_May/focusingonthedetails.jpg "Focusing On The Details")
By Steve Eubanks
Though he has developments from Boston to the Bahamas, David Southworth remains committed to the "little things" to differentiate Southworth Development from the fray
David Southworth grew up in the Arizona desert in a home without air conditioning, sleeping on a concrete floor to avoid the brutal summer heat, watching the Western stars and dreaming of interesting people and cool ocean breezes. Now, after 35 years in the business, it’s Southworth who is the most interesting person in the room. And most of his golf properties are either on or near the water.
“I’ve been doing this a long time and I’ve been involved in some really special projects,” Southworth says while sitting at an outdoor beach café at his newest property, The Abaco Club on Abaco Island in the Bahamas. “But it hasn’t been until the last seven or eight years that I’ve really become somewhat comfortable that things are going to be OK, that the whole thing isn’t going to fall apart at some point.”
The “whole thing” is Southworth’s current portfolio of development clubs, which includes Creighton Farms, a private Jack Nicklaus signature course in northern Virginia; the Renaissance Club on Boston’s North Shore; Machrihanish Dunes Golf Club, a David Kidd links at the end of Paul McCartney’s “long and winding road” along Scotland’s Kintyre Peninsula; Willowbend, the developer’s first club on Cape Cod; and The Abaco Club, whose residents include 2016 European Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke, which Southworth purchased with a consortium of the club’s members last November.
“I got started in the hotel business and have always focused on operations,” Southworth says. “I’ve been very fortunate to be involved with some great people in some wonderful projects.”
One of those people was Reebok chairman Paul Fireman, who partnered with Southworth in 1992 to rescue Willowbend from bankruptcy. For 14 years, Southworth served as president and CEO of the development and club, focusing on every detail, from simplifying membership pricing to upgrading the quality of the coffee to determining the types of candles to put in the clubhouse restrooms.
“It’s never one big thing that makes the difference,” Southworth explains. “If it was, everybody would be successful by just doing that one thing. It’s the thousands of little things that are the difference-makers. You might not notice one thing or two things or 10 things, but collectively you see a pattern of detail that leads to a culture. That’s what people respond to.”
For example, no employee at one of Southworth’s clubs will ever point to anything. If a guest asks where the restroom is located or how to get to the putting green, the employee escorts them rather than just giving directions.
“It isn’t enough to say ‘Treat people the way you want to be treated,’” Southworth says. “You might not mind somebody saying ‘The first tee is that way.’ But we want to make sure we exceed what’s expected. We want you to feel as welcome here as you would at your best friend’s home.”
Those sorts of boilerplate service comments have become commonplace at all levels of the industry, but that makes them no less important. The trick for a company like Southworth Development is setting and maintaining those standards when the labor pool stretches from North Boston to the tiny village of Cherokee on Abaco Island. There’s also the balancing act between quality and hokey standards like the ubiquitous “thank you for calling…” phone greetings.
“We think of the variety in our properties as a huge asset,” Southworth says. “Consider it like baking a cake. The basic ingredients and the processes are the same—you need flower, water, sugar, baking powder—but at some point you veer into specific tastes because some people like angel food cake, some people like pound cake, and some like German chocolate cake. Some people like the quiet of the rolling Virginia horse country, some like Cape Cod, and some like the Caribbean. But the underlying ingredients of a quality property are all there.”
Not long after making that last comment, a group of top-level Southworth executives gathered at the main Abaco restaurant for a 20-minute discussion on the quality of the menu covers and the need to get them changed out quickly.
“Those are the things I notice,” Southworth says. “Those are the things that make a difference.”
Steve Eubanks is an Atlanta-based freelance writer and New York Times bestselling author.