What’s the Difference Between a Facility Balanced Scorecard and Benchmarking?
It seems that “benchmarking buzz” is on the rise (again) and I chuckle each time this crescendo occurs because few, if any, of the parties beating the drum have any idea about the data sources, measures, methodology, scale or unique golf industry challenges (inertia being one) between the current and desired future state. With our Golf Market Research Center (GMRC) offering in the market the past 3 seasons, we’ve attempted to build the first span in the bridge-to-benchmarking which is comparative performance measurement. The beauty in starting with performance measurement is you don’t need anyone else to participate to get value and it’s the building block for benchmarking (you have to know where you stand before you can accurately compare yourself to a standard).
I had two inquires recently which are going to shape this issue. The first was from a prospect for GMRC who asked, “If there aren’t any other facilities participating in my market, will I get full value from subscribing to GMRC or should I wait?” The second was from a current subscriber who stated, “I’m not sure that I understand all the numbers provided in the GMRC, can you explain how to read the scorecard? (and, can you just tell me whether the rounds in my state went up or down in ’21 and ’22?)”
I’m going to tackle them in reverse order:
- How do I read and interpret the GMRC balanced KPI scorecard in the tool for my facility? (I’ll use the Sep Year-to-Date figures for our aggregated portfolio to walk through the 8 KPIs and how they’re inter-related and the storyline)
- Is there value in participating even if we don’t have enough or the right balance of facilities in my market to do responsible benchmarking? Performance measurement via the GMRC brings some measures which are comparative across the portfolio (% Utilization, Golf RevpAR), single-view trend reports as well as detailed weather impact (history and 60-day forecast), market profiles which deliver considerable value until we get to benchmarking or in case we never do
I’m going to attempt to make this the simplest, shortest and clearest OtR ever so wish me luck. Also, since it’s a topic that should have universal appeal and benefit, we’re going to make this a free (trial) edition to our full contacts list. If this piques your curiosity and interest enough to continue the OtR journey with us you can join us going forward one of three ways (all of the below also have monthly pay-go options, at a slightly higher annual rate):
- Subscribe to the Pellucid Publications Membership for $495/yr (most comprehensive coverage & detail) – Annual subscribers get access to the following:
- Outside the Ropes monthly digital newsletter (including this issue for starters!)
- Annual State of the Industry report portfolio (PowerPoint presentation, PDF commentary report, access to Jim/Stuart video of presentation)
- Geographic Weather Impact Tracking (US, 45 regions, 61 markets) or Cognilogic for Golf Playable Hours/Capacity Rounds for individual facilities
- National Consumer Franchise Health Scorecard (expanded data and tables underlying this issue’s summary figures)
- Subscribe to OtR, 12 monthly issues for $250/yr with a money-back guarantee if you’re not satisfied at any time during your subscription. Subscribers also get access to the historical archive of past issues (last two years) via the members-only section of the Pellucid website
- Subscribe to the Golf Market Research Center (for operators wanting a combination of insights and action tools) – In addition to an OtR subscription, you’ll get the State of the Industry presentation along with the full suite of Performance Tracking reports and weather impact services (Cognilogic for historical Golf Playable Hours/Capacity Rds, Foresight for the 60-day forecast for your facility location for Capacity Rds and daily key weather forecast variables)
©Copyright 2023 Pellucid Corp. All rights reserved. Quotations permitted with prior approval. Material may not be reproduced, in whole or part in any form whatsoever, without prior written consent of Pellucid Corp.
