The world is becoming more analytical. Even Lawrence Summers, the president of Harvard, who got into such big trouble recently for making sweeping statements about women in science, got this one right. At a Harvard School of Public Health conference, Summers said, "I suspect that when the history is written 200 years from now, it will emerge that something very important happened in human thinking during the time when we were alive, and that is that we are becoming rational, analytical and data-driven in a far wider range of activity than we ever have been before."

Ah yes, you say. You may not have thought about it this way, but, in fact, you know something of this territory. Business intelligence. Statistics, decision support and all that. It may strike you as a little nerdy, but you’d undoubtedly grant business analytics a place in the pantheon of IT applications.

But in some organizations, analytics are in first place. They’re actually becoming the primary driver of strategy and competitive advantage. Analytics and quantitative decisions are being used to optimize business processes—to identify the best customers, select the ideal price, calculate the best supply chain routing or pick the best person to hire. Some companies, organizations and sports teams are clearly competing on analytics.

In his conference speech, Summers mentioned baseball and in particular the Oakland A’s as examples of creeping analytical orientation. In Boston, we’re more excited about the Red Sox and the Patriots, both of which have done pretty well of late. The Red Sox, in case you need reminding, won the World Series last year for the first time in 86 years. They borrowed some ideas from the A’s about analytical player selection and on-field decision making, and combined them with a good deal of money.

The Patriots have managed to win the Super Bowl three times in the past four years—also with an analytical approach. The team uses data and analytical models extensively, both on and off the field. In-depth analytics help the team select players and stay below the NFL salary cap. Patriots coaches and players are renowned for their extensive study of game film and statistics, and Head Coach Bill Belichick reads articles by academic economists on statistical probabilities of football outcomes. Off the field, the team uses detailed analytics to assess and improve the "total fan experience." At every home game, for example, 20 to 25 people have specific assignments to make quantitative measurements of the stadium food, parking, personnel, bathroom cleanliness and other factors.