Leading the Strategic Planning Process - Club Managers ...

144 Chapter 4During a SWOT analysis, a club is its own critic. Besides providing perspectiveand understanding of the club’s position, a SWOT analysis supports and helpscreate a clear strategic plan—again, either for the club as an entity (grand strategy)or departmentally (which should align with the grand strategy).A SWOT analysis should be performed for the club as a whole and for eachdepartment within the club at least one time each year. It can be an extremely valuableexercise, if it is carried out in a frank and honest manner. On the other hand, if itis handled in a political manner, the exercise can become a useless waste of time.Using the Strategic Plan to Allocate CapitalThroughout the budgeting process, the strategic plan should play a major part asa reference tool for prioritizing needs and distributing capital. Capital requestsshould be made with the club’s strategic plan in mind.For example, suppose that the Golf Course Committee and Golf OperationsCommittee have supported a proposal by the GM/COO, the golf course superintendent,and the director of golf to begin hand-mowing greens instead of tri-plexinggreens, to begin tri-plexing fairways instead of gang mowing fairways, and tobegin gang mowing the rough instead of flail mowing the rough. In the proposal,the economic impact of the mowing changes has been stated in terms of operations(increased labor) and capital expenses (purchasing hand-mowers and gas cartswith trailer combinations for transport).Since this is an expensive proposition, it’s likely that this proposal would beturned down at many clubs—unless it dovetailed with the club’s strategic vision.In this case, the club had a strategic initiative to improve the condition of the club’sgolf course by 25 percent within two years. Therefore, the club’s board of governorsapproved the proposal as consistent with the club’s strategic plan. In thiscase, everyone involved—the GM/COO, the golf course superintendent, the directorof golf, the Golf Course Committee members, the Golf Operations Committeemembers, and the club’s board—kept the club’s strategic goal for the golf course inmind, and so time was not wasted on a proposal that had nothing to do with theclub’s strategic vision, and the proposal was approved with no difficulty. Clubsthat use the strategic plan to allocate capital do not waste money on projects thathave nothing to do with advancing the club’s strategic vision.Key Termsaction plan—the realization or practical application of the strategic planningeffort. It is how the club will enact its strategies.differentiation—a strategy which focuses on uniqueness and price.focused differentiation—a strategy that emphasizes uniqueness and price for anarrow market.focused low-cost leadership—a strategy that emphasizes high sales at low cost toa narrow target market.