In all walks of life we see success and failure on a regular basis and we never seek to question why this happens; it’s obvious isn’t it?

One shop is successful and one fails to attract enough customers to survive; one tennis player wins Wimbledon and many others don’t; at closest quarters we see a friend narrowly lose a bowls match despite his or her best efforts and its sometimes difficult to see what they could possibly have done to beat that opponent.

Strange that we all understand this, but as a sport we are so readily accepting of the doom and gloom that says that bowling as a whole is on the downward spiral and is on the way out; whilst observing with our own eyes that some clubs are doing better than others!

Half a million bowlers aren’t about to disappear overnight, there are still plenty of opportunities for clubs who want success and longevity badly enough, but the world is a lot different today than it was in bowling’s heyday.

Differentiation; the art of making your club better and stronger should be the key goal. Ensuring that your club is an attractive proposition for as many and as diverse a set of users/members/customers as possible should be the target for every club today.

Its no longer good enough to try to attract more bowlers, set up a half hearted junior program or ignore the larger community that lives around your area.

Focus on what makes or could make your club “different” instead of what makes you the same; that’s the way to stand out from the crowd and the starting point for long term success.