The Transformation of Customers and Organizations

Josh Bernoff just delivered his latest book Empowered, with co-author Ted Schalder, and its worth a read. Included in his writing are views on how customers of ALL industries have been transformed and more importantly how organizations must deal with it.

Technology has empowered individuals so that the manner with which organizations must interact and deal with them as customers has fundamentally changed. They have the power and so the world has shifted to a sort of "social chaos" and organizations must avoid being fearful and instead take advantage of these technology tools. Doing so, however, requires redefining leadership and control, among other dna of traditional businesses.

Watch this interview with Brian Solis as he explores the book's various themes with Josh Bernoff. Reach out to me, Bryan O'Rourke, to let me know your thoughts on Empowered.

"Wellness" - The Next Big Thing in The Fitness Industry

If you attended my recent IHRSA webinar on the changing bricks and mortar fitness industry you'll recall how I mentioned that a big opportunity for fitness facilities will be wellness.

Most fitness facilities and traditional gyms are not in the wellness business. These businesses and organizations generally provide recreation and fitness opportunities without offering proven means for achieving health outcomes . Initial health assessments, behavioral counseling and lifestyle monitoring combine to change the way people live and greatly impact their health. Often times, as research has shown, these programs can reverse diseases like diabetes. Check out this deck on the changing fitness industry to learn more.

The increasing availability of inexpensive technologies that enable the monitoring of activity are creating more opportunities for fitness facilities to realize the potential of wellness. The recent release of new technologies like Wahoo shown above are becoming quite mainstream. This combined with the surge of smart phone devices is creating the chance for fitness businesses to become wellness coaching businesses, thus changing the business models and the true role the fitness industry can play in impacting the health care crisis.

Reach out to me, Bryan O'Rourke, and let me know - "what do you think" about the fitness industry morphing into more of a wellness industry.

How The Bricks and Mortar Fitness Business Is Changing in the U.S.

How the fitness industry is changing and what to do about it

View more presentations from Bryan ORourke.

The deck above addresses key trends in the U.S. Bricks and Mortar Fitness Industry. Parts of this were shared in a recent IHRSA webinar I conducted. You can still get the recorded version of the IHRSA webinar on the www.ihrsa.org site.

Reach out to me, Bryan O'Rourke, and let me know what you think.

What Is The 1 Thing Businesses Can Do To Achieve Success ?

Its a word of mouth world. Just like you can't buy friends - you can't buy customers. So the "one thing" every business and in particular fitness businesses must do to be successful is "CARE". Watch Gary Vaynerchuk share the view that "caring" is THE most important aspect of achieving success today.

Reach out to me, Bryan O'Rourke, and let me know "what do you think"?

Think Mobility is Just a "Trend" in the Fitness Industry ?

I write about technology's impact on the world - particularly the fitness industry and wellness biz. The typical response I get from fitness industry leaders is one of "that's cool" but the underlying skepticism is hard to miss. After all , the latest technologies haven't knocked off many of the same approaches used for the past few decades. So tech is cool alright - but most industry veterans don't really pay attention. Perhaps they should.

When you realize that there is an entire convention on mobility in health care, perhaps the fitness and wellness industry should take notice. Next week, the Mobile Health Expo is occuring in Las Vegas. Its the only event focusing on the convergence of mobile technology and healthcare across the entire mobile health ecosystem, including mhealth, telemedicine, wireless and connected health. Mobile Health Expo is designed to catalyze the discussions, partnerships, visions and public policy debates in order to move mobile health into the future. The event will focus on eight market drivers: aging at home, disease management, health inclusion for developed and developing countries, provider education, patient education, healthcare gaming, mobile wallets and benefits. The 2010 event takes place October 19-21, 2010 at the Las Vegas Caesars Palace Convention Center.

Executives from around the world convene to focus specifically on Health and the Mobility of the industry - and the tag line ? How about "Everything in Health is going Mobile." Indeed it is. Let's get a similar conversation and event started for fitness.