The Wright Stuff

2007 Excellence in Club Management Award Winner

by Taylor Wright (editor@clubandresortbusiness.com)
January 2008
 

Ideas Implemented Successfully at Norwood Hills CC Under John Wright’s Leadership • A la carte servers now earn a percentage of all F&B sales; this incentive program improved accountability and sales (through increased upselling), reduced food and bar costs, and increased the average wage of a la carte and bar staff by nearly $3.30/hr. (to $15.44/hr.). • Weekly events on Friday evenings, with complimentary hors d’oeuvres and live entertainment on the outside patios, increased a la carte dining on those nights to 225-250 covers. • Ladies Evening Golf Social (LEGS), a Tuesday night ladies casual golf “league” with instructional clinics, food and drinks, has led to increased play, and use of the club, among female members who work during the day and were not participating in traditional 9-Hole and 18-Hole Club organizations. • Adding live reindeer and live Christmas-themed puppet shows to children’s holiday parties boosted total number of parties to three, each with bookings of 400. • Initiation of Employee Safety Committee lowered accident frequency through increased awareness (over 14 months without a lost-time accident in all departments), leading to substantial savings on workers’ compensation premiums.   Achievements at Norwood Hills CC Under John Wright’s leadership • $8.5 million clubhouse renovation/addition completed on time and under budget; as part of project completion, Norwood Hills attained status as National Historic District • F&B revenues grew from $1.9 million annually in 2004 to over $2.4 million in 2007, with F&B profits of over $600,000 in 2007. A la carte head counts have grown 12%; outside banquet events now contribute over 18% of club’s annual revenues • Debt of over $4.5 million retired • Wine dinner attendance has increased from 20-25 per dinner to 50-60 per dinner over past two years, with pricing increasing from $50 to $75/person over same period

Editor's Note: When we needed to interview John Wright, GM/COO of Norwood Hills Country Club in St. Louis, Mo., and the 2007 Winner of the McMahon Group/C&RB Excellence in Club Management Award (for Country/Golf Clubs with 600 or More Full-Privilege Members), Taylor Wright was the natural choice for the assignment. In addition to holding a degree in Journalism from the University of Kansas, and being a frequent contributor to Club & Resort Business, Taylor is also John's daughter, and therefore uniquely qualified to provide a special perspective into the qualities that have contributed to his successful career.

When my sister and I were younger, my Dad used to take us to work with him on Saturdays. We'd run around the dining halls, sit at the bar drinking "Shirley Temples," make photocopies of our hands, and hang out with the staff.

This was all a blast for two little girls-but I didn't realize what watching my Dad "at work" was teaching me until much later in my life, after I got into the workforce myself. The first of these revelations was that most professionals really have it easy, working a 9-to-5, Monday-through-Friday schedule. Growing up, it never dawned on us that it was strange having our Dad work on weekends and on every holiday; it was just his job.

Secondly, I've come to appreciate how, while country clubs exist to provide leisure activities for members, that certainly does not translate into a staff being able to take it easy or relax. Having been in direct contact with this demanding work for the majority of my life, I can say with absolute certainty that my Dad works harder than most professionals I have come to know in other fields.

But even as youngsters, he showed us how going the extra step is worth it. We'd walk around with my Dad as he visited with members, and saw how he remembered details about their lives and families that I'm not sure all of their own relatives would have known.

My Dad has always shown us that serving others is one of the hardest, but also one of the most rewarding jobs-and I was glad for the opportunity to have a conversation with him, to get his insights into what it takes to achieve the professional excellence that always seemed, at least to me, to come so naturally to him.

Q: You started in the restaurant business before moving into club management. What brought you into the hospitality field initially?

A: There was a natural attraction to it for me. I initially applied for a job as a bartender with Far West Services Incorporated, which operated Robert E. Lee and Reuben's and Coco's restaurants throughout the U.S. But instead of making me a bartender, they put me in management. So I spent six months going through extensive training, learning every aspect of the food industry.

Q: How and why did you make the crossover into country clubs?

A: I worked for a long time in "white tablecloths" and it's kind of funny-your Mom made a comment to me one day, before I'd already gone gray, that there "aren't too many guys with white hair" in the club business. That sort of opened my eyes to just how tough and demanding the restaurant business was. So I looked at the possibility of getting into clubs. Fortunately I had an acquaintance who was involved in clubs, and I was able to interview at his club and they hired me.

Q: What do you think were the most valuable things that crossed over with you from restaurants to clubs?

A: A real passion to want to serve; I've always had that, and I still retain that. And then, more practically, a real, solid background in the kitchen, and in service. Those are the foundations and basics for any good manager involved in any aspect of the food and beverage industry-be it restaurants, clubs or other segments.

Q: Are there aspects of club management that you needed to pick up on that you realized you hadn't learned through restaurant work?

A: Yes-you're dealing with a different kind of individual. In the restaurant business, if they don't like your product, they will go away. In the clubs, they don't go away.

Q: Did you have any misconceptions of club management that you had to adapt to?

A: Yes, my initial observation-and again, my initial motivation for making the move-was that it was a fairly easy industry, at least when compared to the restaurant business. I soon discovered that it's anything but that. It involves a whole different way of doing things, but it's still extremely intricate and can be very political, as well as very demanding.

Q: You worked at two other clubs in the St. Louis area before moving to Norwood Hills. As you worked in those clubs, were you always thinking of how to network and advance your career, or were you more focused on learning everything you could?

A: I never had advancement as a goal. I've always said that my resume is what I do daily. I'll lay that out there any day, and put myself up against anybody.

Q: You also furthered your education through training and certification programs, such as the Club Management Association of America's Business Management Institute. What do you think you gained from these extra efforts?

A: An ability to see the big picture better, and not to be walking around with blinders on. To see that there's more to the industry than just a good food cost or a good bar cost. To see that it goes beyond the satisfaction of the membership, to also include not only the safety of the membership, but also the safety of the employees. A lot of things come into play now that weren't a part of the club industry years ago, such as Federal, state and local laws, and the impact they all have. It's a whole different business now.

Q: For young managers who want to eventually be GMs or CEO/COOs of clubs, what is a good career plan for always positioning yourself well for advancement, while not being perceived as a job hopper?

A: That's a good question. I think, once again, you have to form a really good, solid foundation and do all you can to know the business inside and out. And once again, you have to show that you have a passion to serve. If you're able to attain those qualities, people will find you, and you won't have to look for anything.

Q: How does that come into play when dealing with your own staff and acknowledging their need to explore opportunities that may come to exist for them outside the club, before they could occur within your operation?

A: As far as career advancement opportunities go, I encourage people on my staff to interview anytime there is a position open that they think they are capable of doing. Even if they don't get the job, the part of interviewing and going through the whole routine of it is important. And then I encourage them to make their own decisions.

I also let my management employees run their own departments. My door is always open; and normally if they're in my office having a conversation with me, it's because something went wrong and we're going to fix it. I want to put people in the position to succeed, not to fail-because if they succeed, I'll be more successful, too.

Q: Do you feel obligated to help employees move on, or is it something that needs to be initiated more by them?

A: I feel obligated in that I have to point them in the right direction. After that, it's up to them to be able to go in that direction. It's all about decisions and whether you make them right or whether you make them wrong.

Q: The other end of ambition is the danger of burnout. How do you make sure that you and your staff retain a healthy balance between the hard work of your business and the things they want and need to do away from the job, too?

A: We're very cognizant of that; I always tell my staff that home and family comes before work. As part of that, I expect them to, number one, use their vacation time-not take the money, but actually take the time off.

There are also some cases where for key employees, I'll buy a vacation for them-sending the chef and his family to Disney World, for example. Because sometimes when you get a bonus check or cash, it goes fast and in ways that really aren't much fun and don't do much for the family. You know, you fix the car, or buy a washer or dryer.

Also, if somebody has a family of young children and they want to go on vacation in July, we make sure they can schedule their vacation for July. Even though that's during the heart of our business here, that's not what's important. The club will always be here. And they should be able to spend time with their family when they need to, and not worry about if the club's operations will suffer. It's up to the rest of us to find ways to accommodate the vacation schedules that work best for every employee.

I also stress a five-day work week, and I don't know if a lot of managers do that. I don't believe in working six or six-and-a-half days a week just because your Dad did, or because others are. A five-day work week keeps you fresh and keeps your perspective.

I also take my staff out on several occasions to look at different food and beverage venues and benchmark what other good restaurants are doing, to see if we're up to snuff. So those are just a few of the things we do to keep everybody fresh.

Q: Do you think that a career in the club business is becoming less transient, as clubs themselves have become more well-rounded, which makes it possible to find new advancement opportunities within the same property, and minimize the need to keep moving from club to club?

A: I think the business has transcended what the image of a general manager used to be, even 15 years ago. Until recently, the "GM" was really still just a guy who was in charge of the kitchen and who greeted the membership-a glorified maître d'. But now it has grown, largely through the education efforts of the CMAA, to show that clubs need to retain a good manager-be it the general manager or other department heads- for a long time. If they've got a person who is capable and they have confidence in him or her, they need to do all they can to keep that person-they don't want him or her going anywhere else.

Q: You had the "Chief Operating Officer" label added to your General Manager title when you came to Norwood Hills. What is the difference of just attaching those letters to your name and really adding that function to the position?

A: That's a good question, and I think the difference is this: The club has confidence in my ability to operate, and has seen what my ideas and suggestions have accomplished. That makes it possible for the Board to see that they do not have to have any kind of decision-making influence in the operations. The Board exists to establish policy and to set goals and then to let me do whatever is operationally necessary to get to those goals. There is a true division between what they do, and what I do.

Q: Do you think it's become important in the club business to have managers run their own departments, versus having everyone go through a rule-by-committee or rule-by-Board approach?

A: It's much more important. There has to be continuity, and once again a trust. By having a good GM/COO and staff that can take care of operational issues, the Board can be relieved of decision-making burdens, and can focus on setting policies.

Q: Do you think it is easier to pull off the true COO/CEO concept in a for-profit organization?

A: I think the tax status of the club doesn't really matter, as long as the Board, and club in general, has bought into the concept, has trust, and knows the responsibility given to that person will be carried out correctly.

Q: The nominating letter that Norwood Hills' President wrote on your behalf for the Excellence in Club Management Award cited several examples of how you executed major projects on time and within budget-something many club managers struggle with. What were the most critical factors for keeping things on course?

A: Well, first of all, there was a very cohesive team. On any kind of construction project, we had the right people- architects, interior designers, construction workers, etc.-all in on the planning discussions at the right time, and at the same time. This gave everyone the right vision of which way to go, and kept everyone focused on the same game plan.

Then as we got into executing the plan, we had great communication, largely because we had very small committees. We made good decisions, we made them quickly and we didn't get bogged down in minutiae.

And finally, as we've already discussed, we were doing this in an environment where the Board and committees were pretty much letting me run with it all, leaving it to me to report to them on the decisions that were made, and why.

Q: During the clubhouse renovation, did you have any instances where you had to make a major adjustment or throw something out of the plan all together? Or did it all follow originally as planned?

A: No, it never does. In the beginning of our clubhouse renovation project, for example, we ran into a buried oil drum, two days into digging the site. It held 800 gallons and still had 400 gallons in it. That was a big deal because we had to get soil tests. The state didn't even have it in their records.

It was suggested that perhaps it could be just taken out and done away with, but I knew that wouldn't be a good thing- there could be repercussions to the club later on. So we went through the correct channels, including Federal reconciliation, and as a result there was a four-day delay. But I now feel much better that it will never come back and haunt the club.

Q: The membership at Norwood has increased significantly since your start at the club. What was the key to getting the numbers to start moving in the right direction?

A: Well first, when I came I don't think anyone had a really good handle on what the membership trends were. The numbers were kind of all over the board; people were coming and going randomly.

So we started to have an annual Board retreat nine years ago, taking the Board members off-site and bringing in featured speakers to talk to them. One speaker talked about the importance of doing a long-range plan and from that beginning, six years later, we started the construction of the addition to the clubhouse, as well as the renovation.

So those types of things, which the club had never done before, gave us the initial plan to find out what direction we were going to go. We couldn't just be a golf club, we had to be a family club, but our facilities weren't right for a family club. And once we got the facilities right, families started coming.

Q: As part of trying to attract new members, initiation-fee specials were used. How do you respond to clubs that feel this approach is unfair to long-term, full-fee members?

A: It's a very difficult line to walk. We were very innovative in how we priced our initiation fees, but it was clear they were still initiation fees.

In retrospect, yes, we may have given some new members too good of a deal, but we were always careful not to fall into the "slash and burn" approach. When you do that, you get a lot of initial response, but when initiation time comes up again, people will just wait for the fees to be cut again. It's not a good policy; it doesn't work. It doesn't get you the kind of member who really has some skin in the game, because they don't have a lot of money invested. So when it's time to cut and run, they cut and run.

Q: Did you lose a lot of members after your specials ended?

A: We did have some attrition. But we had enough momentum going that we had become, I guess for lack of a better phrase, "the hottest thing in town." So we had a lot of people who wanted to join the club anyway. And when the families came out and saw the facilities that we had, and the activities that we offered, along with a brand new fitness room and a fairly reasonable cost, there was still strong interest.

We also had the advantage of being for-profit, which allows us to do a lot of Monday tournaments and keep our dues substantially lower than anybody else's in the area. So all of that has been enough to still carry us.

Q: With two courses, golf will always be an important part of the club. But as the other, non-golf revenue centers like tennis, food and beverage, or banquets, continue to grow, how do you see golf, where growth is not as easy to generate, fitting into Norwood Hills' future?

A: Our golf courses are our two gems and remain our main attraction, even as we do become more of a family-oriented club. But our clubhouse facilities were so woefully inadequate, we had to react to those first.

Now that we've addressed them, we've hired a golf course architect who is going to develop a long-range plan for both of our courses. That is the next project for the long-range planning committee that we finally formed three years ago. Because we now have that committee, I think we're on the right track to put, and keep, the club in a viable position, because there will always be a plan in place.

Q: Is it still possible for a club to build on a strong golf heritage while growing the other parts of the operation?

A: Yes, I believe so. Once again, I think it comes back to the notion of family membership. The days of Dad coming to the club and then meeting Mom at the pool are over. Now it's always some combination of Mom, Dad and the kids playing golf or Mom, Dad and the kids going to the pool, or the fitness center, or one of the restaurants.

Families are now so stressed for time, usually because both spouses work, that they are really interested in anything that will make it possible for them to all spend some time together. So if you have all the right things in place to offer to them, I think you can still have them see club memberships as a good investment and a consistent source of good value.