If Curiosity Killed the Cat, Who Killed Business?

Don't know if any of you watch 'Three in a Bed', a documentary series in which three bed and breakfast owning couples visit each other's establishments and pay what they believe the experience is worth.


At the end of the programme, one couple wins based on how much they get paid in relation to the price they normally charge.

Anyway, the other day there was one couple who did nothing but criticise and look down their noses at everything that was offered them.



On more than one occasion the husband was heard to declare, “I've been in this business for 45 years, and blah, blah, blah.” You'll be delighted to hear that they came last, the other two couples having decided to pay them only 73% of their bill. Ouch!

And as I listened to him, an old phrase came back to me that I haven't thought about for a long time.

“So is that 45 years experience, or one year's experience, repeated 45 times?”

Whenever we think we know our business that well.

Whenever we begin to think there's nothing more to learn.

Whenever we believe that our experience of our business is more important than our customer's.

That's the time to shut up shop and retire to somewhere where we can do no more harm.

One of the industry’s favourite presenters, Tim Fearon has over twenty years of working in results-driven corporate environments. He will be presenting at the FIA Conference on July 14th in Cheltenham.

Tim Fearon, Owner of the Extraordinary Coaching Company

Learning From the World Cup

Given the fact that management gurus always turn to sports and the army for lessons on management skills and maximising team performances, I wondered what lessons we could teach ourselves ...and save £000s on consultancy fees.

We have our own world cup to work towards – being more than a bit player in the delivery of healthcare strategies.

Like England, we have qualified with flying colours – just think of the use of the FIA logo on the Let’s Dance with Change4Life posters and ads.



Like England, we are rich in talent, creativity and commitment.... who is our Joe Cole? Wait for the announcement of the winner of the Future of FLAME Awards!

Like England we have a good management team in place: the TwentyTen Commission highlights the fact that they have a clear strategy about where they want to take Team Health & Fitness.

So how can we prevent the confidence and performance collapse which always seems to haunt our country teams?

Is it a management issue? Is it a skills issue? Is it a recruitment issue - i.e. we do not attract and keep the best talent? Is it a selection issue - i.e. reward, recognition and promotion? Or is it a bit of all?

I have no answers, only questions. If I did have the answers, I would probably be called Davio Stalkero and be paid £6m a year..... Mind you, some might argue that our Fabio doesn’t have all the answers either.

So let me close with two simple questions:

• How can we ensure that we do not squander the great opportunity we have earned to play in the final rounds of our own world cup?

• Will our boys in white lift that trophy on July 11th?

Answers on a postcard please

David Stalker, Executive Director at the FIA

The W[H]ealth of the Nation

You can almost hear the drum-roll around Whitehall as the Chancellor of the Exchequer sharpens his axe for another round of cuts and bloodletting next week. The emergency budget is due to be released at 12:30 on 22 June. It’s likely to be pretty brutal.

Popular initiatives in the sector such as Free Swimming have already been cut while others are under real threat. To put it into context, the £40million saved on Free Swimming is less than 0.0004% of annual spending on healthcare. Whilst Change4Life is likely to scrape through and live another day, many other perfectly worthy projects are going to go to the wall.

We have already seen accusations in the press that physical activity promotion roles are “non-jobs” and in the first line of cuts. We have also began to see the spending of the Department of Health come into question; when other departments are seeing between 15-30% cuts, is it right that health escapes the firing line? Simon Heffer, hardly a Cameroon but a recognised big beast of conservative thought argued as much in the Daily Mail.

Real leadership is needed around public health and physical activity policy. When we are cutting the amount spent on troops on the front line, you can be sure that segments of the media are going to have a field day on a campaign to get the nation walking. Someone is going to have to be ready with the response to this criticism and stand up to the criticism.

All the indications are that the new Secretary of State Andrew Lansley is the man for the job.

Convinced of the importance of public health, Lansley is not an easy man to shake off his strategy, as was seen by his guarantee from Mr Cameron of the position of Secretary of State.

Fundamentally, he has a very strong case. Without addressing the health of the nation, you can never enhance its wealth. We spend over £100billion per year on healthcare. This is double the 1997 level. Yet demand on healthcare continues to rise. This can not continue. It might not be this Parliament but probably the next which is presented with a choice as to whether a health service remains free at the point of use.

Public health and physical activity in particular, is critical to containing demand on healthcare. Whether it is the aging, fattening or sickening society, physical activity can have an impact and savings can be made.

Currently, physical inactivity including direct costs of treatment for the major lifestyle-related diseases, and the indirect costs caused through sickness absence – has been estimated at £8.2 billion a year.

Furthermore, the direct cost of workplace absenteeism due to preventable illness is estimated at £13.2bn whilst combined with the direct cost, the UK lost £19.9bn to preventable absence in 2007.

Take a few examples. Stroke is the third largest cause of death in the United Kingdom. Over 130,000 strokes occur every year. There are 300,000 people living with a disability as a result of stroke in the UK. The overall cost of Stroke to the economy, including direct & indirect care costs and loss of productivity, is £7 billion a year. Preventing just 2% of strokes that occurred in England could save £37 million within a year. Even just moderate physical activity can reduce the risk of stroke by up to 27%.

There are currently over 2.6 million people with Diabetes in the UK with a further 500,000 cases undiagnosed. Diabetes UK estimates the cost of Diabetes to the NHS at £9 billion a year. The Department of Health, ‘Be Active Be Healthy’ physical activity strategy states that physically active individuals who meet the Chief Medical Officer Guidelines have a 33% reduced risk of developing Diabetes. Therefore, moderate physical activity represents a possible £2.33 billion saving for the NHS.

3.4 million adults in the UK suffer from Coronary Heart Disease. This costs the UK healthcare system around £3.2 billion a year and the overall economy nearly £9 billion a year. According to guidance by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence 35% of CHD is caused by physical inactivity. Moderate levels of physical activity could save £1.5 billion a year.

These are serious numbers and even the Treasury will recognise their significance. Whether it is containing demand on healthcare, helping people to be more productive in work or simply helping people back into work, physical activity has a major role to play.

If we want a wealthy nation, we better make sure it’s healthy first.

Steven Ward, Director of Public Affairs at the FIA

TIME TO RE-IMAGINE THE INDUSTRY?

A recent white paper entitled The Future of Fitness written by Nielsen/Synergia and sponsored by Les Mills, explores some key demographics and trends that may shape the industry going forward.


This report is a fantastic read for those of us who think that the future of the industry is limited only by its ability to re-imagine itself (as the leadership guru Tom Peters would say).

Here are a few interesting thoughts:

The Future of Fitness authors put it like this: “It is no exaggeration to say that many consumers will expect all their experiences, including fitness, to deliver ‘what I want, when I want it, and where I want it – oh, and I may want it differently tomorrow’.”

Les Mills CEO Philip Mills concurs, adding that tomorrow’s consumer will want fitness shaped around them, and they will therefore ask our industry to become much more customer-centric.

I think he is right, except they won’t be asking, they’ll be telling.

In a society that is increasingly shaping itself around individual preferences, it would be incredibly naïve to think that the commoditised gym-based model that dominates the current fitness landscape will be anywhere near robust or flexible enough to meet consumers’ needs in a few years time.

With this in mind many of speakers at the FIA Conference – including Phil Dourado, Tim Fearon, Derek Barton, Paul Bedford, Pete Cohen, Simon Walker and Ilona Boniwell – will (at one level or another) be challenging the industry to think differently about the way it presents itself.

In fact the whole event is designed to make delegates question what they are doing and why.

If, as the report suggests, we can’t even take for granted that solving the growing health problems of ageing, obesity, heart disease and diabetes will provide a robust future for the industry then where do we go from here?

Well, the report says there are a number of groups that should appear on the fitness radar in the coming years, if they aren’t there already.

These include those who simply don’t like exercise (dubbed the “Activity is not for me” group). Nice as it is to think that we could change the mindset of the average couch potato, we have failed miserably so far and I see no reason for this unhappy state of affairs to change any time soon.

Then there is the “Activity for Fitness’ Sake” group. Actually we already have these people in our facilities but the report says that holding on to them will not be easy. We are going to have to think creatively about how we package and deliver the fitness product just to keep the members we already have - but it can be done.

The “Play Drives Activity” group is interesting in that these people will demand something from us that is a lot more exciting than the current fitness experience. According to the report, this will happen as a result of a fusion between games, sports and dance that will create activities that are driven by “fun, pleasure and sociability – not by effort and hard work.”

The “Activity Offers Something More” audience consists of people who want to live out their values and are seeking a better quality of life physically, mentally and spiritually. In order to reach this potentially huge group, advanced operators (or maybe new operators) will need to take a much more holistic view of the fitness proposition by expanding their offering into areas as diverse as brain training to life skills, which can be offered at the club or online.

We live in interesting times.

See you at the FIA Conference is being held on Wednesday July 14th at Cheltenham Racecourse.


Tim Webster

Consultant at Fitness Professionals