Golf
No dreaming and, with a candid honesty, time spent in developing a viable business plan is crucial to its usefulness going forward. It should always have realistic and achievable objectives.
Agreement
- Firstly, you need agreement, from the club, company, your line manager and individual managers within your business
- Agree to share the responsibilities among those individuals and task each other in moving things forward
- Yes, there will be a bias to your departmental area that you will be tasked with, however, it should always have the benefit of forming part of and be complementary to the overall business plan
- There will be opportunities to merge those departmental strengths across the board and mitigate out any weaknesses at the same time; this will ensure benefits for everyone concerned
- Timeframes should be set and agreed for everyone to deliver their part of the production of this new document
- In simple terms, take an overview of what currently is in place and project forward your plans for the continued development of the golf course. This will have the reality of a merging of minds and expose helpful productive and achievable targets, for the overall business at your club
- How long do you plan for? Of course, you need to secure your place for the long term. But, realistically, a five year business plan should be a target to aim for
- The hard work is in formatting the first document. However, after that, it will take the form of an annual review and placement of another year’s plans tagged on to the end to maintain its five year projection
absorb market forces that prevail at any time. For some time now, I have taken the view that greenkeeping is a business. Not, as has been the perception, a past- time of a few individual well-meaning incumbent course managers. The club has a vested interest in a holistic overview of the whole business. This has to be managed and driven for the betterment of the club. So, what do we call this new and revolutionary document that will cover the club’s policy and deliver all that we require to develop the business? It’s a no brainer to be honest, and not complex. When dealing with a business, it needs to be structured and planned; it should encompass these simple values and will bring the historic course policy document values into the modern era. I suggest that a viable way forward is to adopt something that has been commonplace for ever in the wider world, and develop a business plan. A well-structured and phased business
plan will ensure success, of this I am sure. It should be an inclusive document that not only covers the greenkeeping department but also includes and reflects all other departmental areas of the club’s business.
Like any good business plan, it will cover short, medium and long term strategy for your business. In its production, objectives will be set and tasked to individual departmental areas of the business, so be prepared for some hard work.
It will identify finances and investments that are not only required but, more importantly, realistically achievable. It will take an overview of the whole business at your club and identify weaknesses and strengths that currently prevail.
Everything that currently happens at your club is up for review, tasking everyone involved in the management team to forecast potential growth and improvement.
What should this plan include, but not be restricted to?
Current condition review
- This will require a taking of stock and task each department to identify their own unique strengths and weaknesses
- In greenkeeping terms, it should involve all playing surfaces of the golf course, hazards, woodland, waterways and golf course furniture. It should involve a complete overview and reflect an honest appraisal of the current situation on the ground
- Current course performance should be identified within this heading as it will form a useful baseline for development
- Current thinking is to call this kind of thinking “benchmarking” - not just your greens but, more importantly, the whole course should be addressed
- It will determine not only strengths but weaknesses as well that will have to be managed going forward
DECEMBER/JANUARY 2014 PC 29
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