Tag: henry

Substance Over Style

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In the old west, big talkers who didn’t deliver on what they promised were described as “All hat and no cattle.” Simply put: more image than substance.

None of us wants to be thought of in those terms. We all want to deliver the goods as promised. Doing so, while often challenging, is more achievable when you take these important steps:

1. Develop your strategic plan carefully because that’s where you lay out your promises in the form of goals and objectives. Stephen Johnston, the founder of Global Golf Advisors, often explains the importance of strategic planning by saying, “The lack of a strategic plan is not as dangerous as not having fire insurance, but it’s certainly playing with fire.”

The key components of a sound strategic plan are: (a) market analysis; (b) operational review and comparison against performance benchmarks; (c) financial measurement — especially of the sources and uses of funds; and (d) clear-eyed evaluation of governance practices. These four components assure that you have a plan that states clearly your goals and objectives and establishes a broad understanding of expectations.

Remember that an effective strategic plan answers the question: What? The business plan provides the details behind How? When? Who? and Where? The tactical plan outlines the steps that will implement the strategy.

2. Put your strategy to work. Strategy is only as good as the execution that backs it up. Putting strategic goals and objectives into action also requires a plan — one that describes in detail how you and your team will achieve the goals and objectives of the strategic plan.

3. Make sure club leaders and managers understand the plan and how their functional areas are expected to contribute to its success. In 1962, President Kennedy declared, “We will put a man on the Moon in this decade and return him safely to Earth.” Shortly thereafter, while on a tour of the NASA Space Center, the president came upon a janitor mopping the floor. When asked by the President about his job, the janitor responded, “Mr. Kennedy, I am part of the team that is going to put a man on the Moon.” That is plan buy-in and real-life awareness. The lesson: Make believers of your staff.

4. Review your plan’s success. No matter how well-intended a plan might be, careful evaluation and follow-up ensure that the plan remains relevant and purposeful. Another benefit of ongoing evaluation is evolutionary improvement and maximized understanding. Here are three steps to ensure that your plan is working at full capacity:

  • Provide quarterly strategic plan updates. Report your accomplishments and missteps with equal openness. Quarterly updates keep strategy alive in the boardroom and assure members that their board and club management are keeping their promises. Members support trustworthy leadership and trust is built on accountability in your actions.
  • Post a strategic scorecard. After the quarterly update, post the results truthfully and without acclaim. No different that posting your golf score, this is a matter of open accountability for performance. Embrace accountability for your strategic plan’s effectiveness.
  • Produce an annual report. Tell your members what has been accomplished. Align the annual report, as any major corporation would, with the strategic goals and objectives for your business and report on progress toward those goals. Provide members and stakeholders with a succinct summary of the strategic effectiveness of your plan, your board and yourself.

Strategic plans are based on the notion of having a focused plan of action on which all can rely. This step helps to make you and your work more trusted while bringing focus to what makes your facility successful.

One of the more common concerns in many golf courses and clubs is the question of vision or what it really wants to be. A carefully developed strategic plan clearly states who and what you are and establishes a trustworthy foundation for achievements. It shows people that you’re more than just a hat – it’s evidence that you’re bringing the beef.

This article was authored by GGA Partner Henry DeLozier for Golf Course Industry Magazine.

Change Shows No Sign of Slowing

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If your time to you is worth saving
Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’
– The Times They Are A Changin’, Bob Dylan

The songwriter, poet and social observer Bob Dylan warned us about change.  Back in 1964, he said it was a-coming.  Forty-five years later, we are reminded of his prescience.

In private clubs, change has arrived in full force and shows no signs of slowing.  As a new year reveals itself, private club leaders should be alert to change in five key areas affecting their operations.

1.  Economy – A surging economy has helped a number of clubs in North America add members in the last two years. But many experts are forecasting a softer economy in 2019.  According to the Conference Board’s November 2018 report, “Higher interest rates, and the intention of the Federal Reserve to keep raising them into 2019, will create a more challenging environment for business next year.”  That means membership recruitment and retention are still top priorities at most clubs.

Global Golf Advisors estimates that less than seven percent of the 4,400 private clubs in North America are full and working from a waiting list for admission.  Anticipating that the economy may soften, private club leaders must intensify their efforts to recruit new members while giving focused attention to retaining existing ones.

Often the solution is not a price change, but something more creative, such as ones that make the club more personal and relevant to today’s lifestyles.

What are the right moves for your club?  The answers start with knowing your members as well as your prospects and knowing what they value most in a club relationship.  If you don’t know how they define value, ask them.

2.  Delay no longer a strategy – In the heat of the recession, many businesses, including many private clubs, decided to forego capital improvements until times got better. Times got better, but many continued to delay investment.

Now many clubs are playing catch-up on deferred capital improvements. In the process, they’re discovering that new members are attracted to standards of quality that match their personal lifestyles.

That means that improvements to club facilities, programs and staff must reflect a long-term commitment to sustained quality.  Most members want their clubs to be better five years from now and club leaders are obliged to fulfill that expectation.

Club leaders do well to establish a broad standard of excellence for the club.  This is where clubs can truly be “unique,” as everyone like to profess.  The standard of excellence dictates the qualities of fit and finish for the facilities, the style and level of services and the types of recreational programs offered members.

3.  Brand takes on added significance – Private clubs are brands, and just as a particular soft drink, computer or automobile stands for something in consumers’ eyes, so does your club stand for something in the eyes of your members and prospects. Club leaders must develop an intentional branding strategy that sustains the promises on which the club has built its reputation, including course conditions, levels of service and culture.

 For brand planning in a private club, several keys apply:

  • Confirm the club’s potential tax-exempt status to ensure conformity with the U.S. Tax Code;
  • Develop and implement a proactive communications plan that reinforces primary brand pillars, and
  • Remember that the club’s brand is reflected in everything it does . . . and fails to do. Everything communicates.

When making any key decisions about the future of the club, make sure you’re staying true to your brand promise.

4.  Security and privacy concerns are increasing.  In a world rife with cyber threats, private clubs are highly vulnerable targets.  People of means gathered in one easy-to-access vault of names, addresses and possibly financial information constitute an attractive target for those ill-intentioned among us.

Members place their trust in their club to safeguard their privacy.  Break that bond and the consequences could be irreparable.  Club leaders must contract with companies expert in securing their club’s sizeable data storehouse and secure this information.  This threat will expand in 2019 at clubs that are unprepared

5.  Access and affordability of labor is changing clubs. Most clubs surveyed by GGA report increasing direct and indirect labor costs.  Many clubs are outsourcing work through contract-labor arrangements.  Some clubs are securing overseas workers for seasonal needs.  All clubs are evaluating steps to reduce the reliance on accessible labor for routine club services.

In some clubs, self-service is taking hold.  In progressive clubs, new solutions including F&B orders entered on tablets, are reducing head-count.  Some clubs are exploring making the golf halfway house and the tennis and pool snack shacks honor-system facilities, where losses are likely to be less than the labor costs to secure them.

On the flip side of Dylan’s ballad that promised change was a song titled “Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance.”  A new year gives us revived opportunities – one more chance – to get ahead of change.  We better start swimmin’.

This piece was authored by GGA Partner Henry DeLozier for BoardRoom Magazine.

Protecting Against Project Mythology

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Anyone taking on projects great or small during 2019 might consider a lesson from Phidias, the Greek sculptor, painter and architect.  Phidias is best known for his statue of Zeus, the king of the ancient gods.  However, it was his creation of the statues on the frieze of the Parthenon, the temple of the gods in Athens, from which we can draw an important lesson on project planning and management.

Phidias’s bill for his work on the heroic-scale statues was initially declined.  The bursar of Athens said that the statues should have been created in a front-only perspective, instead of Phidias’s 360-degree perspective, because the statues would be placed well above eye level and citizens would see only the front view.  Phidias replied, “The gods will know.” And his bill was paid.

Every project you plan and execute this year, whether a new swimming pool, the replacement of sand bunkers or a clubhouse remodel, will face 360-degree scrutiny.  Many will evaluate the quality of your work. Here are five important steps to help your efforts stand the test of time:

  1. Plan from start to finish. Lay out the process to be used, the materials required and who will be responsible for a successful outcome.  Organize your project team to ensure that each team member understands where he or she will pitch in and be held accountable.  See that your action plan is thorough.  Comprehensive planning anticipates the end result and establishes standards of expectations.  Ensure that the finished quality of your work is excellent.  Quality is remembered long after cost is forgotten.  Plan the post-completion “unveiling” of your results as carefully as you plan the first meeting.
  2. Set realistic schedules. Avoid over-promising and being unnecessarily conservative.  Creating a critical path of the actions required to complete the project is an important key.  Scheduling also requires a complete plan.  Many projects – and the credibility of those responsible for them – are undermined by incomplete or poor scheduling.  Establish a broad understanding of when you will execute in-process measurements and evaluations.  The things that are measured get managed. Get to work and finish ahead of schedule.
  3. Budget thoroughly. The two greatest points on which to brag about a finished project are “complete” and “under budget.”  Ensure that the budget is inclusive of all expenses, including labor, materials and post-project clean-up and finishing work.  Check and double-check unit count, whether pounds, square acres or individual item costs.  Confirm the accuracy of your costs-per-unit measurements.  These two checkpoints – unit-count and unit-pricing – protect the downside of important projects.
  4. Communicate constantly. See that all stakeholders are kept informed of progress and problems – especially the latter.  Because so many people feel invested in key projects, and think their voices should be heard, create a communications plan that includes video updates as well as written reminders and status reports.  Reduce the likelihood that stakeholders are uninformed of progress.  Likewise, update those responsible for completing the project by making sure they receive regular and routine project updates.  It is nice to know that everyone on the team is keeping up their time-sensitive tasks and sharing in the accountability.  Remember that members and regular customers like to be included with project updates.
  5. Celebrate generously. Pass around the credit and share the successful completion of the project.  See that there is plenty of credit to go around.  Recognize those who authorized your work on the project.  Name those who did the work.  Make and distribute photographs of the finished project and those who celebrated with you.  Use follow-up storytelling to identify those who are enjoying the results of the project.  Be inclusive of all who are affected by the project.

You may think that the work you did to complete a project successfully is sometimes ignored or forgotten.  In fact, in these times of tight budgets and 360-degree evaluation, very little is overlooked by management or membership.  Remember the lesson of Phidias: the quality of your work will endure and even if some people do not appreciate your contributions, the gods certainly will.

This piece was authored by GGA Partner Henry DeLozier for Golf Course Industry Magazine.

What’s Important to Know About Recruiting Millennials to Join the Club?

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Occam’s Razor is the work of a Franciscan friar and theologian, William of Ockham, who reasoned that itis better to keep things simple when attempting to understand complicated ideas.  This is good advice for club directors and managers when trying to plan ahead.

The confusion begins in answering, “What do they want?” As club leaders’ eyes have turned from generation X to the millennial generation, a good source for answers can be found from Kris Hart, the co-founder and CEO of Nextgen Golf, whose motto is “Live Life.  Play Golf.”

Hart emphasizes two basic needs that clubs meet for millennials: flexibility and community.

“Millennials are often on the move and need flexibility for when they can play.  More importantly, having flexible membership costs and initiation fees are an important factor for millennials when joining a club,” says Hart.  “Some may not stay in one city for a long time, paying up-front costs are less attractive.”

According to Hart, millennials need to be part of something.  “Clubs that have younger members and a good community around the club are attractive.  Millennials rely heavily on recommendations from family and friends and want to hang out with people like them.”

Now the largest market segment in America, the millennial generation has high expectations, in general.  “Millennials expect to be treated the same as a full adult member and do not want to be restricted or looked down upon as a young adult member.” Hart advises.

And first impressions are important! According to Hart, “Technology expectations are continuing to increase.  The club’s digital presence and online reputation has become much more meaningful given millennials can go right to google and research everything about a club in a matter of seconds.”

Health and wellness are imperative for this generation.  Clubs that have gyms, fitness classes and embrace the health and wellness movement will be better prepared for this generation.

Millennials are getting married and having kids later in life than previous generations.  As Millennials continue to age, family-focused clubs are increasingly more important, Hart stresses.

Keep it simple if your club wants to attract millennial members.

This piece was authored by GGA Partner Henry DeLozier for the National Club Association’s Club Director quarterly magazine.  

The Keys to Successful Strategic Planning

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Research by Global Golf Advisors indicates more than 80% of top performing clubs believe they are working to a strategic plan. But are they?

“It is absolutely true 80% of clubs wish to have a strategic plan and truly intend to have a strategic plan, but if the road to hell is paved with good intentions, not all of them do,” says GGA Partner Henry DeLozier.

“The reality is that many managers are not clear what a bona fide strategic plan is. They believe that if they have a capital asset roster or have developed a master facilities plan they are well on their way to developing a full strategic plan, which is not accurate.”

So what is a strategic plan and what happens when clubs successfully implement strategy?

In this video, Henry DeLozier explains Global Golf Advisors’ five key elements of an effective strategic plan and why a focus on implementation and performance monitoring frequently leads to success and an increase in club membership.

https://youtu.be/vQSzlpXGcm4

For more insights on successful strategic planning, download the GGA whitepaper ‘Strategic Planning: A Road Map to Club Survival and Success.’

State of the Industry 2018: GGA Optimistic on Golf’s Future

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GGA Partner and Principal Henry DeLozier was asked to weigh in on the future of golf as part of Golf Course Industry Magazine’s annual state of the industry piece, titled this year “State of the Industry 2018: The Great Reinvestment“.

Despite the industry’s cuts, closures, and tumbles, DeLozier and Global Golf Advisors remain optimistic about the future of golf and its career potential, “We are in a bull market. The stock market is frequently setting records that have never been imagined before. The growing economy is causing everyone to feel more positive and more optimistic, it’s causing more membership, more participation. The downside of that is that with the unemployment figure down, it’s harder to find labor and, therefore, you have to pay them more. We’re seeing both sides of that.”

According to DeLozier, 2018 presents both opportunities and challenges for golf:

  • Development – “I think 2018 is going to be a great year for golf course architects and builders.“
  • Reinvestment – “Competitive desires spur enhancements among the top 25 percent of clubs.“
  • Accessibility – “The industry can grow without expanding its customer base because mobile jobs that can be performed anywhere, including on a golf course, shrink the separation between work and recreation.“
  • Wage Increases – “I think labor costs are going to [increase decidedly] up 6 to 7 percent in the golf business – and that’s if you can get workers.“

Learn the context of these excerpts and more in the full article available at Golf Course Industry Magazine.

This article was written for and published by Golf Course Industry Magazine by GGA Partner Henry Delozier.

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