In Search of Excellence

By Tim Webster, FIA Flame Conference programmer

Excellence is the unlimited ability to improve the quality of what you have to offer. Sometimes the improvement is just 1%, but that 1% is often the difference between winning and losing, between the good and the great. Blindingly obvious isn’t it?

This year’s FIA Conference is all about celebrating the fact that we have come a long way as a sector, indulging in a little “what-if” thinking, challenging what we currently do and asking if it could be done better, differently, more efficiently, more cost-effectively or not at all?

Eleanor Roosevelt said: “Do one thing every day that scares you.” This is of course much more difficult than it sounds but if we are to grow our sector we must challenge our own thinking and that of our colleagues each and every day.

As Tom Peters says: “Doing what worked yesterday is always the default option. Thing is, that doesn’t work anymore.”

In my opinion, in order to challenge our thinking we must look outside our own sector at businesses that are doing things differently and so this year’s conference features non-industry speakers from top-to-bottom. That’s a risk in itself, but there’s no point in challenging you to think differently if we aren’t prepared to do the same.

Over the coming weeks and months we aim to bring you some of the thoughts of our speakers at this year’s conference, starting with our keynote speaker, SAS hero Chris Ryan later this week.

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

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

Healthy eating and exercise must go hand in hand

If you doubt the extent of the obesity epidemic in the Western world, go find some winter sun. I am writing this a couple of days after a short break in Tenerife. Wherever I looked, there were people whose shorts were stretched over large buttocks and big tummies! It was not a pretty site. ‘Lean machines’ were in the minority! Despite the huge investment in public health we must remember that improvements in public health will take a long time. It is nearly 50 years since the health risks of smoking were first recognised but only recently that a smoking ban has been achieved in public places. So we just have to keep plugging away at it.


As predicted at this time of year, there have been a few articles promoting the view that exercise is not important in weight loss programmes. According to them, all you need to do is reduce your food intake but new to the argument is that exercise does not work if your goal is weight loss. True, if you eat less you will lose weight and it is possible to exercise without losing weight, but the issue is not simply about shedding a few kilograms. It is about being healthy and improving all the components of fitness with which we are familiar. For that to happen, healthy eating and exercise must go hand in hand.

Secondly, research is increasingly showing that fat people can be aerobically fit – the so-called ‘fit fat’. When overweight people embark on a programme of progressive aerobic exercise their VO2 max rises, several indicators of health and fitness improve and the risk of developing obesity associated illness falls. It is tempting to conclude therefore that people do not need to lose weight they just need to get on a treadmill or rower.

However, fitness is not only about aerobic fitness. Muscle strength and endurance, flexibility and motor function also need to improve if somebody is to achieve all round fitness. Being overweight has other complications. The musculoskeletal system is overburdened so arthritis of the hips, knees, ankles and spine are common. Weight loss plays a major part in its management and prevention.

Something else people are unaware of is that being overweight significantly increases the risk of surgical operations – and most of us will have atleast one major operation during our lives particularly after the age of 65. Not to mention the fact that Thrombosis, infection, slow rehabilitation and delays in wound healing are all serious risks when an obese person has major surgery.

So to be fat and fit is good but to be lean and fit is better. We need to go on measuring the waist circumference and helping clients to get it within the optimum range.

John Searle
Chief Medical Officer
Fitness Industry Association

FLAME Awards 2010

We in the FIA Events department are experiencing that annual buzz that comes with the entry stage of the FLAME awards – it’s great how enthusiastic all manner of facilities have been already about the FLAME process.  The main question on everyone’s lips at the moment is: “How can we WIN??”  Well obviously we can’t answer that question – cheating is certainly not a quality that we look for in a FLAME winner…  But to help you on your way this year, we will be running FLAME Training Workshops (run by our very own FLAME assessors), which will be invaluable in learning tips on what Fitness Leadership & Management Excellence really looks like.  The workshop not only offers a great opportunity to grasp a real understanding of the ins and outs of the FLAME process, but it will also act as a consultation session for your facility (regardless of whether you enter the awards or not).  Our distinguished FLAME assessors; Tory Brettell and Rebecca Weissbort, are well-known experts in the industry (internationally) with over 40 years of experience between them at all levels in creating, assessing and coaching excellence – a session with them will revitalise your business!  These workshops will run in December 09 – January 10 – call 020 7420 8578 for further details or visit the website.

As always there is lots going on at the FIA at the moment; a new batch of seminars on Exercise and Nutrition launch next week, our Fit For the Future programme is being reviewed by number 10, go is steadily expanding across counties and the MoreActive4Life campaign is nearly ready to go…

Lisa Taylor (from MEND) came to visit us last week to brief the team on the material that has been put together for the MoreActive4Life 2010 Campaign – it really is amazing and motivating stuff!  I’m genuinely excited about the campaign (all of the tools that accompany it are spot on!) and can’t wait to be a campaign guinea pig!  I hope the rest of the industry is as enthusiastic about this as I am and we really can oversee a behaviour change nationally that sees exercise becoming a habit rather than a chore.

Hayley Bevan

Events and Sponsorship Manager 

Fitness Industry Association

FIA Campaigns and Programmes - Get on board!

Having joined the Campaigns and Programmes Department at the FIA a few short months ago, it is amazing the amount of exciting stuff we have on at the moment. We have created a new flagship campaign—moreactive4life—that launched this summer. Year 1 of this 3-year campaign has taught us a lot: from the importance of helping our members with community engagement, to the media’s love of overweight bus drivers running on treadmills. I think what this campaign showed me was that our industry is great at marketing, but not necessarily at grassroots organisation. Approaching your local doctor’s office or supermarket is a challenge when it is often the first introduction they have had to our sector. I have been on the phone with nearly a thousand members these past few months, and everyone is saying the same thing: how do we foster local relationships with small businesses, doctors, schools, and families?

So our department is also shifting its focus at the moment. While we will continue to deliver our national campaigns, we also want to help our members engage with their community. This is at the heart of sustaining our sector, and ultimately the thing that makes even a national campaign something really special. This is also what the FIA does best—programmes like ‘go’ and ‘active at school’ bring students (and their families) into our clubs and introduce fitness in a non-traditional and fun way (P.E. is great, but what P.E. class offers Pilates or spinning?). So this is about making fitness fun. This is also about getting into your local GP’s office and explaining how you can help out. This is about partnering with your local pub to showcase how a circuit workout can burn off that pint you just downed. This is about our sector becoming a logical partner for a community’s health and wellbeing—and more foot-fall across your floor means more people, more active, more often.

I am really excited about the upcoming changes, so watch this space!

Matt Reents - FIA Programme Manager

How is the FIA assisting its members?

So this is my first entry into the world of blogging and it offers me the fantastic opportunity to open a two way conversation with FIA members.

Over the coming months I will be talking about the successes FIA member benefits has delivered to our members both operators and suppliers and also ask what more the industry is looking for from it trade body.

Over the last year we have seen members benefit substantially from the FIA collective purchasing scheme that is now place saving thousands of pounds on business services ranging from stationary to utilities. FIA Business Services is currently finalising a basket energy agreement that will help all members large or small access even greater savings on their electricity for the future.

We are now also coming to the end of the first moreactive4life campaign. For those of you who do not know this is the industry’s sub brand for the department of health’s change 4life campaign.

Over July and August over one thousand FIA members have taken advantage of the free collateral and national exposure to generate hundreds of extra enquires for the facilities as well as using the campaign to manage retention.

Now we are starting to build for year two, looking to develop new marketing channels to expose moreactive4life to an even wider audience. I will keep you updated on how this develops and more importantly how you can be involved.

Richard Blackmore - FIA Sales and Marketing Director

The FIA Flame Conference

Most will be aware that the FIA recently pulled off the mammoth task of launching the first ever Flame Conference. As a first attempt I think all will agree that it did what it said on the tin and was a success. Granted, there were hiccups and unexpected episodes, but all in all people were educated, fed, watered and serenaded by none other by the legend that is James Brown (who knew he was a white guy?). So, moving forwards the challenge is to replicate, improve and exceed expectations for the Flame Conference 2010… suggestions anyone please? I have recently discovered that squeezing 900 fit and healthy people into one room for a formal occasion is not something that many venues aspire to, thereby making the search for a conference and Ball of Fire venue something of an obstacle. But obstacles were made to be overcome and it is somewhere on the way over that hurdle that the epiphany of a “marquee” presented itself – how exciting! So it would seem we are getting there and bit by bit the plan for 2010 is coming together and looking rather attractive at that! However, I would like to make a plea to all hotels, stadiums, racecourses and universities across the UK – BUILD BIGGER ROOMS, THE FITNESS INDUSTRY NEEDS YOU!

Hayley Bevan - Events and Sponsorship Manager

Yes Prime Minister - FIA Public Affairs

It’s quite exciting to make my first post. No doubt, there will be countless more. Many posts will relate to the happenings in Whitehall, Westminster and the corridors of power in the devolved assemblies. Others will draw attention to the local projects and programmes that are putting the policy theory I spend my days pontificating on into practice.

There will be times when my inane thoughts are of no interest at all! The beauty of this blog is that you will be able to tell me. I will do my best to respond to comments and point you towards other sources of information that you might find more interesting. All I would ask is that you keep it clean and constructive and I will do the same!

For me, the main opportunity will be to draw attention to the team we have at the FIA and the progress we are making. The Public Affairs and Policy Team at the FIA is like a well oiled engine, powering towards the achievement of our goals. We don’t usually have the opportunity to update our stakeholders as much as we should. This blog provides that opportunity. Over time, I will introduce you to the Public Affairs and Policy Department. Together we are working hard to support the whole physical activity sector and this blog should provide the forum to let you know what we are doing.

Steven Ward - FIA Public Affairs and Policy Manager

Welcome from the FIA (and Dillon)

As I was walking my dog (Dillon) this morning my mind inevitably turned to work. I know it sounds sad, but my early morning walks with my red setter are always a good time for me to think about the various things bubbling away on my agendas – whether its work or my son’s A-levels (thankfully now a past worry). On this occasion it was work; the fact that next year the FIA will be celebrating its 20th anniversary and I pondered about how the world has changed in the last 20 years.

For us in the fitness industry it’s been evolution at the speed of sound. From Fonda to globally-networked exercise cycles, as well as rowing and running machines: from leotard enthusiasts to GP referrals: from niche fad to ‘government delivery partner’.

Twenty years ago who would have thought that the Government would give us money to take our proposition into our communities – but I suppose 20 years ago who would have thought that we’d be talking about ‘50% of the adult population being overweight or obese’. Mind you, 20-years ago a fledgling FIA’s only agenda was to try to get the support of an industry that was dominated in all sectors by visionary entrepreneurs focused on picking up on the Fitness boom in the United States and staking a claim on the UK market

Today I (and my team) worry about communications: do the 200,000 odd people who work in our industry know who we are, what we do, how we do it and how we can benefit the 5,700-odd facilities up and down the land. The answer is probably not. It’s ironic, given the great strides we have made in communications; the more we say sometimes the less we are heard. The purpose of this blog is to start a dialogue with those who are ‘listening’. Of course we want to tell you what we’re doing, but more importantly, we want to hear from you about what you’re doing, what you’re thinking, what you want us to do. We might not always be able to do what you want of us, but we will try.

So talk to us

David Stalker, FIA Chief Operating Officer