As we ease out of lockdown and prepare for the opportunities of tomorrow, I think we all recognize that we can’t simply repeat the old business plan. The world has changed irrevocably and it’s time to evolve. 

Despite industry leaders heralding the need for owners and operators to develop a new strategy to optimize this new landscape that we find ourselves in, it’s difficult to know where to begin. As testament to this, we’ve seen an increasing number of customers reaching out to ask how Myzone fits into their new digital business strategy.

It’s a good question. And to help answer it, I’d like to borrow an exercise from the renowned author Patrick Lencioni, who established the concept of strategic anchors. He advises organizations find three strategic anchors or clusters, which will be used to determine their overall strategy and guide their decision making.

Here’s what you do: on a piece of paper, list all the decisions you made as a business before Covid-19. What were the deliberate choices you made about the activities you offer that define your value proposition? You may also want to write down what you won’t do, as this is also a choice.

Next, draw a line to connect the activities that you feel can be grouped into one family or cluster. For example, you could group activities such as low price, flexible contract terms, limited amenities, and ample car parking into a family/anchor called low price provider.

Alternatively, as an owner of a studio, you may view activities such as candlelight, incense, prohibited cell phone use and the calming manner of instructors as part of a family of activity called wellbeing.

By determining two to three of these clusters, you are essentially establishing the strategic anchors of your business. These will guide what you do as well as what you don’t do. Once you know what your strategic anchors are, you reduce or eliminate the activities that don't fit within these clusters. You can also introduce new activities that sit within these anchors to ensure you deliver your strategy cohesively and coherently.

So where does Myzone fit into all this? Well, if as part of your new digital strategy you have an anchor called ‘foster community’, then the Myzone live display and smartphone app is a perfect strategic fit. The ability for your members to share their effort levels, photos and achievement generates support and encouragement from their peers and supports that sense of community you value.  

Perhaps you have an anchor you call ‘we get results’. By measuring adherence to exercise, which is the key component to achieving results, and providing the motivation to work harder, once again, the Myzone platform is an ideal fit.

If you want your brand to play a key role in the life of your members post the pandemic, you will have to meet them where they are. That means providing an online service in addition to your physical facility. In this case, you should consider developing an anchor of ‘drive member exercise routine no matter their location’. This means delivering user-friendly online fitness content, creating a familiar yet virtual community for encouragement, and delivering a sense of reward after each workout. All of this can be achieved with existing the Myzone app platform and the new MZ Remote feature, which allows you do deliver virtual live group workouts where participants can connect and exercise together, whilst receiving real-time biometric feedback and personalised coaching from a trainer.  

Now is the time to assess your current strategy. Break it into two or three anchors and decide how you can evolve to address the new opportunities of the post-lockdown environment. This is how you game plan to win for tomorrow. 

If you’d like to explore how we could help you prepare for the opportunities of tomorrow, we would love to hear from you. Click here to get in touch with a Myzone representative.