With the increasing popularity of golf in emerging markets, new courses and facilities are springing up creating an opportunity for associated businesses. One such example in Dubai is an innovative new bespoke advisory service, NG Consultancy, that specializes in the golf and hospitality sector. The company is assisting clients realize their goals and objectives in a number of areas, from pre-opening projects, to venue support, sponsorship activation and tournament consultancy across the globe.
NG Consultancy has been set up by Neal Graham who has over 20 years’ international experience working in the golf industry with the Marriott Hotel chain and then managing one of the premier residential golf resort communities in the world: Jumeirah Golf Estates, home to the DP World Tour Championship.
Neal commented: “There is a real opportunity for golf in growing markets and my international experience demonstrated that there are a limited number of experienced professionals who could guide golf courses through from conceptual phases of projects right through to the opening and running of facilities and hosting large professional tournaments. It inspired me to establish a business that can assist golf courses through every stage.”
“At Jumeirah Golf Estates, I worked with project managers and consultants to open the two Greg Norman courses Fire and Earth, the European Tour Performance Institute and the largest clubhouse in the Middle East. It is crucial that the operations team work with architects from the initial concept design to ensure that the customer journey flows effectively, yet at the same time assisting the operator to manage the building as efficiently as possible.”
Neal Graham highlighted that effective consultancy can have a demonstrable impact on the performance of golf institutions.
“By creating an effective relationship between consultant and operator, with strong feedback at all times, it can lead to dramatic results such as improving financial performance, customer satisfaction, product enhancement, staff development and retention.”
NG Consultancy has developed a comprehensive programme to assist its clients in the creation, development and opening of sustainable golf resorts and club facilities. Once open, NG Consultancy offers venue support through financial performance evaluation, cost efficiency measures, customer journey evaluation and SWOT analysis. From the findings, comprehensive action plans are developed, complimented with input from the operator to ensure short, medium and long-term goals are established.
NG Consultancy has experience working with large global sponsors such as Rolex, Emirates, BMW and DP World, as well as managing the Brand Ambassador agreement with Henrik Stenson. Over the last twelve years Neal has managed and hosted eleven European Tour events including eight DP World Tour Championships. From its inception in 2009 the tournament is regarded as one of the biggest and highly regarded professional events on the circuit. NG Consultancy believes tournaments provide unique opportunities for courses.
“Tournament golf can not only raise the profile of a host venue but provide immediate return on increased sales in Green Fees, Membership, Food and Beverage and Rooms. Amongst a number of benefits, potential sponsors can harness the profile of a tournament to create an alternative platform to increase brand awareness.”
NG Consultancy has also partnered up recently with Link Me Asset Management www.linkme.ae a niche Hospitality advisory business aimed at providing clients with regional and international expertise on a wide range of services such as but not limited to Asset Management, Concept creation, Performance Evaluation and Operator search and selection. As partners, they are able to assist Owners, Asset Managers and Operators at methods to increase sales but look at cost efficient measures which improve bottom line but not at the expense of customer satisfaction and quality of product.
NG Consultancy http://www.ngconsultancyme.com/