A Club Leader’s Perspective [2022]

A Club Leader’s Perspective: Emerging Trends & Challenges 

Latest research produced in collaboration with the Club Management Association of America examines the perspectives of private clubs and what trends are motivating their decisions.

In brief:

  • Industry survey of over 200 club leaders across North America highlights the perspective of club leaders on the current challenges facing the industry.
  • A Club Leader’s Perspective explores the state of the industry from the perspective of those in club leadership roles, and what influences their decisions.
  • Club leaders weighed-in on emerging trends and challenges across five primary areas:
    • Industry outlook within the post-Covid-19 ecosystem
    • Human resources and workforce demands
    • Membership experience and programming
    • Capital planning and long-range improvement strategies, and budgeting and forecasting
    • Inflationary impacts on service

We’ve taken the pulse of club leaders regularly since the start of the pandemic, including in-depth looks at challenges and sentiments in 2021. Over the past two years, many clubs were forced to adapt to evolving public health regulations, supply chain shortages, labor challenges and sky-rocketing membership levels. Despite these challenges, club leaders are largely positive about 2022. 

Access the full report for further insights.

Read now

About GGA Partners

GGA Partners™ is an international consulting firm and trusted advisor to many of the world’s most successful golf courses, private clubs, resorts, and residential communities.  We are dedicated to helping owners, asset managers, club and community leaders, investors and real estate developers tackle challenges, achieve objectives, and maximize asset performance.

Established in 1992 as the KPMG Golf Industry Practice, our global team of experienced professionals leverage in-depth business intelligence and proprietary global data to deliver impactful strategic solutions and lasting success. GGA Partners has offices in Toronto, Ontario; Phoenix, Arizona; Bluffton, South Carolina; and Dublin, Ireland. For more information, please visit ggapartners.com.

GGA Partners is proud to be a long-standing CMAA Business Partner.

About CMAA

Founded in 1927, the Club Management Association of America (CMAA) is the largest professional association for managers of membership clubs with 6,800 members throughout the US and internationally. Our members contribute to the success of more than 2,500 country, golf, athletic, city, faculty, military, town, and yacht clubs. The objectives of the Association are to promote relationships between club management professionals and other similar professions; to encourage the education and advancement of members; and to provide the resources needed for efficient and successful club operations. Under the covenants of professionalism, education, leadership, and community, CMAA continues to extend its reach as the leader in the club management practice. CMAA is headquartered in Alexandria, VA, with 42 professional chapters and more than 40 student chapters and colonies. Learn more at cmaa.org.

For further information, contact:

Dr. Eric Brey, Ph.D.
Director, GGA Institute
t: 715.505.7716
e: eric.brey@ggapartners.com

GGA Partners and Vivid Club partner to strengthen management excellence for private clubs

New joint partnership helps supports the advancement of clubs around the world.

Toronto, ON, July 27, 2022 

As private clubs work to keep pace with rapidly changing business landscapes, shifts in member access and utilization, heightened workforce challenges, and the untapped potential of data, there is a need now more than ever to monitor and effectively implement strategies and streamlined processes. As part of their new international alliance, GGA Partners and the team at Vivid Club and Vivid Leaf have partnered to deliver advanced mindshare collaboration technologies designed to help clubs transform and lead.

Vivid Club provides clients with a fully integrated goals and objectives management system with pre-populated Balanced Scorecard templates and 360-degree feedback surveys and performance evaluation functionality. The platform also offers a file share system and a Club Social Responsibility section showing all initiatives clubs have in place for their employees, their community, the environment and their partners. The purpose is to optimize collaboration and ensure the alignment of all contributors towards the joint vision of the club.

Vivid Leaf is the real-time club sustainability platform, following the triple bottom line approach of sustainability: profit, people, planet. Vivid Leaf is helping clubs to advance on their journey to becoming fully sustainable and carbon neutral. All aspects of a club’s ability to have an effect on the three sustainability pillars are considered. The club’s carbon footprint is calculated as well as automated alerts are sent for unusual spikes in usage.

The Vivid platforms are also helping clubs to strengthen their operational and managerial processes for the future through artificial intelligence (AI), automation and monitoring tools that are built with private clubs in mind. With clubs from all over the world contributing in a mind-share fashion, the Vivid platforms improve on an ongoing basis, all available to every club on the platforms.

GGA will leverage the unique features of the Vivid platforms in the design of strategic actions plans, help clients use the platforms to monitor the implementation of strategy and continue to be the source of data-driven strategic solutions that consider the unique market, financial, operational and governance circumstances of each club.

“We are thrilled about our partnership with GGA Partners to better serve the club industry. Combining GGA’s experience and expertise in data and analytics, financial and operational analysis, surveying, governance, and strategic planning with state-of-the-art, easy-to-use, club mind-share and artificial intelligence driven technology, clubs have a framework at hand that supports their sustained success.”

Bettina von Ruexleben, Chief Executive Officer, Vivid Club and Vivid Leaf

“To adapt and respond to the ever-changing club industry, and the evolving expectations of members, it is imperative that clubs diligently plan, monitor, transform and evaluate their strategies, goals and objectives.  This is why GGA Partners is increasingly focused on helping clients to innovate and grow. Our new partnership with the Vivid Club and Vivid Leaf team is now more important than ever as we continue to help clients successfully implement important strategies for their long-term sustainability.”

Derek Johnston, Partner, GGA Partners

About Vivid Club and Vivid Leaf

The Vivid platforms are developed for the club industry in close cooperation with visionary club leaders. Supported by the team of the Brodtmann Consulting Group they focus on enabling clubs to easily share their thoughts, templates and initiatives with each other to learn and optimize collaboration as well as their sustainability progress. The Vivid team is located in Cologne, Germany as well as Denver, CO, Atlanta, GA and Naples, FL.

For more information, please visit www.vivid-club.com and www.vivid-leaf.com.

About GGA Partners

GGA Partners™ is an international consulting firm and trusted advisor to many of the world’s most successful golf courses, private clubs, resorts, and residential communities. The firm is dedicated to helping owners, asset managers, club and community leaders, investors and real estate developers tackle challenges, achieve objectives, and maximize asset performance.

Established in 1992 as the KPMG Golf Industry Practice, our global team of experienced professionals leverage in-depth business intelligence and proprietary global data to deliver impactful strategic solutions and lasting success. GGA Partners has offices in Toronto, Ontario; Phoenix, Arizona; Bluffton, South Carolina; and Dublin, Ireland. For more information, please contact derek.johnston@ggapartners.com

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