An Important Secret About The Competitive Health Club And Fitness Industry

I know , please don't give me a hard time about it. I just keep trying to make sure you're paying attention to what is REALLY going on out there in this great big world of ours. Admittedly its hard, when our heads are down and we are slugging away at obstacles and opportunities everyday. But things have changed, really changed. So please think about this the next time you sit down to evaluate your business, your profession and our industry. You see the way we think has got to change if we are to remain relevant.

I've mentioned Rita Mcgrathbefore . As one of the leading thinkers in global innovation, Rita is now coming out with a new and compelling book titled, The End of Competitve Advantage, How To Keep Your Strategy Moving As Fast As Your Business. in this book lies some secrets for us to use when it comes to our future. Here's and excerpt from the book:

Are you at risk of being trapped in an uncompetitive business?

Chances are the strategies that worked well for you even a few years ago no longer deliver the results you need. Dramatic changes in business have unearthed a major gap between traditional approaches to strategy and the way the real world works now. In short, strategy is stuck. Most leaders are using frameworks that were designed for a different era of business and based on a single dominant idea—that the purpose of strategy is to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. Once the premise on which all strategies were built, this idea is increasingly irrelevant.

As with other industries this is the predominant thinking embraced by leadership in the health club and fitness industry today . Failing to collaborate and the myopic view that competition is primarily derived from others within our space is flawed thinking. As with other industries, increasingly competition is going to come from other industries. We need to change how we think. Otherwise many will likely fail and be left to their demise in a wake of denial. Opening our eyes to Rita's view point is an excellent tonic for us to take as we examine the reality of many of our businesses today. I hope you will find this thinking helpful.

Check out Rita's brief video below as she explains the concepts behind the End of Competitive Advantage and please let me, Bryan O'Rourke, know what you think about her views.

About the author:

Bryan O’Rourke is a health club industry expert, technologist, financier, shareholder and executive in several fitness companies. He works for Fitmarc, which delivers Les Mills programs to over 700 facilities in the US. He advises successful global brands, serves as a member of the GGFA Think Tank and serves as CEO of the Fitness Industry Technology Council. To join FIT-C visit www.fit-c.org . To learn more contact Bryan here today .

As 2013 Arrives How Most Organizations Planned For It Was Wrong

Conventional wisdom is getting a swift kick in the rear thanks to the fact that business is changing so quickly. The environment of business has entered an age of extreme uncertainty . The result is tremendous opportunity for those who can navigate it well. However legacy thinking creates a big obstacle for some less nimble groups burdened by old school thinking; let me explain why.

Relying on high degrees of assumption to knowledge ratios when attempting to do new things can lead to costly blunders. Therefore when evaluating business strategies planning processes must change. Many businesses, however, have not changed how they plan because their leaders arrogantly believe they know the answers and their assumptions are right. That's a mistake.

As professor Rita McGrath so eloquently shares in the video below, when exploring new opportunities where organizations are unable to rely on past experience, discovery driven growth is a better method of planning. As she puts it, " when you are operating on assumptions, being right is not a solution because you don't know." Rita is correct, in areas that have great uncertainty, planning to be right is not a wise choice.  However planning to take on initiatives that embrace new conceptsat low cost , while learning from them quickly, is a more prudent practice.

Check out Rita's video and if you are able her book, Discovery Driven Growth . Is your business trying new things while assuming it is right ? Let me Bryan O'Rourke hear about how you conducted planning for 2013. Was it via the Discovery Driven Method or some relic of planning from the past ?

About the author:

Bryan O’Rourke is a health club industry expert, technologist, financier, shareholder and executive in several fitness companies. He works for Fitmarc, which delivers Les Mills programs to over 700 facilities in the US. He advises successful global brands, serves as a member of the GGFA Think Tank and serves as CEO of the Fitness Industry Technology Council. To learn more contact Bryan here today .

Karl Droppers & The MVP Sports Clubs Team

I really enjoy sharing my views on the fitness industry and how organizations can adopt new thinking and disciplines to achieve success. Its rewarding and fun to work with leaders of fitness and wellness organizations; its what we at fitmarc and integerus do everyday. So I was thrilled this week when I got to see Karl Droppers, President at MVP Sports Clubs, in person, along with his entire team during their strategic meeting in Orlando. I shared views on where the fitness industry has come, where its going and how organizations can adapt to deal with the changes ahead. Karl reached out to me after attending my IHRSA webinar in 2010 on how the bricks and mortar fitness business is changing.

Karl is a great leader and it is refreshing to work with an experienced professional who is open minded and recognizes the degree of change that is happening in the industry. Because of his forward thinking, I think good things are in store for his organization.

MVP Sports Clubs is an interesting and successful operation with facilities in Orlando and Michigan. The Orlando facility where the strategic meeting occured, which is called RDV Sports, is a huge complex of 365,000 sq. ft. that includes multiple ice rinks. The facility is incredible.

I also got to catch up with long time friend and associate Benny Hardouin, who I knew from my association with Franco's Athletic Club. The team was enjoyable with many senior people and a nice group of fresh faces. My thanks go out to the team at MVP Sports. I enjoyed meeting all of you.

I'm curious; when was the last time your organization had a quality strategic meeting ? Have you benefited from some fresh thinking about the future and where you are or could be taking your fitness or wellness business ? Let me, Bryan O'Rourke, know what you think. Please share your views. Is it helpful to have an outside fresh perspective when you are planning for the future ? If so who would you look to for that guidance ?

Jim Collins - We're all Headed Into The Storm

A recent article in Inc Magazine, "How to Thrive in 2009" featured Jim Collins, author of Good to Great. His analysis of where we are all headed as organizations is poignant. Here is an excerpt on the coming wave of unforseen challenges all organizations will face:

"Most people are in the comfort of base camp, and they can go on doing what they're doing even if there is a big storm. But the people who wake up high on that mountain in a howling storm are in grave danger, like the technology people after the bubble burst. It hit me that we're all heading up there, whether we like it or not. We're heading into a world characterized by big events, big forces, massive storms. We're going to be vulnerable little specks high on the mountain when the storm hits out of nowhere. And if we're not prepared, we're going to die up there. Or we're going to be in real serious trouble.

Here are his views on a new paradigm of leadership:

"Business owners and chief executives have had a tremendous amount of concentrated power. They don't really have to lead. If I put a gun to your head, I can get you to do a lot of things. It means I have power. It doesn't mean I've led. In business, we largely have power, not leadership. In a social-sector organization, power is diffuse. So, getting things done requires the ability to truly lead. If you want to create a movement, you can't order it or demand it or will it into existence by exerting concentrated power. It just won't work." Yes leadership.

Welcome to the revolution where true vision, understanding and leadership are a requirement; not a luxury.