The Importance Of Design Thinking In Michael Lewis 'CAD Monkeys'

When new industries prosper and disrupt the old, the old are then forced to adapt to the new market or fail. For example, when the new television streaming company, Netflix, began to flourish, the old Blockbuster failed to adapt and many stores went out of business. Innovation happens through a creative process, design thinking, that challenges the way things have been done in the past. In CAD Monkeys, Warren Berger defines design thinking as a way to view things sideways, how to reframe, rearrange, experiment, and refine the way of the past. In Moneyball by Michael Lewis, the design thinking process is shown from the perspective of Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics. Beane utilizes the principles of design thinking by …show more content…
He expresses this idea by explaining how successful businesses, such as Target and Coca-Cola, are often stepping back and asking questions to find new ways to effectively innovate and refine their products, services, and overall operations. Throughout the entirety of Moneyball, this is exactly what Beane was doing: “If you challenge the conventional wisdom, you will find ways to do things much better than they are currently done” (Lewis 98). Beane did not like the old style of recruiting based off of appearance and he was constantly asking himself how to change the system. When he met Paul DePodesta, Harvard economics major and a fan of baseball, he knew this was his chance; he challenged conventional wisdom and created a much better system of recruiting based on statistics. Beane was able to recruit players that he could afford to help his team win, despite the fact, all the other scouts referred to them as misfits because they didn’t look the part. Due to Beane’s ability to ask the “stupid questions,” he was able to change the entire system of baseball recruiting and lead his team to a successful