Sticking to the Plan

Don’t let hectic daily routines hinder the thought processes that are critical to reaching your property’s long-range goals.

by Don E. Vance, CCM (editor@clubandresortbusiness.com)
July 2007
 

Summing It Up • Effective long-range planning requires recognizing it as an ongoing process, rather than a task with a finite timeframe. • The same type of regular trend analyses for club and resort properties as a whole should also be conducted for individual departments.

E . B. White was a prolific writer who could tackle just about any subject But the author of everything from children’s books (“Charlotte’s Web” and “Stuart Little”) to writing manuals (“The Elements of Style”) once admitted that planning was not his strong suit.

“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to save the world and a desire to savor the world,” White said. “That makes it hard to plan the day.”

We club and resort managers can certainly relate to White’s dilemma. Our chosen profession is one where a good plan for the day often gets blown to bits before our first cup of coffee gets cold. Trying to think about realistic longer-range planning—for the week, the month, the year, let alone much further out—often seems even more fruitless. We’ve learned from experience how much things can change—and how quickly—in all of the areas that can affect our operations: the makeups of memberships and Boards, our staff, our facilities, local economies, weather, etc., etc.

But we have also been well-trained—from our initial classes in hospitality management, to our indoctrinations on the first days of jobs—to have great respect for how critical long-range planning is to the ultimate success of any organization.
We know that the most successful clubs that operate at the highest levels have achieved that status largely because of their strict focus on, and adherence to, master plans and strategic plans over extended periods—no matter what short-term bumps in the road they may encounter.

And we know that as club and resort executives, managers and department heads, one of our primary duties is to lead not only the development, but also the implementation, of those plans, and to make sure that everyday routines don’t deter us from this critical duty.

What knocks most club managers off track when it comes to long-range planning, though, is that they tend to see it as another task, much in the same way they view holding staff meetings or conducting routine “walk-arounds” at their facilities. The idea of sitting down to “do” long-range planning—as if it’s a term paper or a project with a finite timeframe, like a banquet or a golf outing—is often so daunting to managers that they put it off entirely, and choose instead to just deal with short-term concerns as they arise.

Fancy Names for Simple Thoughts
The big difference between long-range planning and the many other things on our plates is that it needs to be viewed as a process, not a task. In fact, it’s a series of ongoing processes that must be managed in a steady and fluid fashion, making allowances for midstream corrections.

The academics have a lot of terms for these processes: strategic renewal, master action plans, “SWOT” analyses, and so on. And there’s plenty of debate in MBA circles about how they should conducted, which are the most important, who should be involved with each, etc.

I certainly have great respect for the value of all of these formal long-range planning techniques. A lot of smart people have put a lot of sound thinking into their development. In my own career, I’ve followed most of them religiously, and become a big believer in their power.

But before plunging into any of them, you have to buy into the thought process and mind-set that lets you get beyond day-to-day concerns, so you can think long-term on a regular basis.

Whether you do it through surveys, consultants, committees or just your own regular individual trips to a park bench with a pad of paper and a pen during lunchtime, it’s important to always make, and take, the time to assess what you think the future will bring.

Viewed this way, the “long-range planning process” is a lot less daunting; it’s really just a simple matter of making it a habit to regularly ask questions like these:

• What is the orientation of our club? (Business? Family? Social?) What should it be going forward?
•What is our perceived “quality level”? (Prestige? Casual Elegance? Budget?)
• What’s going on with member/guest demographics? What’s the trend for attrition?
• Where does demand stand in our market? Are there any new clubs opening in our area? How’s our own waiting list (or lack of one) doing?
• How are we doing with capital reserve funds? Are we getting to where we may need to assess our members, or have to borrow? Do we need to adjust our monthly capital dues program, or put one in place? How does our investment funds plan look?
• How’s our operational cash flow? Are we on target with how much we need to keep in the bank to operate on a monthly basis? Is our daily operating “nut” changing significantly?

Obviously, this can become an endless list. And just as obviously, many of these questions are things any manager is going to need to be able to answer pretty readily in Board or committee meetings, or while going about regular duties.
But the point is, it’s one thing to be able to provide answers based on today; it’s quite another to have put some real, regular thought into how all of these critical factors are likely to look, and change, well into tomorrow.

I realized the value of this first-hand while General Manager at a club that dated back to before the turn of the century. Over the years, there was a tremendous amount of change. The average age of the membership dropped from 65 to 57 in a 10-year period. In a five-year period, 150 new members were accepted, and their average age was 40. Only 60 percent of these new members were related to existing ones; a full 40 percent were young businesspeople with families who were either new to the area, or new to the club.

Sure, we had master plans and action programs in place all the time at this club, on which some pretty serious spending plans were based. But without making it a point to regularly assess how these trends would affect those plans, and make appropriate adjustments, my staff and I would have been on a long-range path to disaster.

An effective approach to long-range planning, in fact, really has to have the same flexibility you use when building a clubhouse. Regardless of how stunning the architect’s original plan may have been, you must still take time to allow for the “in-the-field modifications” and plan design changes that will inevitably have to take place.

In both cases, the real trick is to balance new input and change with implementation, so you aren’t paralyzed by analysis and can keep the plan moving forward. That’s the best way to have accomplishments you can savor day-to-day, while still “saving your world” for the future.