Tag Archives: golf

July 1, 2013 · 9:41 am

Driving For Show

There is something really extraordinary going on right now in the sports world and I’m not sure you’re paying attention to it. As it turns out (big shock) I also see a business point in it and that’s our topic today.

HAVRE DE GRACE, MD - JUNE 10: Inbee Park (KOR)...

(Photo by Keith Allison) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If the name “Inbee Park” is unfamiliar to you, it probably won’t be for long. She’s just won the U.S. Women’s Open, the third major golf championship she’s won this year. In context, the last time a pro – male or female – won the first three majors of the year was 60 years ago.  That’s amazing but what makes it even more so is how she’s managed to win them all.  It’s not because she hits the ball a long way – she doesn’t.  In fact, she’s usually using harder to hit clubs from the same distances as other pros because she doesn’t hit it as far.  She’s not a lot more accurate either.  She ranks 55th in fairways hit off the tee and 17th in green’s hit in regulation.  Where she excels is putting.  As a golfer I can tell you that I have never seen any pro on any tour putt the way she is putting.  She’s making everything of any length – 25, 30, 40 feet.  It doesn’t matter.  And that’s the business point.

There is an old golf expression – drive for show, putt for dough.  A big drive counts just the same as a perfect putt and great putting – as Inbee Park shows – can make a good golfer into a great one.  It’s the same for business.  Many businesses focus on the “big drive” – flashy new products, for example – instead of excellent putting – the stuff that really matters.  When was the last time you and your team thought about not what makes a huge impression but about what makes the cash register ring?

Golfers forget that putting is usually 40%-50% of the shots yet many spend hours practicing their driving which they might do 14 times a round.  Businesses need to focus on the little things that happen every day and constantly.  That’s how they win.  Your business doesn’t have to excel at everything as long as the focus and performance is there on the things that matter and the rest of the performance is solid if not exceptional.

Hitting a booming drive it satisfying but sinking a long putt wins – in golf as well as in business.  You agree?

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June 7, 2013 · 9:03 am

Bad Golf And Worse Food

It’s Foodie Friday and I know you’ve been wondering where I’ve been. Sorry about the infrequent posts this week.  I’ve written before about the golf outing I go on every year and I’m in Myrtle Beach with the crew celebrating our friendship and playing an awful lot of (bad) golf. CalabashWe come to Myrtle for the golf and fellowship – we definitely don’t come for the food. In 19 years of visiting we’ve found a few (and only a few) decent restaurants and so we’ve taken to cooking for ourselves a lot. While our food definitely tops out at the “advanced amateur” level, it beats most of what we’d pay for here. That said, the restaurants – a mixture of national chains, Calabash seafood joints, and sports bars – don’t make it worth the effort of money we’d spend on dinner for 12.

Why I bring this up is that they seem to do a good business which raised the question in my mind of standards. We’re not food snobs – most of us enjoy simple food prepared well using high quality ingredients and we’re not looking for fancy sauces or molecular gastronomy techniques.  The standard to which we hold professionals is very different (apparently) from the one most of the folks visiting here seem to have.

The business question is this.  I don’t think the cooks are less skilled nor the service staff any less capable.  I do think that they’re playing to the bar set by their clientele and that’s a trap for any business.  We need to be focused on “best” and not on”this will get us by.”  Many folks like fried seafood buffets (a specialty around here) but using old oil for frying or frozen, imported fish rather than changing the oil regularly and fresh local catch is meeting the low expectations that come either from not knowing any better (McDonald’s is fine until you taste Fatburger or In & Out) or from a business that doesn’t focus on repeat customers.  Very few businesses are afforded that luxury.

Since golf is delayed by a tropical storm passing through (good planning  I know), we’ll be cooking another meal here.  That’s some restaurant’s loss (and given this group it’s a substantial loss).  Our job in business is to make eating out at our place a more attractive proposition than staying home.  The higher we set our own bars the more likely we are to do that.

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April 22, 2013 · 11:38 am

How Many, Not How

Mondays are no fun.  As you might know if you’ve been on the screed on a Monday, I spend most of my weekends when the ground isn’t covered with snow playing golf.

English: Golfing in Ontario golf course, Oregon.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mondays are the days when my obsession with the game (and my lack of golfing prowess) usually shows up here.  This Monday, it’s about a thought I had while I was playing in a tournament on Saturday.  I was playing on a team with a person who had clubs that were at least 10 years old.  Golf technology changes very rapidly, and his driver was the size of my five wood (meaning it was way smaller than any modern driver).  The shaft of the club was slightly bent down by the club head and I had no clue how he could hit the ball.

Hit the ball he did – some of our team’s best drives came off that club.  In fact, he hit some amazing shots both good and bad.  My favorite was a worm-burner that rolled and rolled and rolled maybe 150 yards until it stopped rolling 10 feet from the pin.  Which reminded me of the old golf adage “it’s not how, it’s how many” which is my business thought today as well.

It seems to me we spend a lot of time thinking about and discussing the tools we use in business just as there’s an equipment obsession in golf.  Those are really about the “how.”  No matter what tools you’re using, none of them matter if you’re not being consistent and clear about what you’re trying to do with them – the “how many.” It’s easy to get caught up processes and in so doing you miss a focus on achieving the real goal.   If you haven’t clarified the things you want to accomplish over time, there’s little chance of success.  The tool or app is less important than the way you use it.  The process isn’t the business.

We’ve all had bosses who focused on when a report was delivered and then never read it to see what was inside.  Woe be to those who missed a deadline, even if the work was crap.  That’s “how”, not “how many.”  Take an extra day and achieve perfection is my preference.  Hit one long and straight with a crooked driver.  Make a par with an awful shot that winds up next to the pin.  There are no pictures on the scorecard, folks.

You with me?

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