Leading the Strategic Planning Process - Club Managers ...

Leading the Strategic Planning Process 141employee? Are you reinforcing the importance of the plan and using it as a centraltheme in everything that you think, do, and say at the club—whether with subordinates,club committees, individual members, or suppliers? Do your key managersunderstand and share the same vision of the club’s grand strategy and use itas a guide for their departmental strategy? All of the club’s senior-level managerswho work directly with the board of governors should be sure to refer to and reinforcethe importance of the strategic plan when discussing any issues.Checking for Clarity and ConcisenessThere is an exercise referred to as the “Elevator Test” that works well in illustratingthe need for clarity and conciseness when expressing the club’s overall strategy.Imagine for a moment that you are riding down from the 20th floor to the 1st floorin an elevator at your club with a prospective member, and he or she asks you toexplain what your club is all about. Could you do it before the doors opened onthe 1st floor? Where would you begin? What would you say?The elevator test suggests that you as the GM/COO, as well as other clubmanagers and the club’s board members, should visualize the club’s strategicplan—including its vision, mission, and major goals and objectives—as a daisychain of connectedness. As such, you should be able to organize your thoughtsand answer the question simply, clearly, and in less than 30 seconds. Impossible? Ifyour answer is “yes,” then you need to better organize your thoughts and/or simplifyor clarify your club’s strategy. You should practice reciting the 30-second versionof your club’s strategic plan until the answer becomes second nature. If youcannot explain your club’s strategy clearly and concisely before the elevator doorsopen, you—or the club’s written documents—are stating the strategy in terms thatare disorganized or too complicated. Organize. Simplify. Clarify. Refine.Use Strategy to Create New Club ServicesA clear grand strategy allows your department heads to align their daily operationswith the strategy and guide the creation of new services, products, andmarkets. Additionally, a clear strategy suggests services, products, and marketsthat your club will not pursue. This “here-and-now” application of the strategicplanning process is an important key to the success of the club-wide effort—andhas a tremendously important focusing quality.Consider the scenario suggested earlier in the visioneering discussion: Membersvisit another club and return with suggestions that they want you to adopt.A clear strategy can be an effective filter for these sorts of suggestions. Do themembers’ suggestions fit in with the club’s strategy? If not, they shouldn’t beimplemented.A clear strategic plan, like the vision and mission that help define it, is a foundationalelement of the club. Refer to the strategy to ensure that your Chevroletclub, Mercedes club, or Ferrari club stays true to its roots, maintains its distinctiveidentity, and does not become a Frankenstein club, as we discussed earlier in thechapter.