Struggling clubs tend to manage expenses in the boardroom instead of leaving management to the manager and focusing their strategic energy and experience on quality and mission fulfillment that drive revenue growth. Great clubs understand and reinforce their brands: According to data assembled by Global Golf Advisors, every major metropolitan area in the U.S. is over-supplied for private clubs. But most markets are characterized by clubs indistinguishable from the next. The most successful clubs understand the need for market differentiation and have clear answers to the following questions: 1. What sets our club apart from others? 2. If people do not join our club, where do they join and why? 3. What will future members of our club want from the club? Clue: If you struggle over any of these questions and your answers require more than a sentence or two, your brand is not as focused as it needs to be. Great clubs are guided by visionary, bold and thorough strategy: Strategy is the key. Does your club have a strategic plan? In great clubs (a) strategy is clearly articulated (b) the members fully understand the strategic goals
and objectives being targeted, and (c) the board tracks strategic performance at every board meeting. In the great clubs, strategy is the primary focus of the board. Their boards routinely and consistently review portions of the strategic plan at every board meeting, just as they do new and old business, to make sure management is keeping the club on track. Three steps that your board can take to be more effective in using strategy: 1. Make strategy a primary objective and accomplishment for every board year. 2. Keep the strategic plan current and active. Use and refer to it at every board meeting. 3. Keep the long-range strategic planning committee educated on current best practices in strategic planning. Don’t rely on strategic planning methods that are 10 or 20 years outdated. Leaders of great clubs focus tirelessly on the priorities that ensure their survival and long-term success. They resemble the hedgehog more than the fox. B R Henry DeLozier, a recipient of the BoardRoom magazine Lifetime Achievement award for 2014, is a principal of Global Golf Advisors. You can contact him at hdelozier@globalgolfadvisors.com.
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