District as a Business

Paul Opryszek

former Scoutmaster

Troop 3

paul.opryszek@comcast.net

What does it take for a District to be a Successful Business ?

Operating Profit = Revenue – Expense

Our market share is dropping. Revenue drops with it.

Boys have a choice, they are consumers. Motivated Consumers keep revenue coming.

We fail to adapt ~4 year cycle in Boys’ Consumer change of taste

Witnessed the cycle between my oldest son entering Scouting, and my youngest.

Activities and equipment that were popular with boys 12 years ago, weren’t fun about 6 years ago.

Entering as Scoutmaster, I found the survival path was to endorse building a portable bouldering wall, introduce our own archery program, get a stove that they wanted to cook on, have a supply of natural cedar poles for lashing on hand, among other updates that it took to attract interest.

No single initiative worked for everyone. It was product mix, and product diversity, that worked.

Markets, and consumer products, are splintering among our Buyers

We all grew up with CBS, NBC, ABC and “Uncle Walter”. Families gathered to watch Dick Van Dyke.

Our Boy Consumers cannot be expected to choose a one standardized service experience.

Web and tablet products are squeezing out the old service providers, because they are platforms for adaptive, niche tailored apps that respond to a faster cycle of consumer change.

You can sell enduring themes (comedy, intrigue), but not “one size fits all” from centralize producers

Market survival depends totally on evergreen products, that can shift quickly so that they appeal to smaller interest groups, on a faster refresh cycle

Sears Mentality Terms of reference for the Committee was grew from the

mindset of a Sear’s type management culture. Sears used to be 1% of U.S. GDP. Sears is cutting costs and their product mix, they have only 2

product lines left offer today’s consumers; No one shops there anymore, it is in a death spiral.

Einstein noted “Insanity consists of doing the same thing over and over and over yet again, and still somehow expecting a different outcome.” That is exactly what we are doing here, and what Sears has been doing for years.

Apple was failing during Steve Jobs’ absence. Mac product line was technically excellent, but stale and failing.

Finding viable new products extended Apple’s core value proposition – and saved the company. It is flourishing after near collapse.

What we need Need a mix of products that the new generations of boys will buy Need to heal the unproductive 15 year feud between Skagit and

Whatcom that has accelerated the departure of Adults, financial backers, and boys from Scouting

Need to untangle Fire Mountain from a duplicate role with Camp Parsons that no one can win. Fire Mtn for all practical purposes has been untangled for years from a shrinking Black Mtn.

Until we get our product mix right, we will continue to have struggling and shrinking Troops. We have to deal with the real problem, while we still have assets to work with.

Most local assets will simple evaporate in the “Sears model”, and the muzzle of that howitzer will inevitably wheel around and consume Fire Mtn, also.

Unless we figure this out, Parsons is likely to end up a last and only BSA camp in the Northwest.

District Bankruptcy Alternatives:1. “Long tail product decline”:

Reduce unsold inventory of current products and services. Minimize expenses as best we can. Scouting’s “product and service

line” becomes limited, small, and distant Becomes a ‘managed retreat’ from the market. No one in this room has demonstrated any capacity to figure how to

make “one size fits all” service offerings attract new market share. An auto maker with a couple car models that come out of a centralize “efficient”

manufacturing facility chooses when it exits the market, not IF.

2. Devise New Scout related products and experiences that tap shifted market demand We need “Gateway product extensions” (like 737-Max) , and new products,

tp offer new experiences to tap unsatisfied market demand. This means an asset redeployment, in the style of Ch 11 reorganization of

business into new, viable, product offerings.

Successful Bankruptcy Restructuring for Blk Mtn assets The last thing you do is break consumer purchase

patterns, or interrupt services. The message is always “you will see new products, but we value you as a customer/employees/supply chain” Boeing repurposed Renton facility for 737-Max Retask, with continuity. Less expensive, more effective

DO match better, different ,product offerings to tap unaddressed markets

Reallocate and repurpose assets; the lowest risk is always “product extension” and “product prototyping” with current customers.

Roll out and refine the winning products to other regions, when there is a match with their markets

Assets Repurposed Long term lease for major parts of the property to

deal with the “unsold inventory” problem, AND create new Scouting products to appeal an indifferent generation.

The new products can be introduced to Fire Mountain, and other districts

Recognize Fire Mtn as the “Premier traditional product Camp”.

Black Mtn gets tasked with new product development, revenue generation, and local service, and “apprenticeship career exposure”.

Land Lease RolesAsset Utilization New Scouting Opportunities

Working tree farming

Forestry and conservation MB, contact with forestry professionals from Deming; Revenue

Lease some campsites to KOA

Scouts get apprenticeship exposure to tourism and recreation business, and small business MB; Revenue

Families with 8-12 year kids come in contact with hands-on “soft sell” introduction to Scouting

Land Lease RolesAsset Utilization New Scouting Opportunities

Homeland Security

Rent a monitoring post

“Genuine site” training

Scout apprenticeship with Law Enforcement careers

“Young Scout” summer program

Scout/Tenderfoot age groups sometimes not ready for 1st trip. Growing issue with new Home School and some evangelical family lifestyles. “Parent visit after workday" setting helps keep boys in Scouting, chance to grow up

Land Lease RolesAsset Utilization New Scouting Opportunities

Glacier Travel program

Mountaineers coop program to offer Scout proper training in ice travel technique, camp as training and pre-trip staging facility

Shooting Range

Recreational and safety training with paying public on a ‘time share’ basis.

Our Problem: We lack a Product Portfolio that refreshes, for engaged “splinter buyers” The rivalry between Fire Mtn backers, and Black

Mtn is like NBC believing that CBS is ‘the problem’ Cable networks &Web Services are eating the lunch

of the old service providers that still don’t ‘get it’. If you try to ‘centralize and cost reduce’ your way

out of a faster pace Consumer Market shift, you simply knock yourself out the market

Zero-sum “Sears-type Management Culture” is killing the program, de-motivating financial backers, alienating potential and former adult volunteers.

It becomes a squabble over the last deck chair on the Titanic.

Coopers & Lybrand Guide to Terms of Reference (TOR) Problems Withhold and control

information until last minute.

Force a ‘short burn’ time frame for problem that has long, but not visible history

Force only 2 alternatives in situations where there are multiple business alternatives to consider

“Long lead” clear information flow automatically generates productive problem solving

Deliberately publicize a decision timetable, so that well-formed alternatives can be carefully considered

Sort through the most profitable alternatives, and make sure you don’t pre-empt a good choice by chasing away customers or investors

Vision: Constructive Solution Black Mountain assets repurposed into emphasize “hands

on” career exposure opportunities (forestry, law enforcement)

A commercial KOA operation lets non-Scouting families see us outdoors, and lets their young children have a favorable ‘hands-on’ experience “Oh, this is what Scouts do” discovery a fee-to-play basis

A smaller ‘very local’ camp helps “home schooled families” enter ‘away from home’ growing up experiences

The mix of products becomes a source the rest of the district can use as a template, to re-invigorate their local facilities and product offerings

Accomplishing this requires some continuity, as the repurposed activities are added. This quickly spreads cost, and brings in new revenue streams. Several of these offer likely positive cash contributions to the district.

Call to Action Revise Com’t Terms of Ref. Move away from “TV

network”/Sears mgt culture (weak recognition of risk, weak consumer preference understanding)

Add to Terms of Ref, a reorganization that emphasizes retaining customers, redeployment of assets to grow new products for new customers

Acknowledge, and Heal, the Council’s “baseball team rivalry” problem.

If you build it, they won’t come to a single product. Boys ‘wanna be’ something when they are “25 years old” (job, car, own place). When we “happen to” offer products that help them get to what they wanna be 10 years from now, they get interested. We almost never understand their guesses about what will be relevant to them 10 years from now. Spanish and French are fading; I hear boys daydream about learning

Chinese for a global business world We have to “try stuff”, because we inherently cannot understand their future

the way they do. Re-Allocating assets for new product development is the only way we can

connect to new customers.