Leadership Lounge

The past two weeks I have been writing about the need to involve operations in the operational planning stage of a renovation, in Part 1 and Part 2 of the "The Importance of Strategic Architectural Design in Club Operations" series. If you haven't given those a read yet, I encourage you to do so! Today I'd like to take a quick look at what involving operations in the planning stage of a renovation means for your numbers, so you can really understand what poor design could be

Happy Friday! Welcome to Part 2 of my piece on intelligent club design, which is a continuation of Part 1 that was posted last week. If you missed that, make sure to check it out here. In that article, I opened with: STRATEGY MUST INVOLVE OPERATIONS. I spoke about the fact that so often the actual design of a club, a kitchen, a bar, a hostess stand, the location of equipment or storage areas or even the offices can have a detrimental effect on long term operating costs and se

STRATEGY MUST INVOLVE OPERATIONS. I wish I could poll chefs, servers, bartenders, and managers working in facilities that weren’t designed with daily operations in mind. Or controllers and finance committee members who fret about the labor cost of their club every time there is an outdoor event or large influx of members in for dinner. Or a strategic planning or house committee who is trying to understand why the members continue to talk about dissatisfaction with speed of se

This article originally appeared in BoardRoom Magazine in 2012. In the hospitality business, we strive to fulfill the basic needs of a customer: to feel welcome, comfortable, understood and important. These needs are vital for both external and internal customers. However, we often overlook the simple signals our members and employees convey through their actions that, if addressed, would vastly improve their experience. If you are planning a renovation or remodel of your clu