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 .

Business Is Increasingly Social - Is Your Organization Tapping In ?

Things are really changing and the pace of change is only going to accelerate. In order for organizaitons to meet this change they must rethink the way they function. Technology continues to shift power to the consumer and the adoption of tablets, mobile, and social networks have resulted in new variables around customer experience via digital channels. Businesses can not simply reengineer their current processes and methods; they must embrace things in  totally new ways.

The recent video content around salesforce.com glimpses into a future where business is increasingly social. As a result how technology is adopted is essential for success. A large number of progressive business leaders contribute to this video and I recommend it highly for being thought provoking. You see the world is changing and the way we service and engage our customers has to change along with it.

How do you view changes in your organization ? Is your technology platform at the center of your future ? Is profound organizational change central to your future ? It better be. I'd love to hear what you think. Thanks for visiting.

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 .

As 2013 Approaches Is Your Mind Open To A Radical New Future ?

Our culture is increasingly digital, millennials are a larger global group than boomers so consumers are changing, and technology is revolutionizing industry after industry. When looking ahead to 2013 and beyond, how can you keep pace with the massige degree of change that is happening and is only going to increase ?

The answer lies in keeping an open mind. In my past post, How Does The Fitness Industry Change Its Mindset, I share specific examples of how organizations can maintain openness while forever searching the horizon for what is emerging.

As you prepare for 2013 how are you keeping an open mind ? Watch Google's recent Zeitgeist 2012 video for a year in review below. I think it provides a great perspective and is evidence that the world is indeed changing at a breakneck pace. Keep on searching. I look forward to your thoughts.

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 .

RetroFit - A New Business Model Represents The Coming Golden Age Of Wellness - The Future Is Here

Reading the Wall Street Journal today I noted an article on the upcoming Christmas holiday sales outlook, "Early Sales Pay Off, For Now, Retailer See Strong Weekend Traffic but Worry Spending Could Falter; Online Booms. Ahh the bricks and mortar retail business. Changing business models and the rise of online shopping have and will continue to recreate how people buy stuff. Its also changing consumer expectations about how they interact with brands using technology as I recently addressed in this post.

My theory is there are strong paralells between what retail has experienced and what's to come for health clubs. However, there is a difference between theory and reality . In sharing trends like my recent 2013 Health, Fitness and Wellness Trend Report (get your FREE copy here) examples of how technology is impacting the health club and fitness industry abound. In the recent report NEWISM, creative destruction is also cited as a key trend. One can only imagine how I feel when VC firms like Draper Fisher Jurvetson lead an $8 million Series A funding round for business models like Retrofit. Its as interesting and exciting as when I learned about WellnessFX . Seems the future is really here.

Retrofit crafts 12-month weight loss programs for customers based on data collected via wireless tracking devices such as a scale and pedometer. Clients consult with dietitians, behavior coaches and exercise physiologists via Skype. The company says its customers will lose at least 10 or 15 percent of their current weight, depending on the program they select, and keep it off for12 months.

Here is what a RetroFit client had to say about the product on the Retrofit web site:

"Retrofit is a game-changer for the weight loss industry," said Brad Feld, a Retrofit client and Managing Director of Foundry Group. "A private team of wellness experts helped me re-program some bad patterns so I could lose those 'last 20 pounds' I had been talking about for a decade. Retrofit provided a positive and powerful feedback loop for success. Not only does the program help you lose weight, but also it helps you establish the skills to keep the weight off for life."

New emerging business models like RetroFit represent the  "Golden Age" of fitness and increasingly wellness, as I call it . Technology, changing consumers and globalism are going to change the fitness and health club business greatly and RetroFit is a good example of how that will be done.

So what do you think ? Watch the video overview below and tell me , Bryan O'Rourke, does RetroFit represent an emerging golden future of wellness ? I'd appreciate hearing from you.

About the author:

Bryan O’Rourke is a health club industry expert, technologist, financier, and shareholder and executive in several fitness companies. He advises several 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 .

3 Days In Sydney With Blue Fitness And Others - The Influence Of Australian and New Zealand Players On The Fitness Business Is Notable

After visiting and meeting many industry friends and associates in Australia when I spoke at FILEX in 2010, I knew I'd enjoy visiting there again one day. FILEX is such a great event, and Nigel and Lisa Champion do such an outstanding job with the conference. I highly recommend it for anyone who can attend. Unfortunately for me I had only 3 days the week before our US thanksgiving recently and a lot on my plate with Ben Davies and Simon Hall of Blue Fitness, among a few other important tasks.

Among the many things Ben and his company does, supporting and distributing Star Trac Fitness products is one of the most important. With the approaching launch of the treadclimber and other products, the market for Star Trac is really starting to heat up there. With a background that started with YMCA operations in Auckland, NZ, another connection we shared because of his familiarity with New Zealand based Les Mills , Ben has a broad grasp of fitness and recreation facility management, operations and marketing. I'd also collaborated with Simon Hall before during his tenure at EZ Pay . It was great seeing them and others during the brief trip and it brought to mind an important question I had thought about during my previous visits.

What is really interesting to me is how incredible the NZ and AU fitness and health club market are. With a population of 23 million in Australia and another 4.5 million in New Zealand the impact of their marketplace is felt around the world. There are so many professionals and influencers in the club business that created brands and are a part of the global landscape of fitness and wellness its really amazing. Les Mills is one and leaders like Mark Smith, Tony de Leede, Geoff Dyer, Nigel Champion, Phillip Mills, Sarah Robb O'Hagan and many others (my friend Laureta Stace for one) , is exceptional. I think that given the continued rise of the Asia Pacific these markets and the leaders born from them will continue to have an increasing imapct on the global marketplace. Do you agree ?

Tell me, Bryan O'Rourke, why do you think the Australian and New Zealand markets have such a profound influence in the health club industry ? Do you agree with this thesis ? What do you think is the reason for this ? I look forward to your thoughts.

About the author:

Bryan O’Rourke is a health club industry expert, technologist, financier, and shareholder and executive in several fitness companies. He advises several 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 .