The Professional Golfer Teaches us how to Manage our Business

Any personal or enterprise business is defined as “investments in capital as solutions of worth utilized for costs and effectiveness of performance to produce value and quality in results”. Professional golf is one industry that intrinsically manages their business by organizing and managing the capital solutions they utilize in performance to produce value-quality output results. Other industries can learn the basics of 21^st century business management from professional golf.

The professional golfer utilizes capital solutions in performance to produce value in results

Each professional golfer and those the golfer employs is an enterprise. Golfers produce revenue results by producing results of value in tournaments. Golfers do not just go out and swing clubs. They invest in and utilize a full set of capital solutions to achieve their results. Golfers measure the results they achieve against goals and measure the performance of the important solutions they utilize against expectations.

Professional Golfers have a business structure for their revenue results

Professional golf enterprises can use informal management, compared with complex business enterprises. This allows the golfer to use natural intuitive business management, rather than learning and adhering to outdated 20^th century enterprise management conventions.

The professional golfers business can be analyzed as a 21^st century business enterprise. Professional golfers have a business structure for their revenue result group that comprises capital they invest in as specific solutions, the results they must achieve on the course, and the utilization and performance of each solution in producing each result.

Golfers utilize a full range of capital solutions to produce results. Like any other enterprise, professional golfers utilize four categories of capital: business capital in the organization, process, and data, to produce each specific result; human capital for the golfer and caddie as personnel, their capabilities, and knowledge required; facility capital for the equipment, supplies, and records of their golf; and management capital for the strategy, tactics, and intelligence employed. They produce revenue results by competing in tournaments and measure results against their result quality goal; par.

Golfers have expectations to understand their performance

Some solutions may appear to have no expectation or measured level. Nevertheless, ensuring the solution is in place requires an expectation and measured level. Expectations may be stated levels that are verified, as well as numbers that are measured. Solutions may be put in place by producing a capital result in the golfer’s capital result group. There may be expectations that the golfer registers for the tournament, arrives at the golf course on time, learns 18 holes, gets so many hours of practice and physical conditioning, keeps his techniques sound, develops a game plan, carries 14 clubs, etc.

Golfers invest in and develop new capital solutions to add value to results

Professional golfers know that they must continually improve just to keep up with the competition. They may invest months in coaching and practice to develop a new swing capability. Golfers employ result-capital development for new capital solutions, like a driver. They employ performance management to measure performance, such as average driving distance or percentage of fairway hits. They use their current level as performance expectations to measure the performance of new solutions.

Professional golfers know that a solution that improves performance provides no return on investment unless it adds value to their results; the score they post on the golf course. Therefore, they complete result-capital development through result management by testing solutions to ensure that they improve results, and by utilizing accepted solutions with the measured objective to add value to results.

Golfers distinguish results from performance

Any golf fan knows the detailed performance indicators kept (putts per round, greens in regulation, sand saves, etc.). Some may think that the best performance indicators are the world rankings or money lists. However, these are result metrics. Performance indicators are measured on the performance dimension, across the results produced; measures on the result dimension are result metrics. Winning a tournament depends on the best results; not the best performance.

Each time a golfer performs, he thinks of the performance effectiveness needed and the result desired. A drive into the woods that caroms back onto the fairway is ineffective performance with a good quality result. Golfers strive to develop effective performance and turn it into valuable high-quality results.

Golfers understand the relationship between result risk and performance uncertainty. They adjust the results they attempt to achieve and the solutions they use to reduce the result risk from uncertain performance

If the golfer’s enterprise does not manage investment in and utilization of capital solutions to achieve effective performance to produce good results, it misses the cut and is not paid.

Golfers employ result value-quality chains

Golfers employ result management. They organize the specific results they must achieve in a set of results. They achieve one result when the ball goes in the hole and produce an end-result for their round. Each round contributes to the set of results produced for the tournament. Golfers have well-established result quality goals; par. They strive to break par and evaluate their results against par.

Golfers employ performance management to implement a new golf course solution along the performance dimension for each tournament. They utilize a new hole for each result. They employ result management by integrating and utilizing their caoital solutions on the result dimension so that they learn the hole, have the measurements they need, have the proper clubs, and have a game plan to attack the hole.

Golfers do not employ business process management to produce a final tournament output result. Golfers employ result value-quality chains to manage and optimize the performance producing the result at each hole. Their value chain is based on the sequence of results, rather than a business process work flow. Each result adds or deletes value to the final tournament result value. Golfers understand the relationship between effectiveness of their performance and the quality level for each result along the chain.

Learn how to manage your business from how you manage your golf game

If you are a golfer, learn about managing your enterprise business from the way you manage your golf game. Any enterprise can learn from the professional golfer to:

• Define and organize output results that must be produced to create value and achieve success
• Define and organize capital investments as solutions required to produce results
• Organize the business by defining the solutions needed to produce each result
• Invest in specific capital solutions to improve the value of results and return the investment
• Set performance expectations and measure the effectiveness of solutions across results
• Set par in result goals for the count, value, and quality of results needed to be successful
• Employ performance management to provide the qualified solutions needed to produce results
• Employ result management so that solutions are integrated and utilized properly for each result
• Optimize the performance that produces each result in a value-quality chain so that each result meets or exceeds quality goals and contributes to the value of the final result
• Manage performance uncertainty to reduce the risk of poor results
• Distinguish performance measurement and indicators and result measurement and metrics
• Pay for results, not just for performance

The professional golfers’ competitive differentiator is the same as other enterprises; the totality of how well they develop and utilize their capital solutions in performance to produce value and quality in results. Keep professional golfers in mind, if you have difficulty distinguishing results, capital solutions, and performance as you learn to organize and manage your enterprise business.

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