Strategic Planning is an activity praised as the key to all business success and loathed as a waste of time.
Even among supporters, the term is often misused, most commonly when leadership states they want to develop a strategic plan, but their intention is to complete some sort of building project. There also is confusion about the shape of the final plan, with some people insisting that a strategic plan is only useful if it can be put on one or two pages, while others will hand you their 100-page plan with a great sense of pride. And, of course, the most frequent complaint is from those who have gone through the process in their business or at another non-profit organization only to see it collect dust on a shelf.
In defense of the objectors, failure rates are high and the causes legion. Often, the process was short-circuited, approached more as a box to check on a to-do list instead of the thoughtful, multi-faceted process it needs to be, or a well-developed plan was later swamped by ingrained culture. In pursuit of perfection, plans can attempt to do too much, creating a long wish-list instead of a prioritized set of important initiatives or the best of plans lay fallow without the necessary structure to implement or monitor it.
No wonder there is reticence among club leaders to embark on a strategic planning process. It’s challenging and confusing, but here’s another way to think about it, just as procrastination is eventually a choice, your club has a strategy whether you recognize it or not. Whatever it is or isn’t, strategic planning is about choices, the ones you are making today and the ones you intend to make in the future. It is smart business planning that all organizations need to clarify their purpose and set forth what they are striving to become in the future. It establishes “the why” for your behaviors and creates alignment among your functional departments.
So, the choice isn’t whether to develop a strategic plan or not, it’s whether you want to let your strategy be accidental or intentional. In today’s dynamic environment, the risks of following an accidental strategy are high. The club world is bifurcating into winners and losers. About 20% of clubs that existed at the turn of the century are gone and our analysis of those that remain suggests that some 15% of them will fail within the next five years. That amount of contraction in any industry is an indication of a secular shift in demand and values. On the other hand, the club world is being presented with an unprecedented opportunity in the 80 million or so millennials that are entering the prime membership joining years. These are compelling reasons to be intentional in your efforts and invest the time and resources to guide the club’s efforts toward a bright future rather than aimlessly wandering toward mediocrity, or worse.
Having seen different style plans yield meaningful outcomes, there is no doubt, strategic planning is as much art as science. The deliverable can take on different forms given your culture and philosophy. It should fit your style, not the outlines in a textbook. No matter what you call it and how you package it, all plans require certain key elements:
- Understanding of the Environment – Clubs exist in a larger societal context. It is important to understand and, ultimately, reflect the changing values and lifestyles of the target market to assure sustainability. There is a tension in clubs between longstanding traditions and shifting values, but ultimately, it is essential to tilt toward the new than to be stuck in the past. As they say on Wall Street, the trend is your friend.
- Know Your Members – Your membership is your existing customer base. It is important to understand why they joined and what’s most important to them, what they like and don’t like about the current experience and what they want the club to do differently and better in the future. It is essential this analysis is based on data and fact, not conventional wisdom. Boardrooms are full of comments about knowing what members want. Make sure they’re true.
- Establish Clarity – Its doesn’t have to be pithy or Shakespearian, but your club needs statements of purpose and vision to memorialize why the organization exists and what it aspires to become. Like any journey, it is important to know where you want to end up.
- Responsible Parties – Someone, and in the case of a club, two people need to own the plan, a board member and the general manager. These two parties need to partner on communicating, monitoring and updating the plan. Without that support and guidance, stakeholders will not view it as important and it will die on the vine.
- Communicate to Build Alignment – One of the chief criticisms of strategic planning is that after all the work to develop the plan is completed, it is put on the shelf and has no meaningful impact. It is essential in a community asset like a club that the plan is published so that it attracts followers and commits the board and management to deliver on the action plans. Communal awareness, even pressure, equals follow through.
The responsible parties for developing a strategic plan in a private club are the board and management. In fact, the leadership should focus on creating a planning culture and atmosphere. You’ll see in this edition of Club Trends how clubs like Meadow Club developed and regularly updated their plan and used it as a guide for investing, operating and programming that took the club to new heights. Under the leadership and commitment of Jack Grehan, the board regularly updated their plan, collected member input and communicated back to members what they said and how it impacted their actions. Through annual goal planning sessions, they passed the planning baton from board to board.
A strategic plan will help your club retain and attract members, build a sense of pride among the membership and make board service worthwhile and enjoyable. It can enhance your club’s position in the club world and local community. The stakes for club leaders are high. The reduction in the number of clubs over the past 20 years and the shaky condition of a sizable percentage of those in existence today indicate continued challenges for private clubs. This makes club governance more complex and challenging than ever. The role of leaders is to critically review their mission and, most likely, refine and extend it to assure relevance and success. Put whatever title on it you’d like, the mark of the best leaders will be achieving clarity about where the club is going and must go in the future. That shouldn’t be left to accident.
Frank Vain is president of McMahon Group, Inc., a premier full-service, private club consulting firm serving more than 2,000 private clubs around the world. He also serves as a director of the National Club Association and serves on its Finance/Audit Committee, Nominating Committee and Strategic Planning Committee. He can be reached at [email protected]. For more information, visit www.mcmahongroup.com.
Reprinted from the Summer 2019 issue of Club Trends, co-published by the National Club Association and McMahon Group.