Tag: Strategic

Being Flexible for the Future

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“Forecasting is very difficult,
especially with regard to the future.”
Yogi Berra?

Preparing for the Future

Even if the late Yogi Berra didn’t utter this statement, it’s an easy attribution. Like so many of Yogi’s statements, it tucks a truth inside a pithy, if nonsensical saying. We can speculate on the future, guess at trends, or engage a soothsayer, but we can never be certain of our forecast.

Yet as club leaders we are called upon to plan, invest, and adapt. Despite our inability to predict the future, we know the risks of sticking to the status quo. So how do we prepare for the new law, the gathering trend, the abrupt change in the economy, or other externalities – especially those that are unforeseen?

There are two issues relating to a club’s preparations for the future: recognizing the need to change, and taking the appropriate action

A club is best prepared to recognize the need to change by developing a well-constructed strategic plan and maintaining it as a dynamic document (i.e. revising it as new information becomes available). The more considered and current the strategic plan, the better prepared the club will be to respond to evolving conditions.

Next, in order to take the appropriate action, the club needs a Board that is three things: thoughtful, decisive, and nimble.

Thoughtfulness and decisiveness are features of the Board’s character and competence, and are best achieved by sound election processes to recruit Board members based on their merits (i.e. their ability to serve professionally in a culture of cooperation and respect).

Nimbleness, on the other hand, has to do with the flexibility afforded the Board via the club’s governing documents – its bylaws and Board policies. The Board’s agility is based less on the quality of its members than on its documented processes.

When the Future Arrives

Good doctors do two things well: make accurate diagnoses, and prescribe effective treatments. Similarly, effective club Boards do two things well: assess the impact of new laws, growing trends or shifting styles, and then take the action appropriate to address the impact.

So, what can a Board do in the present that will equip it to respond to the future when it arrives?

For years we at Global Golf Advisors have strongly recommended that club Boards develop and maintain a Board Policies Manual (BPM), which contains all of the Board’s standing policies in a succinct, well-organized document. We also recommend that bylaws be amended to afford flexibility for the Board to carry out its fiduciary responsibilities in a professional, transparent manner. The two actions must go hand in hand.

A club’s bylaws are actually “member policies” – instructions from the members to the Board. Members will be reluctant to cede authority to the Board without knowing how that authority will be used, and that’s where the BPM comes in. If the bylaws instruct the Board to maintain a publicly available BPM that clearly lays out how it will govern, then the members can be well informed as to how their Board is serving them.

Our advice is simple: include in the bylaws only the basic requirements, and let the Board formulate and publish in a BPM those policies it believes will allow it to govern effectively. Why? Because when the future arrives – say, a new law is passed, a new trend is affecting the club, or new amenities are being demanded by the members – a Board needs the flexibility of responding without having to go back to the members for a vote.

Of course, there are limits to ceding authority from the bylaws to the BPM. We are not advocating a carte blanche transfer. But in our experience, most club bylaws can be streamlined so they contain only the basics, thereby leaving plenty of room within which the Board can operate. The BPM is the centerpiece to the Club Governance Model*, which is the standard for excellence among the club community. There are many reasons for a club Board to develop and maintain a BPM. Preparing for the arrival of the future is just one of them.

For further advice on creating and maintaining a Board Policy Manual (BPM) for your Club, connect with GGA Director, Fred Laughlin.

*GGA’s Guide to Implementing the Club Governance Model is available to club leaders and Board members on request.

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.

Who’s Your Innovator?

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If you’re to succeed in driving change at your club, you need a champion of innovation – the person who makes things happen. But what if that person doesn’t exist? GGA’s Bennett DeLozier advises on what an innovator looks like, and how to move forward if you don’t have one.

The Importance of Innovation as a Change Catalyst

Last fall GGA reported its preliminary findings from a survey of roughly 400 club managers who were asked to weigh in on the topic of innovation. Feedback from participants, all of whom are members of CMAA, placed emphasis on two key themes: first, that innovation is crucial for the future of club management and, second, that clubs need to improve when it comes to innovation.

Despite overwhelming majority agreement on the importance of innovation, a closer look at survey findings shows a stark contrast between theory and practice.

Research revealed that even managers who believe innovation is essential to the long-term success of their clubs do not regard themselves as particularly innovative. They believe the club industry lags behind other sectors when it comes to change. They say they would like to catch up in the areas of marketing, communications, technology, food & beverage, and strategy, but report they are hampered by resource constraints, cultural opposition, and a lack of effective infrastructure. Even many clubs that do prioritize and pursue innovation are operating without a deliberate strategy.

To translate ingenuity into business strategy, managers believe that a broader cultural endorsement is needed within their clubs to support, enable, and nurture innovation. However, affecting cultural change from the top down, with reliable bottom-up support, is no easy task.

Queue “the innovator”: the champion of change, the person who can make things happen by putting theory into practice to achieve positive outcomes. Who might this person be and what does their skillset look like?

And, importantly, what do we do if we can’t find them?

The Mark of the Innovator

To be effective in driving change requires tremendous leadership, so our innovator must first have the character of a leader. This is a person who also possesses the uncanny ability to see unseen opportunity, the right balance of knowledge and charisma, an adeptness at bringing people together to work toward a common goal, and an aptitude for putting plans into action and getting the job done.

This person is a synthesis of four key archetypes:

1. The Visionary – A person with the ability to discover opportunities and inspire others to pursue them. One who can see the possibility in a given context and hone in on the most important insights in order to identify unmet needs and valuable problems to solve. They develop meaningful solutions to address significant club problems. Further, they have the capability to explain the nuances of the value proposition, and can motivate key decisionmakers to agree that an innovation initiative is worth pursuing.

2. The Collaborator – A person who can manage change by stimulating effective teamwork and bringing cohesion to the group. A charismatic and daring leader, this person can encourage action through trial-and-error by creating an environment that is conducive to change and views failure as a necessary and educational part of the innovative process. They are a skilled networker and an effective communicator who can muster the necessary resources to get the job done while keeping everyone on the same page.

3. The Thinker – A person who is a natural learner with a deep curiosity about any ideas, products, technologies, concepts, or approaches which could increase the chances that their undertaking will succeed. This individual is willing to explore opportunities as they present themselves, continually pursues new ideas and quickly integrates learnings from multiple sources of information.

4. The Executor – A person with the ability to ensure that rubber meets the road. One who can make quick decisions amidst uncertainty while maintaining realistic progress towards the targeted goal. This individual can translate ideas into an achievable sequence of activities and is often the first to shake things up and challenge the status quo. They can persevere through setbacks and readily adapt plans to new conditions, variables, or requirements.

Help Wanted: Club Innovator

Armed with an understanding of the traits which drive the most successful innovators, club leaders can begin to seek out their champion of change.

Where will they find “the innovator”? Do they exist?

Naturally, it may be tempting for clubs that are hoping to deliver on important initiatives to seek out a talented individual with a track record of high-performance and success. However, it is exceedingly rare that one person will possess the full range of skills needed to innovate successfully. Innovation requires skills and mindsets that are often underdeveloped even among the highest performers.

Rather, clubs should reframe their search for “the innovator” from an individual to a team. A carefully constructed and well-balanced team that brings together the various innovative traits and personalities can compensate for the rarity of a “true innovator”.

Innovating for the Future

Adopting a team-based approach to innovation will increase the likelihood of sourcing the necessary talent, as well as the likelihood that innovation initiatives will succeed.

Returning to the survey findings, the top three challenges which club managers say inhibit, deter, or prevent innovation are: (1) resource constraints such as budget time, space, people; (2) social or cultural opposition to change or new ideas; and (3) lack of structured innovation processes or procedures. These deterrents are often bigger than any one individual’s performance capabilities, and reinforce the need for an innovator group.

The top three ingredients which managers identify as important for innovation are: (1) the right culture to foster and support innovation; (2) a willingness to change norms and take risks; and (3) strong visionary business leadership. These elements add up to a culture of strategic thinking. This type of club culture encourages new ideas, supports experimentation, solicits group input, and is characterized by undaunted, resourceful leadership who are willing to take calculated risks with the support of others.

Understanding the traits of the innovator and the need for teams to have a balanced composition of these traits can help clubs become better and faster innovators. By identifying and encouraging people within the club who possess these skills, then steering them into supervisory roles where they can put these skills to work and also learn from each other, clubs can begin to build an academy of innovation leaders who will continue to drive positive change into the future.

This article was authored by GGA Manager Bennett DeLozier.

Why You Need More than One Member Survey

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Member satisfaction surveys are a rich source of data and intelligence for measuring year-on-year club performance, but fall short of accounting for the changing face of members’ needs and expectations. GGA’s Michael Gregory explains the need for a different type of survey, and the questions you be should be posing to your members.

Why is it that member satisfaction surveys are not an effective mechanism to capture everything that members need, want and expect?

By definition, the primary objective of a member satisfaction survey is exactly that: to measure member satisfaction.

Straying from an accepted format or structure without providing the necessary context may lead to a drop off in engagement levels. So, while you can potentially look to feed in additional questions to source particular information or data from your members, the key is to be relevant.

The advantage of a survey for any given situation is the club’s ability to gauge members’ feelings or attitudes on that specific topic or project. If the board is considering a capital project – a new clubhouse for instance – a dedicated survey would represent an effective way of obtaining some invaluable insights, as well as learning whether members could tolerate increases to dues in order to accommodate this, and support for other methods of funding.

Can members get ‘survey fatigue’? If so, how can you avoid this situation to ensure you capture reliable, insightful data?

Undoubtedly. Times have changed and we have witnessed first-hand how the willingness of members to devote significant time to surveys is decreasing.

Around 10 years ago, it was entirely possible to carry out a combined satisfaction and strategic survey of members which could take up to 45 minutes to complete. With changes to device use and attention span, new tactics have emerged to overcome the possibility of survey fatigue, including:

  • Different types of surveys – from shorter, pulse surveys to more immersive, philosophical, and strategic surveys. Providing each is structured to capture the interest and engagement of members, this will mitigate any possibility of an attention ‘drop off’.
  • Segmentation – not all surveys will require input from all members. So, providing you involve an appropriate cross section for a given survey, this will ensure you’re not asking too much of too many members all at once.
  • Accessibility – by making all options available to your members in terms of how they can complete a survey (cell phone, tablet device, desktop or hard copy), you allow them to make a choice in which way they find most comfortable, convenient and quick.

Finding the right survey approach demonstrates to your membership that their opinion matters, you are open to change, and that the club wishes to maximize its relevance to the majority of members. Crucially, it eliminates the possibility of a reactive ‘culture creep’ where decisions are made on the basis of vocal minority opinion rather than how they should be made – through data-driven decision making.

When’s the optimum time to be running member survey(s)?

This is really determined by the need and seasonality for each club. Some surveys will be linked to time-defined events (such as those focused towards capital projects), so would need to happen within a given window.

If a club is looking at a strategic or attitudinal survey then the timing is somewhat less critical – though the off-season can be a good time to survey members on these topics.

Things are more certain when it comes to surveying members on how satisfied they are. Our research and data in this area points to the period following the peak season as the optimum time to question members about their year-on-year sentiments towards the club, and there are some key reasons for this:

  • Members have just experienced the club in its best light – so they are more likely to be engaged, positive, but also practical and pragmatic in their assessment and recommendations.
  • A maximum number of members are utilizing the club – with the seasonal nature of a number of clubs, members can often go into hibernation during the off-season. So, surveying these individuals at a time when the club is far from their mind and everyday life is unlikely to provide qualitative data and insights. Conversely, questioning members when the club is a highly relevant part of their day-to-day life will ensure everyone’s voice is heard.

How do you interpret the findings and how (much) should they help to inform wider strategic club intentions?

Asking the right questions is only part of the process. Much of my work involves spending a great deal of time interpreting results by looking at the key drivers and mapping these against various demographic filters; this reveals differences of opinion between various groups such as men and women, newer and longer-tenured members, younger and more senior members, and various other categories. All helping to fuel the right future strategy for the club.

However, this process can be more complex than what it seems.

Take, for example, a case where the food and beverage operation is the lowest rated component of the services, amenities and activities available to members. The natural inclination would be to hone in on this area as one requiring action and improvement. But this is where key drivers come in. What really drives the satisfaction of members? Which areas are they most sensitive to? And therefore, where should your focus lie (not always the lowest-ranked component)?

Once these key drivers are determined they can prompt specific strategic action, or, in cases where more information is needed, spin off surveys. Understanding the key factors that are driving member satisfaction helps to interpret survey results in an aggregate context, one in which outputs on specific questions are considered relative to others in order to help the club prioritize areas of focus and support justifications for doing so.

What have you observed from clubs who do/don’t take a keen interest in finding out more about the needs and wants of their members?

Making operational and strategic decisions based on perception or the opinions of a vocal minority is one of the greatest risks a club can face.

The club that makes it a priority to obtain feedback from its members has a solid understanding of the factors that caused its members to join, an annual measure of current performance relative to expectations, understands the key drivers of satisfaction, and has a clear notion of its members’ hopes and goals for the club.

More than that, by taking an active interest in the opinions of its members, the club takes them on a journey and demonstrates trust, transparency, and the benefits of data driven decision-making along the way.

In cases where the vocal minority come forward with points of dissatisfaction, the robust data at the hands of managers creates a credible sense of authority when engaging in dialogue.

Any final thoughts to add?

In any member survey, communication and transparency are key. Start your process with focus groups – this helps generate buy-in and trust in the process, and also shows you are (literally) willing to listen to the opinions of members.

Once you have embarked on the process, keep members informed about the next stages and the reasons behind conducting a survey. It’s highly likely they will speak with one another about the process and the details of any survey, so regular club communication will ensure there’s no room for misinterpretation or myths arising.

The final, and arguably the most important consideration, is confidentiality. Members should embark on a survey in the knowledge that their individual responses will be securely held by an independent third party. This affords them the opportunity to respond candidly and feel comfortable enough to air out dissenting opinions, frustrations, and constructive criticisms that may bring to light or reinforce issues which otherwise may not be shared.

Crucially, this arms club leaders with the authentic, informative feedback they need to be effective strategists.

This article was authored by GGA Senior Manager and Market Intelligence expert Michael Gregory.

Partnership Promises Leading Edge Analytics For Clubs

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MetricsFirst and GGA partner to provide leading edge data analytics to the club industry.

TORONTO, Ontario – MetricsFirst and Global Golf Advisors (“GGA”) are pleased to announce the formation of a strategic partnership to provide leading edge data analytics to the club industry.

The MetricsFirst technology platform, combined with GGA’s deep analytical expertise will provide clubs around the world with seamless, real-time dashboard reporting and diagnostic and predictive analysis tailored to the specific needs of every key decision maker.

“We are excited to partner with Global Golf Advisors and offer MetricsFirst within our industry, assisting clubs with retrieving, analyzing, and taking proactive action based on the information that exists within multiple systems they are utilizing. We are providing the ability for clubs to make important strategic decisions through the data and metrics provided by MetricsFirst,” said Joe Oswald Chief Operating Officer at Jonas.

“GGA has provided data driven insights to the club industry for over 25 years. During that time period, we have been fortunate to help some of the world’s top clubs develop and implement a game plan for success – one that is informed and supported by business intelligence and data analytics,” explained GGA Partner, Derek Johnston. “We are thrilled to partner with the MetricsFirst team to translate GGA’s proven approach to analyzing club performance into an affordable, real-time data analytics platform.”

Derek Johnston added, “We view this partnership as a strategic pillar in our quest to continuously improve the tools and solutions we offer our clients.”

For more information on MetricsFirst please visit www.metricsfirst.com

For more information on GGA please visit www.globalgolfadvisors.com

Media Contact:
Vache Hagopian
Managing Director of MetricsFirst
Vache.Hagopian@jonasclub.com

GGA and the CSCM Launch First of Two Research Initiatives

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The Canadian Society of Club Managers (CSCM) and GGA have formed a strategic partnership to produce research and insight for the benefit of CSCM members and the club industry at large.

The first joint research initiative launched December 6, 2018 with a comprehensive survey of CSCM members that focuses on attitudes, trends and best practices from club leaders. The purpose of this survey is to gain insights on the Canadian club industry and gauge the opinions of Club leaders on the industry outlook.

The results of the survey will be shared for the benefit of all participants and will form the basis for ongoing industry research that will increase the reach and impact of the CSCM for its members and Canadian club managers.

The December 2018 survey is the first of two club industry research initiatives CSCM and GGA will undertake each year. Following the completion of this survey, the second initiative will target business media through lifestyle research initiatives that generate interest beyond the club industry.

Click here to learn more about Canadian club industry research, trends and best practices.

Strategic Intelligence Overview: Part 3 of 3

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Top performing clubs around the world are finding newer, faster and more efficient ways to leverage business intelligence and create competitive advantages for their clubs. The first two articles in this three-part series included what business intelligence is and why it is important (see “Strategic Intelligence Part One,” September 2018) and how to use and implement business intelligence (see “Strategic Intelligence Part Two,” October 2018). The final article will identify desirable outcomes and key results for clubs that have leveraged data.

While the initial infrastructure set up does require an investment of time and money, business intelligence should be viewed as a tool to aid and support club leadership with sound decision making and strategy, not another chore to be completed. Informed decisions require a combination of competitor, market and operational data along with member feedback data. Many clubs use this information anecdotally and it hinders everyone from staying on the same page.

One of the most important benefits of utilizing a strategic intelligence process is the time and effort saved during board, committee and staff meetings due to reduced deliberation and off topic discussion. “It’s hard to argue with the facts,” stated Derek Johnston of Global Golf Advisors. “But those facts still need to be secured, analyzed and regularly prepared, which can be time consuming.”

Johnston shares that a Global Golf Advisors client recently had a breakthrough because of the information brought to light through its strategic intelligence process. “Club X had always raised annual dues by 2.5 percent each year but its bottom line was struggling due to labor and other cost increases. A historical trend analysis of key competitor clubs revealed that Club X’s competitors had been raising dues annually by an average of four percent for the past three years. In addition, member survey feedback identified high satisfaction in the Value for Money category. Armed with this data, Club X raised annual dues by five percent without backlash and is planning similar increases in the future as long as subsequent data supports it.”

Another client, Club Y, had recently completed a major renovation that included the addition of a fitness and racquet sports facility. The club was achieving member satisfaction ratings above comparable clubs but was struggling to recruit an ample amount of new members each year. According to Johnston, Club Y’s lead generation relied heavily on member referrals with minimal marketing effort beyond the current membership.

Using mapping, demographics and real estate trends to enhance marketing effectiveness, Club Y implemented a tracking process to identify the source of the prospective member lead along with the lead’s home address. This process exposed a significant disconnect. Leads that came from new members had a conversion rate of 17 percent over the past five years. Leads from tenured members were less than four percent. This data lead to healthy discussion and ultimately a new strategy for lead generation and membership sales.

When asked the question, “What does strategic intelligence success look like?” Johnston answers with “Readily available data in every board and management meeting that is analyzed and presented in a manner that improves the efficiency of the meetings, enables more focused discussions and results in a higher quality output. Ultimately strategic intelligence leads to a superior strategy and increased support for the decisions that club leaders make.”

This article was authored by GGA Partner Derek Johnston for the Private Club Advisor.

GGA and the CSCM Partner to Enhance Research and Impact

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Global Golf Advisors (GGA) and the Canadian Society of Club Managers Partner to Enhance Research and Impact
GGA recognized as Platinum Corporate Partner of the CSCM

TORONTO, Ontario – October 15, 2018

Global Golf Advisors (GGA) and the Canadian Society of Club Managers (CSCM) are pleased to announce the formation of a strategic partnership to produce research and insights for the benefit of the CSCM members and the club industry at large. The CSCM Corporate Partner program recognizes industry partners that share the values of the CSCM and offer members support as leaders in the club management profession in Canada.

The CSCM and GGA have enjoyed a history of collaborative research and investigative solutions to many of the club industry’s toughest problems. The evolution of this relationship into a formal partnership furthers the mission and core objectives of the Society’s strategic plan and positions GGA to more directly support the CSCM through funding, education, and research for its members. Each year, GGA and the CSCM will collaborate on valuable industry research as well a lifestyle research paper.

“Achieving the CSCM’s strategic plan, ‘Vision 2020 – A Clear Focus For An Even Stronger Future’, is one of the most important mandates of our National Board,” explained Trevor Noonan CCM, CCE, CSCM president. “For many years CSCM and GGA have maintained a longstanding and valued relationship. By formalizing our partnership, we bring the plan’s ‘Research & Impact’ pillar to life.”

The CSCM’s vision is to create great clubs through excellence in professional club management and its mission is to promote and develop the profession of club management. The CSCM offers a variety of programs and services in response to member needs and expectations including the certification program leading to the Certified Club Manager (CCM) designation, career opportunities, and a networking forum for executives and managers involved in club management.

GGA is committed to club management and helping facilitate key elements of the CSCM’s provision for providing research, resources, and education to its members. “Club managers are charged with immense responsibility and deserve all we can do to help.” said GGA partner Derek Johnston. “We are proud to lend our support and are eager to work collaboratively with the CSCM to develop beneficial research and insights drawn from GGA’s core competencies in strategy and operations consulting, business intelligence and analytics. ”

“The creation of this valuable and timely industry research continues to position the CSCM as the industry leader it is, providing benefit to the CSCM members and the clubs they lead,” declared Suzanne Godbehere, CSCM chief executive officer. “We are very much looking forward to delivering this joint research.”

For more details about the CSCM and partnership, click here.

About The Canadian Society of Club Managers
Established in 1957, CSCM is the national professional society representing the club management profession in Canada. Of our approximately 600 members, over 70% are from golf clubs, and the remainder from a variety of city, recreation, fitness, curling and other types of clubs.

The Society’s members hold position titles that include General Manager, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer as well as Assistant Manager, Clubhouse Manager, Controller and Food and Beverage Manager.

About GGA
Global Golf Advisors is a highly specialized consulting firm dedicated to the club and golf industries. GGA serves a global roster of clients from its four offices in Toronto, Phoenix, Dublin and Sydney. The firm was founded in 1992 as a specialty consulting practice within KPMG Canada, KPMG’s Golf Industry Practice. Since inception, the firm has provided industry-leading advisory services to over 3,000 clients worldwide.

Strategic Intelligence Overview: Part 2 of 3

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Clubs are beginning to discover the power of utilizing data to operate more strategically (see “Strategic Intelligence Part One,” September 2018). While enterprise grade analytics platforms that help to consistently track and analyze data may still be out of reach for many clubs, Derek Johnston of Global Golf Advisors says there are steps clubs can take now to lead to better decision making. He recommends club managers start with straight forward objectives for using and analyzing data:

  1. Inform key decision makers at your club with customized, accurate, timely and actionable intelligence about your club’s membership, market, operations and finances.
  2. Improve productivity and effectiveness of board and management meetings with sophisticated and reliable business intelligence.
  3. Help club executives efficiently and effectively evaluate, develop and adjust strategy on an on-going basis.

In order to effectively collect, analyze and present the right information to the right audiences, Johnston suggests you look at your club’s strategic plan and overall club goals to identify the key questions you need to answer first. For example: If your goal is to increase intermediate membership conversion rates and build a larger pipeline, some of the things you would likely want to know are:

  • Conversion rates of intermediate membership over the past five years.
  • Number of prospects in your pipeline in the past five years and how many are in it currently.
  • Reasons intermediate members have and have not converted in the past.
  • Preferences and attitudes toward the club of those who have converted to full membership in the past.
  • The size and make-up of their personal networks and their willingness to recommend the club.

“If you could gather all of this information, track it and trend it over time, you could come up with a pretty good action plan to achieve your goal,” explained Johnston. “Work through this exercise for each of the most important categories of strategic intelligence: governance, membership, market, utilization and participation, employees, operations, capital and finance.”

Once you know the information that you need to frame your decisions, then you can begin to source the information from both internal (POS, member database, P&L) and external sources (population demographics and psychographics, real estate data, social media, web traffic, etc.). When you have the necessary data, you can analyze it in a way that considers your club’s unique circumstances, visualize the information in a manner that provides historical context and trends, and then determine the best approach for presenting the information to the various decision makers at your club.

Stay tuned for Strategic Intelligence Part Three in the next issue which will address examples and the key results of clubs that have leveraged data to achieve a desirable outcome.

This article was authored by GGA Partner Derek Johnston for the Private Club Advisor.

Strategic Intelligence Overview: Part 1 of 3

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As the world becomes more data centric, the club industry is beginning to discover the power of utilizing data, research and analysis to operate more intelligently and strategically. According to Derek Johnston of Global Golf Advisors, informed intelligence planning increases the likelihood of current and future success.

The biggest challenges clubs face in their quest for better strategy is how to source and analyze the data and then apply that intelligence to determine future action. Comprehensive business intelligence is extremely important for clubs, especially those where boards are comprised of volunteer members with varying backgrounds and professional experience. “Everyone must be working from the same set of facts when discussing and ultimately setting strategy,” Johnston said.

Business intelligence is often new to clubs and tends to be misunderstood. “Simply put, you want to use information to help determine what has happened and why,” he explained. Using data to derive insight that helps with decision making is most impactful when 1) internal and external data from multiple sources is synthesized, 2) combined with experience and key business assumptions and 3) enabled by technology in order to identify unique insight.

“This means that relying on financial information or data from your club’s information system is not enough. It will not provide the specifics needed to develop the most successful strategy for your club,” Johnston warned.

Global Golf Advisors believes business intelligence requires a 360-degree view of all the factors impacting a club’s success from competitive market forces to member perceptions to operational and financial performance evaluations. It should also be defined based on who will be using it and the reason for which they will be using the information. Global Golf Advisors warns that anecdotal information in a board room is distracting and disastrous.

“Develop a strategy that supports both operational and strategic decision making that goes beyond typical financial data and key performance indicators. The top performing clubs around the world are consistently tracking, analyzing and reporting data to leverage intelligence and create competitive advantages,” Johnston concluded.

Stay tuned for Strategic Intelligence Part Two in our next issue which will address how to implement key practices to establish a strategic intelligence process at your club.

This article was authored by GGA Partner Derek Johnston for the Private Club Advisor.

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