Creating a Winning Company Culture

This week, I was privileged to participate in Billy Casper Golf‘s annual conference, held at a resort conference center in Florida.

As background, Peter Hill and and his business partner, Bob Morris, founded Billy Casper Golf about 20 years ago. Billy Casper himself was a top golfer in the 50s and 60s, competing against the likes of Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Ben Hogan, and Jack Nicklaus. He won 52 tournaments, including two U.S. Opens and a Master’s Championship and is in the Golf Hall of Fame. He is among the greatest putters of all time and is one of the most respected men of all time in the game of golf. Oh, and by the way, he and his wife, Shirley, have 11 children!

Billy Casper Golf is the second largest golf club and course management company in the country and their growth has been organic. They obtain additional customers because of their great work, as their very satisfied customers are quick to refer them to other clubs. This is in contrast to their major competitors, who tend to grow by acquiring other companies.

Put customers first
Peter Hill has been the CEO since the company’s inception. His strategy – “To be the best, have the best people!” means developing people who are the most capable, knowledgeable and most dedicated to their customers. By customers, he does not mean just the club owners, he means the women and men who play golf on his courses. He wants their experience to exceed expectations, including way they are greeted, treated, course conditions, and the overall service and experience. These indicators are tracked and measured as what gets measured, gets improved. That’s a fundamental premise of quality.

This is a customer-oriented company, and what Peter understands is that to be a customer-oriented company, an employee oriented company must come first! So true!

I believe it was Tom Peters, in the forefront of advancing leadership and author of the “management bible” of the 80s, In Search of Excellence, who maintains that if we pay attention to our employees, they will pat attention to our clients.

Promote from within
Billy Casper Golf’s attention to its people is clearly evident in its operating strategy. As one great example, they try to always promote from within. This is so important, and yet so many companies seem to recruit externally (maybe they have to because they have not invested in the development of their own people).

In fact this past week, in discussing the growth of the company, Joe Goodrich, SVP responsible for business development and national partnerships, spoke to the conference of approximately 275 and emphasized that every club or course that becomes a new customer opens up two to four, sometimes more, new jobs to be filled – from within – and that it is incumbent on the regional general managers, club managers, agronomists to train their replacement so either they may move to a new role or other employees who are ready may move up.

Joe also emphasized that it is the people in the field who grow the company by identifying potential new customers, often those clubs and courses who are not pleased with their present manager. He specifically highlighted that their growth usually comes from the referrals from Billy Casper Golfs’ current clients, nearly always eager to rave about the service they receive and how their results have improved, for example, increased number of members, improved course conditions, increased number of rounds played, and boosted restaurant and golf shop sales.

The company’s people are knowledgeable, dedicated, caring and loyal. They have a belief and trust in one another. This is a true team.

It starts at the top
It starts with Peter Hill, the CEO, who strives to learn and grow himself. At age 57, Peter continues to seek to become better every day. He genuinely cares about his colleagues, the 5,000 people who work at Billy Casper Golf. He delegates responsibilities to his leadership team and encourages them to share and spread responsibility as well. He invests in the professional development of his people. He wants them to succeed and to be recognized for their accomplishments.

The conference was kicked off by Peter Hill telling his life story, which included his dream of being in the golf business. In discussing his life, Peter allowed himself to be vulnerable. There was absolutely no boasting, in fact quite the opposite, e.g., he was in the lower half of his high school class, nearly fired three times early in his career, and he described some mistakes he had made. He pointed out that through it all there were people who trusted him and believed in him, which enabled him to eventually succeed – and that he trusts and believes in the people of Billy Casper Golf.

Invest in our employees
The tone of the conference was, “This is about you; you make the difference.” This was repeated throughout the conference by Bill Rehanek and Joe Livingood, two SVPs who share responsibility for the operation of the approximately 120 clubs and courses under the company’s management, by Alex Elmore, SVP and CFO, and by John Seabreeze, VP of marketing, and others, not just in their presentations but in their conversations as well. I continually observed them having one on one discussions with people from all around the country employed in all of the various roles.

Clearly none of these leaders wanted any personal attention; they simply wanted to let everyone know how important they are to the company.

The people I spoke with, sat with, played golf with – club managers, golf professionals, and agronomists were equally enthused about the company. They like their work, believe in the company, and feel they are appreciated and valued.

I so believe in the difference a winning company culture can make, and I greatly admire how Peter Hill has created a team of 5,000 people with the dedication to be the best they can be, to provide outstanding service to their customers, who are supportive of one another, have fun together, seem to love what they do and have pride in their company.

I encourage all of us to follow Peter Hill’s lead – investing in our people, promoting from within, allowing ourselves to be vulnerable and perhaps what might be described as leading from the rear, that is, letting our people take responsibility and shine.

And one last takeaway. As a leader, do what only we ourselves must do, delegate the rest, and spend as much time as we can having sincere conversations, asking questions and listening and learning with our customers and our colleagues!