GYMTOPIA SERIES A SENSE OF PURPOSE


UK-based Mosaic Spa & Health Clubs is using charity to re-discover the company’s mission. Ray Algar reports


R


ecently I was presenting a summary of my Fitness Sector Social Good Report to representatives of the UK


fitness industry. During questions, I was asked if there was evidence that being perceived as a compassionate and generous business generated a commercial return to the organisation. Do customers, staff and other stakeholders really care that an organisation is using its resources to solve social inequalities that may seem unconnected to its core business? I was surprised by the question


because the fitness sector is driven by an altruistic purpose – it exists to help others. Meanwhile businesses such as TOMS thrive because compassion and generosity are their ‘weapons of choice’ in the fiercely competitive world of shoes and eyewear, where their ‘buy one, we donate one’ is transforming lives and industries. So this month, I want to share a story of how UK-based Mosaic Spa & Health


Gymtopia – a place where clubs do social good


Gymtopia was conceived by founder and chief engagement officer Ray Algar, who believes the global health and fitness industry has enormous influence and potential to do good in the world, beyond its immediate customers. The idea of Gymtopia is simple: to curate and spread remarkable stories in which the fitness industry uses its influence to reach out and support an external community in need. It was created with the generous support of five organisations: Companhia Athletica, Gantner Technologies, Les Mills, Retention Management and The Gym Group. Gymtopia received an Outstanding Achievement Award in the ukactive Matrix Flame Awards 2014. Read more stories and submit your own: www.Gymtopia.org


Clubs (Mosaic) is using compassion to reinvigorate a 27-year-old business whose sense of purpose and direction had become lost following its sale to a publicly listed company.


Resetting the compass Founded in 1987, by 2001 Fitness Express was operating 14 hotel-based health clubs across the UK, employing 300 staff. Demand for its friendly and personalised gyms was growing and the business was acquired by Crown Sports. For three years, Fitness Express


founders Dave Courteen and Steve Taylor adjusted to a listed company culture. However, business now felt very different and they yearned for their independence, so in 2004 they bought back the business.


Doing well by doing good


In June 2014, the global information company Nielson published The Global Survey of Corporate Social Responsibility, polling 30,000 consumers from 60 countries (search ‘doing well by doing good’). I was particularly struck by the responses from millennials – people born


since 1982. They want to work for purpose-driven businesses, and as consumers they will seek out and pay more for goods and services provided by companies seen as more socially responsible. Millennials comprise the backbone of the UK health and fitness industry,


In-club fundraising generated additional funds to build a playground


both as employees and as customers – so to me, compassion and generosity should be core values for all fitness sector companies, telling the world who you are and what your business stands for.


46 Read Health Club Management online at healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital October 2014 © Cybertrek 2014 “We had just bought the business back


and found our original vision and mission had got a little lost. A friend told me about the charity Compassion, and I arranged to meet with its director to find out more,” says Courteen.


Releasing children from poverty Compassion is an international Christian child development and child advocacy ministry, which for more than 60 years has been driven by the mission to free children from poverty. Its programmes focus on the spiritual, economic, social and physical needs of children through all stages of development, from age two to 24 years. It focuses its efforts in 26 of the world’s poorest countries. In a world where more than a billion children live on less than US$2 a day,


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