| Letters | > JULY 2010
CLUB BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
Jill Kinney’s Encore
INDUSTRY VETERAN SCORES IN
SECOND CAREER
33 IHRSA Global 25 40 The Future is You! 45 Equipment Benchmark 48 Feel Right at Home 61 Treadmill Triumphs
In-Kind Compliments ®
Thanks so much for the very kind words in the July installment of the “Editor’s Welcome.” Jill Kinney and I served together on IHRSA’s board of directors many years ago, and she’s one of my favorite people—can’t help but like her. (See “Jill Kenney’s Encore,” July CBI, pg. 26.) I think what she’s doing certainly represents a way to get more tax-paying family and community-oriented clubs into the market place, which is a good thing in my view, though difficult because of the amount of capital required. —| Roger Ralph | Founder, President, Co-owner | Hockessin Athletic Club | Hockessin, DE
Public-Policy Payoff
> A great summary on IHRSA’s legislative efforts and achievements! Not only does the association’s public-policy team continue to do a phenomenal job of tracking, fighting, and winning battles against business-killing legislation, but it’s also succeeded, on so many fronts, in pushing pro-business ideas into legislation. Thanks for supporting our industry. I hope IHRSA is able to get every club owner to read this e-mail
update, as I think it’s extremely important that everyone seriously understand how the budget crisis can “allow” legislators to introduce horrible legislation. —|
Paul Rothbard | CEO | In-Shape Health Clubs | Stockton, CA ‘Guys in the Middle’
> Thanks for another great issue of CBI, the one publication that covers the whole club industry. In reading the July issue, I was struck by an opportunity that may exist for CBI. On the one hand, the “IHRSA Global 25” presented a strong case for the health of large businesses in this industry (see “The IHRSA Global 25,” pg. 33). On the other hand, the “New Members” page (see pg. 101) presents a set of new members who are largely franchisees or general managers of some of the larger chains. So, in a sense, we have the big and the small and not too much
for the guys in the middle, which is where I’m speculating there may be an interesting opportunity for CBI and IHRSA in terms of growing membership. In my prior life as a strategic management consultant, I
worked with over half a dozen international associations similar in size to IHRSA and saw a paradox very similar to the “large and small and not too much in the middle” phenomenon in them also. It clearly makes sense for your publication to cover the big guys, as they’re in the business press and command a huge percentage of the market. The growth of franchises over the last decade has also been spectacular. Of course, we never quite
12 Club Business Internat ional | OCTOBER 2010 | www.
ihrsa.org
hear about the churn rate of franchises; we know lots of new ones are opening, but we also know lots of established ones are struggling, being sold, or closing. The single business, unfortunately, gets lost. What I recognized in the July issue is how off-putting it
might be for those wonderful club owners in the middle who have one, two, three, or, maybe, even five locations in a region; are committed to providing the highest level of service, facilities, and programs to their members; and, as a result, have continued to thrive. Many of these clubs are represented by the original founders of IHRSA, and many of them have been long-standing members of our REX Roundtables. I can sympathize with their point of view when they open
up CBI and see nothing that sings to them—big clubs, small franchises, but what about me, the small business person? What’s in it for me? I’m sure that both CBI and IHRSA have done market-segmenta-
tion studies to look at the various types of players who, together, constitute the market. I’m wondering if there isn’t an opportunity for a special section in CBI that would focus on the middle market—the traditional, privately-held, one-to-three-clubs, one-to-five-clubs owner—in terms of what they’re doing to make the world go around. I hope this suggestion is seen as helpful, and not critical of a
damn-good publication. —| Will Phillips | Founder, CEO | REX Roundtables for Executives | Quincy, MA
Editor’s reply: Each issue of CBI contains numerous items dealing with what Phillips refers to as the “middle market.” In this issue, for example, we deal with, among others: Wellbridge, a moderately sized chain; Les Mills New Zealand, a small chain; and a wide variety of small independents, including Aquaflores, Hoover Fitness, Discover Strength, My Sportlady, the Aspen Hill Club, The Thoreau Club, and The Women’s Club. Like Phillips, CBI understands and appreciates the critical importance of this market segment, and is committed to covering it well.
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