Health Club Management January 16

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Tracy Gehlan The CEO of health club operator Jatomi Fitness talks to Kate Cracknell about building a business around the consumer, and the lessons we can take from the fast food sector racy Gehlan has an interesting background for a fi tness CEO, in that she’s come over from what some in the sector might consider ‘the enemy’ – fast food outlet Burger King. “The move to Jatomi Fitness was almost by accident,” she admits. “That said, I’ve been involved in sport all my life – I was an athlete when I was younger, and all my sons have done international judo. So when this job came along it seemed like a dream opportunity to combine what had been a hobby with the business knowledge I had. “Because although the products – burgers and fi tness – are millions of miles apar t, actually the business models are extremely similar. They’re both guest service industries focused on delivering a good product, on keeping your customers, on guest feedback. You can take the knowledge you have from one business and readily apply it to the other.” She continues: “There seems to be a view in the fi tness sector that, if you haven’t been in the industry before, you can’t just come in and work in it. There’s a reluctance to bring in anyone from outside – the same people just move around within the industry, and they’ve been sharing similar ideas for the last 10 years. “I believe you have to look at what’s going on in the outside world – from a technology standpoint, an innovations standpoint... So one of the things I’m trying to do at Jatomi Fitness is change the culture by balancing fi tness people with external experts. I don’t mind where our marketing people come from, for example, as long as they’re amazing at marketing. The same goes for finance, IT, social media, apps, retail… They just need to be experts in their respective fields.” The fi tness sector’s introspective viewpoint is also hindering its growth, adds Gehlan: “Everyone’s competing against each other head to head, battling over the small pool of people who’ve already decided to join a gym. That’s the wrong time and place to compete. “Rather than competing against other gyms, we should be out there competing with diets, weight loss tablets, recipes, meal plans – all the other easier options consumers will try before they even contemplate joining a gym. Because I don’t want to be 15th on the list. I want to move my business into a position where it’s able to compete as soon as people start doing their ‘how to change my life’ research.”

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Jatomi Fitness unveiled the first of its ‘blueprint clubs’ towards the end of 2015 – one in Poland and two in Bangkok, Thailand DRIVING STANDARDS Gehlan’s most recent role at Burger King was as VP of brand standards and excellence, and the endorsements on her LinkedIn profile speak to expertise in areas such as customer service and customer satisfaction – areas in which the fi tness sector all too often falls flat. Coming in with a fresh pair of eyes as she is – Gehlan only joined Jatomi Fitness in April 2015 – what are her first impressions of the fi tness sector in this respect? “It’s a very inspiring industry, but when you pull back the blankets there aren’t really any standards or processes. And that’s not just in our company: we had none when I arrived, but I can’t find them anywhere. No best practice, no standards, no systems. “When I joined Jatomi Fitness we had 18 different logos, but that was just a symptom of the root cause: a lack of standards. So we’ve gone back to the foundations, effectively building these under the existing company – putting standards and processes in place to create what I call our gym blueprint, which covers everything from the hiring process to building a new club. “If you want to grow as a brand, you have to have these systems and processes – it’s just not possible to do it without them. And we certainly have big growth plans at

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Health Club Management January 16 by Leisure Media - Issuu