So clearly they wont be firing anyone.
 

Yo La Tengo

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I think Breslow is looking at this and thinking there might be a better way. His moves to date, large and small, have been effective so I'm willing to assume these consultants will be as well.


81912
 

YTF

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I like that Breslow requested it. It show that he has concerns that there are aspects of the organization that are affecting the ability to do the job that he was hired to do. I also appreciate that the request was honored.
 

azsoxpatsfan

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If I were a betting man, this means they’re trying to find redundancies and nothing should really change
 

joe dokes

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I like that Breslow requested it. It show that he has concerns that there are aspects of the organization that are affecting the ability to do the job that he was hired to do. I also appreciate that the request was honored.
I think it's even more than that. It's not that he doesn't have concerns. He seems to concede that he doesn't have enough knowledge about many parts of the organization to even have concerns (or not have them). And that it's damn near impossible to run the day to day AND gather that info at the same time (to 'wrap my arms around the operation.").
 

YTF

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I think it's even more than that. It's not that he doesn't have concerns. He seems to concede that he doesn't have enough knowledge about many parts of the organization to even have concerns (or not have them). And that it's damn near impossible to run the day to day AND gather that info at the same time (to 'wrap my arms around the operation.").
That may well be part of it as well and if so good for him.
 

astrozombie

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Yeah my gut is this a prelude to headcount reduction. My gut also says this has nothing to do with a potential sale (sometimes these things go together) and more just cutting costs.
 

4 6 3 DP

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For those who have not been in Corporate America:
1. Step 1 - a new CEO is appointed
2. Step 2 - the new CEO dreams of "operational efficiencies" - in other words he/she wants to fire a bunch of people and they need cover to do it.
3. Step 3 - McKinsey or someone like that is hired to advise, and the consultant bill is so high the RIF is larger than it needs to be.
4. Step 4 - RIF!!!
This, this, this.

The reference to chaim blooms hires is the giveaway. They want organizational cover when he dumps a bunch of guys that chaim brought in.

There is zero chance that Craig breslow with his experience, mentors, owners, and education needs a consultant to tell him how to set up a baseball ops organization.

Though I will say as a disciple of @TomRicardo this smells of the kinda of thing that good old Sam Kennedy would want to do.

But I think he's even more competent than that.
 

Ale Xander

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Yeah my gut is this a prelude to headcount reduction. My gut also says this has nothing to do with a potential sale (sometimes these things go together) and more just cutting costs.
They definitely can afford to lay off some inside sales reps and security folk (especially the latter if they can confince Aramark to do the same) They even have some Mets fans in sales now.
and those Pavilion waitresses covering 13-15 and 16-20 don’t really have much work now.
 

The Talented Allen Ripley

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Maybe I'm not as cynical as most here (which might be a first), but I've worked with outside consultants at several different employers who were brought in to evaluate our processes and workflows in order to make things more effective and efficient. It had nothing to do with personnel, apart from determining if there were better ways to utilize people and their interactions.

Some of you watch too many movies and TV shows.
 
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jon abbey

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Maybe I'm not as cynical as most here (which might be a first), but I've worked on several occasions with outside consultants who were brought in to evaluate our processes and workflows in order to make things more effective and efficient. It had nothing to do with personnel, apart from determining if there were better ways to utilize people and their interactions.

Some of you watch too many movies and TV shows.
This is what I think it is, the Yankees did the same thing this past winter and nothing obvious has resulted.

"The identity of the company hired to help the New York Yankees has finally been revealed.

Zelus Analytics, a sports analytics company, will allow the Yankees to view how they crunch their numbers in terms of player performance, in-game decision-making and much more, according to a league source. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.

On Aug. 31, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner told The Associated Press the team was “looking to bring in possibly an outside company to really take a look at the analytics side of what we do.” That company is Zelus, which has worked with several other Major League Baseball teams, and with teams in other professional sports since it was founded in 2019.

Two of Zelus’ co-founders once worked in the Dodgers’ front office. Doug Fearing, chief executive officer, founded the Dodgers’ research and development department while Dan Cervone, its principal data scientist, was Los Angeles’ former director of quantitative research. Its website lists 70 employees, many with “scientist” in their job titles. Andrew Hopen, Zelus’ senior data scientist, worked in the Yankees’ analytics department.

Vince Gennaro, the associate dean of the Preston Robert Tisch Institute for Global Sport at New York University, said Zelus’ employee list looks like a “dream team of analytics.” "

https://theathletic.com/5022695/2023/11/02/yankees-zelus-analytics-offseason/
 

Lose Remerswaal

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They definitely can afford to lay off some inside sales reps and security folk (especially the latter if they can confince Aramark to do the same) They even have some Mets fans in sales now.
and those Pavilion waitresses covering 13-15 and 16-20 don’t really have much work now.
They can't outsource much of security. No benefit to doing so. They generally promote from within, too, so if entry level is outsourced you lose your supply of upper level security folks. And with ticket sales what they are(n't), getting rid of sales staff makes no sense
 

Manramsclan

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There is the cynical view which has a very high probability of being correct.
There is also the fact that the organizational philosophy has been *ahem* fluid, and boom or bust has been the nature of the organization for almost 15 years. Ownership has been yanking the rudder back and forth in a very reactionary way. There has been very little consistency. I do believe that ownership has been striving for stability post 2018*. We may very well have patchwork of 5 different philosophies that are either in conflict, or with a little fine tuning could finally form the $200 M developmental machine that was promised(I know it was $100).

*Not well, but I digress
 

joe dokes

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There is zero chance that Craig breslow with his experience, mentors, owners, and education needs a consultant to tell him how to set up a baseball ops organization.
It's not about "setting one up." This isn't an expansion team. It's about seeing the ful scope of this one and how to best use/change the one he has.
His experience, as many here cautioned at his hiring, is pretty limited. (I think the consensus here was that he'd be very able nevertheless, but it's indisputable that he's had zero time in the head chair).

Maybe I'm not as cynical as most here (which might be a first), but I've worked with outside consultants at several different employers who were brought in to evaluate our processes and workflows in order to make things more effective and efficient. It had nothing to do with personnel, apart from determining if there were better ways to utilize people and their interactions.
This may end up with personnel changes, but I agree that's unlikely to be the goal. I take him at his word. He is at the top of a giant organization, and he wants a neutral evaluation/explanation of what all the facets are doing and how they interact with each other toward the overall goal of sustainable winning, something that has been conspicuously absent for the last 10 years.
To those who think this is about $$---how much money can the team really save by canning a bunch of mid-level exec types?
 

Manramsclan

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This is what I think it is, the Yankees did the same thing this past winter and nothing obvious has resulted.

"The identity of the company hired to help the New York Yankees has finally been revealed.

Zelus Analytics, a sports analytics company, will allow the Yankees to view how they crunch their numbers in terms of player performance, in-game decision-making and much more, according to a league source. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.

On Aug. 31, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner told The Associated Press the team was “looking to bring in possibly an outside company to really take a look at the analytics side of what we do.” That company is Zelus, which has worked with several other Major League Baseball teams, and with teams in other professional sports since it was founded in 2019.

Two of Zelus’ co-founders once worked in the Dodgers’ front office. Doug Fearing, chief executive officer, founded the Dodgers’ research and development department while Dan Cervone, its principal data scientist, was Los Angeles’ former director of quantitative research. Its website lists 70 employees, many with “scientist” in their job titles. Andrew Hopen, Zelus’ senior data scientist, worked in the Yankees’ analytics department.

Vince Gennaro, the associate dean of the Preston Robert Tisch Institute for Global Sport at New York University, said Zelus’ employee list looks like a “dream team of analytics.” "

https://theathletic.com/5022695/2023/11/02/yankees-zelus-analytics-offseason/
This seems very different than what Sportsology does. This seems entirely based on quantitative analysis and not organizational efficiency/roles etc.
 

cannonball 1729

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The reference to chaim blooms hires is the giveaway. They want organizational cover when he dumps a bunch of guys that chaim brought in.
I'm confused - why would they need organizational cover? Who are they getting cover from? Why wouldn't Breslow just dump the guys that he doesn't want? Dumping people from the previous regime is pretty standard practice for the new head of a baseball organization.

I guess the hard time I'm having with the cynical takes is that if Breslow or ownership wanted to do something like the described, they would just...do it, rather than brining in a team of Lumberghs to rubber stamp it. They're fully capable of keeping payroll low or cutting workforce or getting rid of Bloom guys on their own. There are no shareholders to report to, and fans certainly aren't going to be convinced by a consulting report. So why would they bring in a consulting firm to convince no one in particular that they should do whatever they want to do?
 

dynomite

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I'm confused - why would they need organizational cover? Who are they getting cover from? Why wouldn't Breslow just dump the guys that he doesn't want? Dumping people from the previous regime is pretty standard practice for the new head of a baseball organization.

I guess the hard time I'm having with the cynical takes is that if Breslow or ownership wanted to do something like the described, they would just...do it, rather than brining in a team of Lumberghs to rubber stamp it. They're fully capable of keeping payroll low or cutting workforce or getting rid of Bloom guys on their own. There are no shareholders to report to, and fans certainly aren't going to be convinced by a consulting report. So why would they bring in a consulting firm to convince no one in particular that they should do whatever they want to do?
This is what I was about to type up, and you did it better than I would have.

Breslow is clearly a data driven guy, and this is his first time running the show of a massive organization. I'm not sure that this will be effective or we as fans will notice any changes, but I can see some non-nefarious explanations for why Breslow would want a 3rd party to lay out for him who is doing what across the entire organization and potentially compare it to what peer organizations are doing for illustration.

We all know the Sox have been in a boom & bust cycle for about a decade. Breslow seems to have a long-term strategy to end that, and I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for now.
 

nvalvo

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I'm confused - why would they need organizational cover? Who are they getting cover from? Why wouldn't Breslow just dump the guys that he doesn't want? Dumping people from the previous regime is pretty standard practice for the new head of a baseball organization.

I guess the hard time I'm having with the cynical takes is that if Breslow or ownership wanted to do something like the described, they would just...do it, rather than brining in a team of Lumberghs to rubber stamp it. They're fully capable of keeping payroll low or cutting workforce or getting rid of Bloom guys on their own. There are no shareholders to report to, and fans certainly aren't going to be convinced by a consulting report. So why would they bring in a consulting firm to convince no one in particular that they should do whatever they want to do?
I don't know anything, nor am I insinuating anything, but maybe the audience for the report is ownership.
 

4 6 3 DP

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Craig breslow just worked in another organization, for Theo Epstein who not only ran multiple organizations, but also just worked for MLB and had access to the inner workings of how probably every team in baseball was run.

The idea that breslow etc al need a consulting firm to evaluate who does what to me completely escapes reality.

Now, if you want to follow the framework that FSG is now a big holding company and they told breslow to hire some consultants to satisfy some investor somewhere that things are running well, certainly that happens in bureaucratic organizations all the time, and if that's what the Red Sox are now, so be it.

Frankly that fits the narrative that Henry Werner etc are just the face now of a much bigger investment group treating it like a portfolio company, and those types of holding companies love consultants.

But breslow is toeing the company line here saying it's his idea. There's no way he needs a consultant to tell him how to run baseball ops.
 

VORP Speed

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Breslow got to Envelope #2 pretty quick.






A new executive is hired to take over a struggling business unit. During the handover meeting, the previous executive gives the newbie three numbered envelopes with the recommendation to open them when things go poorly.

After two quarters, profits don’t improve and the new executive starts to feel significant pressure from his boss. Remembering the three envelopes, he opens the first one and reads the message, “Blame your predecessor.” He dutifully explains to his boss the previous executive had left a bigger mess than expected and it will take a bit longer to fix things – but everything is under control. Satisfied with the explanation, the boss turns her attention elsewhere.

A few quarters later the business unit is still missing its financial projections. Having learned from the previous experience, the executive consults the second envelope which contains the message “Reorganize.” The executive hires outside consultants, makes a number of ‘critically-needed changes’ and ‘doubles efforts on core strengths.’ Financial results seemingly improve.

Less than two years after taking over the business unit, the executive finds himself in another crisis. Out of ideas, the executive goes to his office, closes the door, and opens the third envelope.
The message says “Prepare Three Envelopes.”
 

RG33

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It is easier to bring in an outside consultant to tell colleagues / peers / underlings / executives that their baby is ugly, than it is for you to have to do it yourself as the new person.

It’s that simple.

Some change will come from this. It doesn’t mean anything aside from Breslow wants to run a tight ship. I take it as a good sign.
 

OCST

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True but this quote by Breslow: “Very rarely are organizations successful because they get a single big decision right. They’re successful because they get a number of marginal or incremental decisions right”

isn’t exactly correct when it comes to sports teams. Trading Mookie Betts, drafting Mitch Trubisky over Patrick Mahomes, or drafting Rick Robey over Larry Bird, are not moves that can be overcome by getting ten marginal decisions correct.
Obviously true, in the macro sense.

But it can also be true that distinguishing the one Mahomes in the pack of Trubinksys had be be grounded in some data, some process. an Auerbach- type guru is not making these calls on gut instinct anymore. If there can be incremental approval in the means and methods, sure why not.
 

8slim

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"It’s big. It’s grown a ton in the last three or four years."

This is what stood out to me (granted I can't read the whole piece). Apparently, Bloom hired a "ton" of people, and it seems like Breslow is wondering why. Also seems like he doesn't have the time to investigate it himself, so he hired someone to do it.

Of course it'll result in layoffs, but ultimately I suspect it'll be a nothing burger. They'll draw some new org lines, codify some new processes, and no one outside the org will have any idea things changed.
 

moondog80

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I don’t relish anyone losing their job, but if there are in fact redundancies and inefficiencies that can be streamlined, shouldn’t they do that?
 

azsoxpatsfan

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This is absolutely a nothing burger. Anyone worried by this needs to get a grip and realize it doesn’t affect the team at all. This will have no impact on the team and I have no idea why we have a thread about it
 

YTF

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I don’t relish anyone losing their job, but if there are in fact redundancies and inefficiencies that can be streamlined, shouldn’t they do that?
Yep. If you see the Hamilton, Reyes and Valdez equivalent in the FO do you just roll with it? Just because you don't have the confines of a 26 or 40 man roster does that mean that you have unlimited roster space?