What the heck is "smartsourcing" and how does it apply to Club Management?

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I recently found the answer to this question in my own backyard, literally.

But before I get into that, let me tell you what smartsourcing is not - it is not the same as outsourcing. Outsourcing is done primarily to reduce costs and save time. On the other hand, smartsourcing is more strategic and looks at both the tangible and intangible impacts. Reducing costs and saving time are the results of smartsourcing, not the reasons to do it.

The answer in my backyard...

I recently had a personal experience with the concept of smartsourcing. But, in my example, I was smartsourcing and did not realize it until I made a decision to bring the process back in-house.

For years I have smartsourced the maintenance of my yard, but this summer I began to consider bringing this work in-house. My rationale was to save money and provide a way for my 13 year old to increase his responsibility and earn some spending money.

I accomplished one of my goals - my son now earns a nice allowance every month. However, my goal of saving money never materialized. Worse, my yard has never looked worse. The edging is sloppy, yard is full of weeds and I have large brown areas where I applied too much fertilizer.

So, even though I am spending far more time working on my yard, the quality has gone down and the cost has gone up. Let's take a look at the numbers and results before bringing in-house...

• Yard Service - $100/month or $1,200 annually
• Results are a beautiful lawn with no worries, my time focused on my family and business

Now, let's look at the numbers after bringing in house

• Equipment purchased to bring in house - mover, trimmer, weed eater, edge and blower - $750.00
• Maintenance of equipment - $250/year
• Fertilizer, pest control, etc... - $300/year
• Allowance increase - $35/month
• Total first year costs  - $1,720
• Ongoing annual expense - $970/year
• Results are yard looks rough and a few hours a week are spent working on it

So, it does not take an MBA to see my return on investment in dollars is pretty weak but more importantly, my return on investment in "results" stinks!

Smartsourcing Defined for Clubs

Smartsourcing means outsourcing a core club business process so that it is done better, faster, more consistently, at lower cost and with less risk. For example, my lawn was maintained at a higher level, with virtually no time invested by me, at a high level of consistency, for less investment and without having to worry about making a mistake that would kill the grass.  

With smartsouring, an environment is created where the combination of skill, focus and effort actually equals more than the sum of the parts. With smartsourcing, your club finds partners that bring a high level of expertise and innovation to a club business process that falls outside of your core focus - creating great member experiences.

Smartsource partners bring more to the table than just time savings and cost reductions. They bring a faster, better and more effective way of doing things. Unlike traditional outsourcing, which is commodity driven, smartsourcing enables clubs to partner in synergistic ways that decrease expense, increase quality and carry low risk for the club.

Conclusion

Current economic conditions dictate that every business process should be evaluated to determine if strategies to reduce cost/improve quality exist. In some cases, process improvements may be made in-house and in other cases, partnering will make more sense. When partnering is the preferred direction, clubs should take the time to carefully evaluate both the tangible (decreased costs, saved time) and intangible (less risk, better quality) impact.