On Davenport on Moneyball: Swing or ride the pine

Over on his HBR blog, Tom Davenport -- inspired by the movie Moneyball -- shares 6 things companies (could) have in common with the Oakland A's.  Davenport's list includes gaining a competitive edge with analytics, acquiring special skills, and facing internal resistance.
In his post, Davenport says "has in common", but I inserted the "could" qualifier based on two important caveats he mentions.
The first is on leadership:

"The change to an emphasis on analytics will require strong leadership. You (or someone in your organization, but why not you) need to lead with the same visionary determination as the A's General Manager, Billy Beane (and his predecessor, Sandy Alderson, who hired Beane and should have been mentioned in the movie). Organizations don't simply wake up to the notion that they will succeed with analytics; they need leaders to show them why and how to seize this new source of competitive advantage."

The second is on pocket-depth:

"Analytics alone can't carry the day. The insights generated can provide an edge, and sometimes that's all you need. But the A's didn't win the World Series in 2002, or any year since. Even when they were the only team aggressively using analytics, they still found it difficult to overcome the disadvantages of a small-market team with a small budget. Later, when other teams adopted their analytical innovations, they had more money to act on what they discovered..."

To me, both of these points lead straight to the executive suite, but not exactly as Davenport describes.  On leadership, I don't believe every company needs to be led by wonk like Billy Beane (or Theo Epstein).
However, companies looking to compete on analytics, or for that matter, just stay competitive, need leaders who realize that having tunnel vision on singular, staid metrics, will lead to singular, staid businesses.  As Michael Hammer tells us, your people will perform to how they are measured, regardless of the correctness of those actions and outcomes.
Second, leaders need to understand that investment in analytics can't stop with the acquisition of technology and recruitment of datarati.  There must be funds to act -- to change course, introduce new products and services, acquire customers, optimize processes, or invest in talent.  If your company isn't willing to invest in actions, you might as well skip investing in analytics in the first place.
Competing on analytics begins and ends with insightful leadership.  Be that person.  Or influence her.