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By creating a social experience centered around a golf-based game, Topgolf has opened six new sites this year and is targeting 10-12 next year. It isn’t just about golf anymore.

by MiddleMarketCenter

Recipient of the 2014 Readers’ Choice Award for The Best Family Entertainment by Star Local Media in Allen, TX and named to Inc.’s 2013 list of Fastest-Growing Private Companies, Topgolf has transformed the game of golf. As their website states it truly is “like drinks with your best buddies, the weekly poker night, a Sunday tee-time, playing Wii with the kids, and the best date you’ve ever had – all rolled into one.” Topgolf has revolutionized the driving range experience by adding high-tech balls, flat screen TV’s, a full restaurant and bar, event space, live music and so much more. With 18 locations and counting this middle market company has come a long way from its early days in three US cities ten years ago.
To learn more the National Center for the Middle Market sat down with CEO, Tom Leverton. Mid-market Pulse has edited and republished our favorite parts of this interview below. To read the full interview, visit middlemarketcenter.org.

How did Topgolf start?

Topgolf was founded in England in 2000 by two brothers, both avid golfers, who wanted a way to improve their game. They designed and patented technology that allowed an RFID chip to be placed inside a golf ball. Readers could then be placed out in the field to measure exactly where the ball landed and the distance, all real-time on TV screens. After deploying the technology at their first site in England, they found an overwhelming majority of non-golfers and families started to come and treat it like a game (e.g., darts at a bar). To address the demand, they came up with a way to tweak it where individuals earned points depending on where their ball landed. This is really what caused the concept to explode. Everyone wanted to come play this ‘game;’ non-golfers and golfers alike. They opened up two more sites in England, incorporating food, drinks and, later, music, which created a social experience that transcended its origins in golf.

To what do you contribute your organization’s recent success?

At our core, we are a hospitality business. It’s not really about the game of golf. It’s about that social experience, so I attribute 99% of our success to the associates we hire. We require a guest-focused personality more than a skill set. We believe we can teach someone the skills needed to work the front counter or even be a waiter/waitress. We can’t teach an individual to have an energetic, quirky, fun, dynamic personality. Recruiting based on that guest-oriented attitude has made a tremendous difference and is really what has driven our success. It takes a different type of personality to go into a high-energy environment and take it higher, but that’s what we really want from our associates. The energy we deliver to our guests is what makes us special, and it’s why we haven’t explored franchising. We believe we’ve cracked the code on delivering that high-energy experience, and by opening company-owned sites, we hope to protect and hopefully enhance that going forward.

Outside of investing in new locations, what other significant investments is Topgolf making?

Courtesy of Topgolf.com

We are constantly investing in technology because, on top of being a hospitality business, we are a technology business as well. Outside of the RFID aspect of the game, we have touch screens and TVs in each bay. Our Topgolf app is dynamic down to the point where a guest can change the channel on the TV in the bay, directly from their phone. We want to continue to develop that technology and link it to social media so our guests can share their scores and even talk a little trash with their friends who are also topgolfers. Investing in technology and innovation allows us to keep the game fresh and deliver a better and better experience.

Where do you see growth opportunities over the next 3-5 years?

Definitely new locations, but we still believe there is a lot we can do to continue to deliver a better and better experience for our guests at the current sites.

What is the biggest challenge facing your organization?

Protecting what has made us special as we grow. New sites means new people and often new leaders who set the tone for each location. For us, it’s how we direct, train, and hire in a way that doesn’t dilute what makes us special. And again, as a people-focused business preserving our culture is what earns business, and it becomes becomes increasingly difficult to preserve as we grow.

How do you market the experience to non-golfers?

The best analogy I can provide is bowling. You can throw 10 gutter balls, and it really doesn’t matter. Bowling is really the hook that gets you together with your friends. Topgolf is the same way. Even though you have a golf club in your hand, and over the past several hundred years, we as people have been trained to look at golf as a very serious sport, Topgolf shatters that. I go with my kids and play a game called Topscramble, where my two kids pair up and play against me. They might be aiming for a different target, but if the ball goes in, they get points. They think it’s the best thing ever, and they will hoot and holler, so it’s fun and there is an immediate reward. I like to say at Topgolf we discourage etiquette. Out on the golf course, you have to be quiet and better never talk during someone’s backswing. Here, the people who really get Topgolf are the ones trying to sneeze, cough, make loud noises, or maybe sing AC/DC at the top of their lungs while their friends are playing. That’s what Topgolf is about: having fun with your friends, your family, or your colleagues.

What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned in business?

Don’t be afraid of failure. I believe from a business standpoint, in order to be successful, you need to try new things constantly, knowing that many of them will fail. The goal is to identify and embrace major successes, accept your failures, and move on. That’s the way you really progress and learn as you go.

What advice do you have for other middle market executives?

Protect what makes you special. Don’t let your business get away from its core for the sake of growth. If something makes you special, grow at the rate you can while sustaining it. There are plenty of examples of large corporations who haven’t done that and have suffered because of it.

What advice do you have for students interested in careers in the middle market?

A mid-market company, regardless of the role for which you are hired, gives you general management experience. You might be a 21-year-old coming into a midmarket company, but you are going to be in the thick of it because it’s small. It’s “all hands on deck” all the time, and you’re going to be faced with problems you would never see somewhere else. You have to be interested in juggling and solving puzzles. Joining a large company, you’ll get deep functional expertise, which comes with a different set of benefits. But in a mid-market company you’re going to get trained from day 1 about general management on top of function. They are very different career paths, and you really just have to follow your heart.

Source : http://www.mid-marketpulse.com