Tag: Club Director

In Pursuit of Innovation

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GGA Partners Releases Innovation Whitepaper as Part of Thought Leadership Series

‘In Pursuit of Innovation’ aims to provide managers with guidance to unlock creativity

TORONTO, Ontario – GGA Partners, a global consulting firm, has released In Pursuit of Innovation, the fourth in its series of thought leadership whitepapers. This authoritative guide explores how surviving in today’s competitive landscape depends on the ability of clubs and organizations to unlock their creative potential and offers up several guidelines to allow freedom of thought and imagination.

In Pursuit of Innovation highlights the way companies must continuously transform in order to survive and how a constant pursuit of innovation will guard against failure, whether gradual or sudden.  The paper clarifies exactly what constitutes innovation, where it comes from, and how club leaders can practice innovative thinking to unlock a culture of creativity.

“Our experience with thousands of private clubs over nearly three decades shows us that without innovation clubs become stale, membership falls until it eventually flatlines, competitive advantages diminish, members become dissatisfied, and talented staff look elsewhere,” explained GGA Partner Henry DeLozier, one of several authors of the piece.  “Innovation can come from anywhere inside an organization, and we think it should be encouraged from all corners, from the folks raking bunkers to the person answering phones to the accountant balancing the books.”

Innovation happens at the intersection of problems, opportunities, and fervent minds but must be deliberately sought, practiced, and encouraged at all levels. “It’s normal in any business to want to maintain the status quo. It’s comfortable, it’s safe, and it’s easier than making changes,” said DeLozier. “In reality, the status quo only works for so long. If you’re going to grow, you must innovate.”

In Pursuit of Innovation illuminates four common roadblocks to an innovative culture and identifies the steps necessary to unlock a culture of creativity.

In addition to innovation, GGA Partners has published new whitepapers on strategic planning, branding, and governance which are accessible via the firm’s website.

Click here to download the In Pursuit of Innovation whitepaper

 

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. For more information, please visit ggapartners.com.

Media Contact:

Bennett DeLozier
GGA Partners
602-614-2100
bennett.delozier@ggapartners.com

Leveraging Differences in the Boardroom

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GGA Partners Releases New Whitepaper on Private Club Governance as Part of Thought Leadership Series

‘Leveraging Differences in the Boardroom’ Now Available for Download

TORONTO, Ontario – International consulting firm GGA Partners has released Leveraging Differences in the Boardroom, the third in its new series of thought leadership whitepapers. This authoritative guide explores the benefits of clubs with diverse boards and suggests several steps to take when recruiting with diversity in mind.

Leveraging Differences in the Boardroom evaluates the consequences of unintentionally insular board composition and challenges the idea of “sameness” in the boardroom, which limits the ability of a board to effectively perform its duties and threatens a club’s health and longevity. The paper illustrates how multiple perspectives contribute to greater success in governance and argues for adjusting the profile of a club’s leadership to better serve members and prospects.

“We often see board members with similar professional, cultural, and ideological backgrounds and perspectives,” explained GGA Partner Henry DeLozier, one of several authors of the piece. “Boards that are neither representative of the membership nor reflective of their surrounding community risk losing the opportunity both to serve their current members and to attract new members.”

In addition, the whitepaper encourages that clubs intent on increasing diversity among their board take a holistic, multi-dimensional approach to its creation. “Forward-thinking boards understand that it is the breadth of perspective, not the mere inclusion of various diverse traits, that benefits the organization,” said DeLozier. “In addition to social diversity, professional and experiential diversity are also important in increasing the range of perspectives represented on the board.”

Board diversification is likely to be met with resistance from the status quo, which the paper aims to help club leaders overcome by providing tactics for building a diverse board, developing new board member criteria, and making a commitment to diversity.

In addition to governance, GGA Partners recently published new whitepapers on strategic planning and branding. The firm has announced that another in the series focused on innovation will be published through the third quarter of 2020.

Click here to download the whitepaper

 

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. For more information, please visit ggapartners.com.

Media Contact:

Bennett DeLozier
GGA Partners
602-614-2100
bennett.delozier@ggapartners.com

Creating Strong Club Culture

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“CULTURE EATS STRATEGY for breakfast,” said management guru Peter Drucker. For clubs, culture is governance, and private club strategy—no matter how good and well-conceived—will be a victim to poor governance.

According to Fred Laughlin, nonprofit governance expert and a Director at Global Golf Advisors (GGA), “the board speaks with one voice—in writing,” in clubs that are well governed. When you omit either one of two key concepts in the phrase, you invite dysfunctions.

Take out “one voice” and you have a board of factions. While diversity of thought around the board table is healthy, speaking with multiple voices outside the boardroom confuses the members, frustrates the general manager and discourages the board members whose voice is not heard.

Take out “in writing” means the board must choose another way to communicate policies, which usually comes from the person with the most power or influence, the largest faction of followers or the loudest voice. Such verbal policies are ephemeral, lasting only if the person or group stays in power.

Following is a useful three-question test concerning the governance at your club:

1. Are we who we claim to be? The brand promise in most private clubs is that the club will provide an enjoyable lifestyle for its members. Lifestyle varies from club to club; the promise does not vary where the culture of the club is genuine.

2. Are we doing what is right for the members? Often boards deliberate what is allowed under the bylaws. Sometimes the proceedings ask: What options will the members tolerate? Great boards concern themselves with the moral compass that points to doing what is right. Truthfulness, dependability and openness are terms most often cited in private club member surveys concerning expectations of the board.

3. Are we truly servant leaders? Servant leadership places the point of focus on those served ahead of focusing on those serving. Great and successful clubs share the characteristic of strong servant leadership.

Strategy flourishes in clubs with cultures that foster great governance. Great strategy is simple in its description and thorough in its formulation. Effective strategy depends upon a culture borne of trustworthy governance.

An indicator of a club with weak governance is timid and has ambiguous goals that hold no one accountable for their achievement.

How Does a Club Implement Strategic Thinking?

“Putting strategy to work is the key,” according to Derek Johnston, a partner at Global Golf Advisors. GGA recommends a shortlist of primary actions to ensure strategy is alive and functioning at the highest level.

  • Strategy must be an agenda item at every board meeting. Strategic plan review enables the board to adhere to strategy. Progress toward goals should be reported into every board meeting by either the long-range planning chair or the club manager.
  • Keep score on strategy. The strategic scorecard is a valuable tool that enables the board to focus on the key strategic goals and objectives. As simple as a financial performance dashboard, the strategic scorecard shows each goal or objective across the horizontal axis with the monthly or quarterly (depending upon the frequency of your board meetings) forming the vertical axes. Progress updates should be summarized at every board meeting.
  • Socialize strategy. See that the management staff is fully informed of the key strategic goals. More importantly, see that everyone on staff understands and is committed to the strategy that the board has set.
  • Publish the club’s strategic plan. Members want to know that their club operates in a responsible manner. Make the club’s strategy available to all members in ways that ensure that the strategic plan is not passed throughout the local community and into the hands of competitor clubs. It is important for club members to know what is and is not included within the clubs’ strategy.

Discipline and attention is necessary for private club boards responsible for preserving and enhancing the best attributes of the club.

Written by GGA Partner Henry DeLozier, this article was originally written for and published by Club Director Magazine in January 2018.

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