The quest for efficiency – which basically means the quest for the almighty dollar – can cause individuals to sometimes become a little too eager to make a move in the hopes of improving their economic situations.
I have a confession to make: I’m a fantasy sports junkie.
What once began as a nice, little hobby when I joined a high school friend’s fantasy football league about 10 years ago has evolved into quite a time-consuming passion for me. Significant portions of evenings and weekends are often consumed by my desire to read just about every piece of analysis available on the Internet, whether it’s about football, basketball, baseball, and since last year – hockey.
If it’s a Sunday afternoon between the months of September and January, you’ll find me camped out at home in front of my television, proudly wearing an A.J. Hawk Green Bay Packers jersey, and methodically hitting the refresh button on my laptop computer’s web browser to determine which Indianapolis Colts wide receiver just caught a touchdown pass from quarterback Peyton Manning. To a lesser fantasy sports enthusiast, this may seem to be absurd, even unhealthy, behavior. And perhaps he or she would be correct.
My weekend activities aside, it didn’t take me very long to discover my obsession with fantasy sports is directly related to my keen interest in such economic concepts as opportunity cost, value, and efficiency. Their achievements on the field give the players a quantifiable value in the fantasy realm, I determine whether the benefit of selecting one player justifies the opportunity lost from not selecting another player, and then I construct and maintain the most efficient team possible.
What I have discovered in the decade I have spent playing fantasy sports is that one can make a very critical error in this interminable quest for achieving efficiency. In the Internet age, a plethora of both reliable and unreliable information is available with just a few clicks of a computer mouse, and it can be easy to become overwhelmed or confused. And an overwhelmed and confused individual is often prone to making poor decisions.
In these current economic times, manufacturers have no choice but to strive to reduce inefficiencies in their enterprise. Engaging in research on technology solutions such enterprise resource planning systems, automation tools, and cloud-based platforms is prudent. Believing everything that’s out there is not.
Forces from within or outside a company can cause individuals with decision-making powers to feel pressured to make a quick or decisive move when another course of action, or even inaction, is a more beneficial option. History has proven time and again that companies have the potential to listen to the wrong advice and make rash or poor decisions that will have ramifications for years to come. This has always happened, and it will continue to happen. But it doesn’t have to be your company.
The quest for efficiency – which basically means the quest for the almighty dollar – can cause an individual to sometimes become a little too eager to make a move in the hopes of improving his or her economic situation. Along those same lines, I struggle to contain my desire to blow up my fantasy sports rosters through an excessive amount of trades and waiver-wire pickups so as to create the perfect team. There’s no such thing as a perfect fantasy sports team, and there’s no such thing as a perfectly efficient business. It’s perfectly understandable to undertake efforts to increase efficiency in both realms. But engaging in those efforts in a reckless or overeager manner can spell disaster.
Should I invite you to participate in my fantasy football league next year? Is the quest for complete efficiency a losing battle, or a worthwhile fight? E-mail me at [email protected]
