President’s Column O
Grant Yoshihara president
ver the past year, the MAC Board of Trustees has been working very closely with the Executive Leadership Team to finalize a new strategic plan. In the interest of transparency for members, this edition of The Winged M contains an early overview of the plan, its general direction, and some of the areas of focus for the next two years. When you read this material, please take these three very important things into consideration: • Strategic Direction: This strategic plan lays out an overarching strategic direction with a long-term set of initiatives and strategies for MAC. Effective execution of these strategies will take time — from one to five or more years. This differs from a tactical plan, which would be focused on the detailed action items and short-term goals that are part of executing a strategic plan. • Data: Elements of this strategic plan focus on improved data acquisition. We believe that effective planning is data driven. Better and more current data is needed to more clearly define the strategies that will be executed. The data we collect will also be used to design and formulate our action plans. • A Living Document: While its overarching direction would probably not change much, we must be able to adjust the plan as needed to account for potential changing conditions. This could impact what, when and how we can successfully accomplish
The framework and high-level elements produced by the Strategic Planning Committee in 2017 served as the foundation for the plan. elements of the plan. Therefore, the plan is not static and should be reviewed periodically and updated based on new information and events. Some members have asked me why we haven’t made much progress executing prior strategic plans. In my own experience and observation, previous planning processes, along with the nature of governance at MAC, made it difficult to achieve consistent execution of a strategic plan. The trustees rotate on for three-year cycles, committee members also rotate, and management was previously not extensively involved in the earlier process. The result was often a lack of clear long-term ownership of the plan, especially when it transitioned to the execution phase, where the management team assumed the primary responsibility. Therefore, the Board of
54 | The Wınged M |
MAY 2018
Trustees felt we needed to adjust our strategic planning process. A lot of time and effort has been put into creating the new strategic plan, and I would like to thank everyone who has actively participated. The framework and high-level elements produced by the Strategic Planning Committee in 2017 served as the foundation for the plan. The work completed by the Ad Hoc Strategic Steering Committee helped immensely to better define our market demographic trends, membership interests, property assets, and perceived strengths and weaknesses. Engaging the entire Board of Trustees and the Executive Leadership Team in this process created stronger long-term ownership of the plan. In the future, members will be involved, through the committee system, in advising and supporting key elements of the plan as they move to execution.
Getting the Data As noted previously, data is important to the strategic planning process. The last general membership survey was conducted in 2015, and while it contains very useful information, there are some missing pieces that we need to acquire. These include gaining an updated and deeper understanding of member use of the club; trends in athletic, fitness, and social activities; and engagement of new members. We are planning on rolling out a new membership survey later this year to gather deeper information that can be used to better define and support MAC’s strategic plan.
Turning the Ship I think of strategic planning for a 126-year-old, highly successful and respected organization with 20,000 members as being like navigating an aircraft carrier. Planning and executing a change in course doesn’t happen quickly. Making even smaller course adjustments takes strong planning, communication and coordination. I close on this point because we have the time to do this right — in a thoughtful, well planned and objective fashion that is fiscally responsible. There are always emerging challenges in how we evolve and continue to deliver highly effective programs and services to a changing membership demographic. MAC is operating successfully with overall high member satisfaction, good financial results and a lottery list for new members. Successful execution of the strategic plan will ensure that MAC continues to effectively meet its current and future member expectations. WM
