What Football Taught Me About Firm Strategy
How real-time insights on the field mirror the power of shared data in your firm.
I’m married to a die-hard Chicago Bears fan.
We don’t just watch the games. We have season tickets, there’s an autographed Dick Butkus painting over the fireplace, and yes, he wears his Bears jersey proudly even though we live just a short drive from Green Bay now.
Me? I’m… adjacent. I was thrilled to watch the Bears beat the Packers last week, but seeing them lose this weekend brought me back to reality. What surprised me most, wasn’t another Bears loss, but how much more I enjoyed watching the game because of analytics.
Seeing the “Why”
The broadcast kept explaining the “why” behind the action. Go for it or punt. Manage the clock or pick up the pace. Every decision came with the mathematical reasoning behind it, and for the first time, I wasn’t just watching the game unfold. I was actually understanding it.
Since we watched the game on Prime, the broadcast leaned heavily into AWS-style analysis. My husband, who has decades of football stats living rent-free in his brain would say things like, “Statistically, they should go for it here.”
I’d laugh and reply, “Analytics!”
It became a game between us that made me feel more connected to him and to these games he’s always put on the TV for as long as I’ve known him.
With the analytics in mind, I could follow the logic and not just the emotion. I wasn’t just reacting to big plays based on how intensely he was yelling at the screen. I was engaged in the strategy.
And that’s exactly what AI-X is all about!
Seeing Things More Clearly
In our world of accounting advisory and firm leadership, we’re often told that AI or analytics will change everything. But too often it’s presented as a replacement: something cold and impersonal meant to take over.
In reality, when it’s done right, it doesn’t replace human experience. It helps us understand it.
That’s what Navi was designed to do. It’s built to help firms see the field more clearly. To take all that institutional knowledge (the gut instinct, the client nuance, years of experience, etc.) and make it visible. More shareable. Useful in real time.
The same way the broadcast brought me into the game, Navi brings your team into the decision-making process. It uses data to provide context, and it makes logic feel obvious.
Seeing the Whole Picture
When people can see the full picture, the whole team plays better.
The insights aren’t siloed in one expert’s head. The strategy is out in the open and it guides better choices.
That’s what changed the game for me these past two weeks, watching the Bears’ historic Super Bowl run. And that’s what will change the game for firms that embrace AI-X.
Whether it’s the fourth down at Soldier Field or your next big client decision, the right data at the right time makes everyone smarter, more confident and more engaged.
Analytics might just be my new favorite part of football. Go Bears!