Camp and the latest book by Jim Collins. “Why The Mighty Fall”

Last night, I attended a Q&A session sponsored by Business Week Magazine.  One of Business Week’s senior editors spent over an hour asking Mr. Collins about his new book discussing how and why great companies fail.  It occurred to me that camps, more than almost any other enterprise, go from good to great to failure over the course of a number of years.  The “good to great” phase usually takes 3 to 5 years followed by sustained greatness of 10 – 30 years, followed, many times, by failure.  The reasons for failure are numerous and perhaps Mr. Collins’ new work will shed some light.   Last night, Mr. Collins said that complacency is generally not the cause of failure.  Companies that fail spend a lot of time trying to innovate.  However, their innovations tend to be outside of their core competency.  I confess that I have yet to read the book, but my hunch is that companies fail not for failure to innovate but for failure to innovate within their core competency.  Once they become great at what they do, they don’t look hard enough at what they do to figure out how to do it better.  By contrast, the great camps never cease to try and get better in every area – whether it be staffing, program, facilities or technology.  They never accept that they are good enough.  The world is changing.  What worked 10 or 20 years ago will not work tomorrow, or may work tomorrow but will not work 20 years from now.  Correspondingly, those that fail generally keep close tabs on the camp’s operations, never truly inviting younger associates into their inner circle.  This insulates them from new, novel ideas and further leads them down the path to ruin.  Eventually, the camp falls off the cliff and either gets purchased for real estate, or, hopefully, gets purchased by a new operator and the cycle begins again. 

Business is cyclical.  Growth is followed by recession.  Seldom, throughout history, have we seen periods of sustained growth lasting more than 10 years.  Why should we expect a camp, which is, after all a business, to remain at the top of its game for 30 years under the same leadership?  The enlightened leader recognizes that he can not lead forever.   He may well have valuable roles to play and contributions to make, but, if he truly loves his camp, he should step down and transition out before the inevitable downturn destroys his camp.

visit http://www.jimcollins.com for more information about Mr. Collins, who I consider the greatest business writer of the 21st Century.  Peter Drucker takes the 20th.

What is the future of traditional summer camp?

I have done a lot of thinking about the direction of the summer camp industry.   Traditional private camps and, in particular, resident camps, typically provide a wide variety activities and attempt to foster character development, intelligent risk taking, leadership, responsibility, empathy and other important values.   Camps do so, in large part, through having campers live together in cabins with several young adult counselors who serve as role models and leaders.   There are also many camp-wide activities, such as campfires and all-camp competitions, songfests and the like, that foster the same values. 

Over the past few years, many parents and campers have begun to discount the character growth that traditional camps offer and instead have sought out experiences that provide some sort of immediate benefit.  While some, including me, view this as unfortunate, it seems to reflect the reality of our increasingly competitive and specialized society.  Parents want to know how camp will help their kids in the short term by improving their skills in a particular area, whether it be soccer, web design or movie making.  Campers want to pursue their own interests, not be forced to partake in activities that they’ve never tried and have no interest in trying.  As a result, the growth in camping has been in specialty camps which focus on one particular activity.    Unlike the vast majority of the traditional camps that I have described, the specialty camps are generally located in facilities, like colleges and secondary schools, where campers are housed, 2 x 2 in dorms.   These settings do not allow for cabin life with counselor role models, and therefore can not promote character development in the same way that a “traditional” camp can. 

I believe that summer camp must be transformed to meet the market demand for specialized or affinitized experiences while, at the same time, exposing as many children to what is best about camp.  Many who would not consider a “traditional” camp are likely to consider and attend a “specialty” camp which is also traditional.  In this way, camps can evolve and grow.

“Because of Camp” new ACA PSA

http://acacamps.org/becauseofcamp/CA ACA has just this new PSA titled “Because of Camp.”  It consists of two videos (though I could only find one)  containing fourteen celebrities discussing how their lives have been changed… Because of Camp…™ . The first video is fifty seconds in length and includes appearances by Emma Roberts, Hill Harper, Lisa Loeb, Kerri Strug, Michael DeLorenzo, Justin Chambers, Paul Adelstein, James Pickens, Blair Underwood, Sharon Lawrence, Frank Sesno, Glynn Turman, Ashlan Gorse, and Lisa Raye.   I’m not sure if all of these people are real celebreties, though I guess nowadays pretty much anyone who appears on a reality show on a cable channel qualifies.  But I think the spot is great.  Kudos to my friend and colleague Dayna Hardin who brought such a degree of professionalism to the project, along with Marla Coleman and Gwenn Thurmen (sp?), without whom this would not have been possible.  I think it’s a great step  in the right direction for camp.  This is what ACA should be doing, getting people to go to camp.  The next step is getting them to go to ACA camps.  But you have to start somewhere, and this is a great start.  Visit http://www.acacamps.org/becauseofcamp/ to view the PSA.

About This Blog – What is the “camp buzz”?

This Blog is intended to keep up with the latest trends and happenings in the world of summer camps. Not just so-called “traditional” camps, but all camps, of which there are thousands upon thousands. Over the past 11 years, I helped found and then oversaw the creation of CampGroup, LLC, which, as far as I know, is the largest for-profit camp concern in the world, at least as measured by revenue. During that time, I not only did my best to build CampGroup and to do so in an ethical and positive way, but also to build bridges to others across the camp world. On February 11, 2009, I resigned as CampGroup’s President and CEO. This was entirely my choice and was largely precipitated by a desire to develop and run a company that I could truly guide and lead. I am currently exploring a variety of options both inside and outside of the camp world. In the meantime, I have decided to enter the world of blogging, not sure exactly what will coming of it, and hoping that I can figure it out. Stay tuned. Stay tuned. Daniel Zenkel