Edgard Corona has already managed a sugar mill but a little more than a decade ago he started to set up one of the greatest networks of fitness in Brazil: Bio Ritmo. While 50,000 clients sweat at his twenty-one locations, the chemical engineer looks for new formulas to improve every detail of his company. Bio Ritmo—Management Shaping-Up in Brazil By Paulo Lima Photos by Kiko Ferrite Workout area in the Campo Belo unit and reception desk in the unit on Paulista Avenue, both in São Paulo. FORGET THE MANUALS. Goals do not guarantee growth. Give autonomy and demand that the directors manage each location as if it were the only one in the group and, personifying shopkeepers in the neighborhood, know each client by name. Create new products, import and adapt new ideas regardless if they belong to a small businessman located on the corner or to an entrepreneur from the North Amarica. Ignore the crises and mainly have fun at work. Generally speaking, this could be a brief abstract of a recipe to success of Bio Ritmo. A little more than a decade ago, Edgard Corona, a chemical engineer, age 53, with five kids, decided to quit his job as a manager of an alcohol mill in Ribeirão Preto, in the countryside of São Paulo. He started creating one of the most successful networks of fitness in the country. Today, the group has 21 fitness centers, is opening a low cost second network, Smart Fit, has 900 employees and ended 2009 with revenue of R$65 million. So as to better understand Bio Ritmo we talked to the man who is behind this world of weights, bikes and treadmills. How did you start? I graduated as a chemical engineer and decided to work at a family's sugar mill in Ribeirão Preto. I dealt with cold food, sugar exports... it was one thing after another. Then, I decided to quit. I already had a fitness center with a partner and it was interesting. I brought all the big company's management expertise to the fitness center. In the beginning, in 1996, we were very audacious. We decided to get "a piece" of the DNA of each existing fitness center. It turned out to be a Frankenstein which was our first big mistake. Later, however, we created the location on Paulista Avenue that was a success. The location helped us a lot. Afterwards, we started to attend trade shows abroad, mainly in the USA and we realized that we were totally outdated." How does metanoia (changing your thoughts to a new way of doing business to produce results) arise in the growth process of the company? "One time I was at a championship in Maresias and Andy Irons and Kelly Slater were also there. I started chatting with a friend and complained I was beyond my limits and said it was hard to manage a company and provide good service to the client, and so on. And he said: 'You must do something called, 'metanoia.' And I said: 'What is that?' Well, I ended up doing it. I am a restless person and at the beginning the instructor said: 'Draw something.' After three hours during the course, I thought: 'I am getting out of this lousy place.' I ended up staying until the end. When the fourth day of the course endeded, there were 20 guys in the room all crying copiously. I left and said: 'I took 46 years to find out that everything I am doing is wrong.' All concepts I had about management were buried by that instructor in four days." Why do you question the remarkable policies of goals? "I have a daughter who works in the financial market and one day I said to her: 'Daughter, a seal jumps for fish.' However, one day the seal says: 'I won't jump for only one fish anymore, I want more.' Let's say that your collaborator has enough money to get by and has no difficulties, has a decent life style. This person has to have inner courage. People reach excellence from the inside out and not from the outside in. You don't do your job because I pay you. I may pay you more and you may not do it. So to do it from your heart with devotion and excellence, you must be convinced that that is important to society, to the world and to your neighbor. This makes all difference." Clockwise from the top left: Corona, in 1980, when he was a proprietor of a sugar mill; with a kangaroo, on a business trip in Australia; on the cover of the magazine Exame PME and on vacation in Bangkok, in Thailand. What about the issue that each unit, each fitness center, in a certain way, is independent? "There is a book, the Human Sigma, which is the work of Gallup (an important legal consultant and research company), used today by companies such as Tiffany & Co, Best Buy, and Disney. Gallup interviewed 4 million employees who reported to 80 thousand managers. They found 12 key questions which determine the level of commitment of the team. One of the conclusions made is that commitment is inspired by the manager, the guy who leads. The expert forms the team. It doesn't matter if the president of the company is not good. If the immediate boss is fast and efficient, you say: 'I am learning, he encourages me, and focuses my attention. I read the book and thought: 'Gee! Here is the way to measure the client, to measure the team.' For example, if you are the manager of the fitness center on Cerro Corá Street (located in the west area of São Paulo), you won't have an executives as clients, but families, and professional, self-employed people. We must understand who is talking to us." In a certain way, do you contradict the references of the "modern" class of entrepreneurs in Brazil that follows a very strct model on bonus, performance, and income? You see, we must put the figures aside, and the team and client out front. If you hire an employee from Apple, for example, he loves Apple, takes care of it. Every employee who works for Steve Jobs is used to having his or her differences with him, this is his or her way, but then everyone says: "I have learned, I have made progress." He or she never looked for results. What is Apple looking at? He or she wants to make something different for the world. The result is a consequence of love and commitment. We cannot keep on saying 'I just want you to do that.' We are raising our kids for them to retire in 2065 and saying that the important thing is to learn mathematics and Portuguese. However, maybe medicine will not exist in 20 years. Maybe robots will take care of us. Maybe there will be some weight-loss pills and no more fitness centers... so what are we doing? Let the person develop his talent because we don't know what will happen in five years. Dan Pink, American author and lecturer, talks about education, and trends. He is my spiritual guide." Now you said something very interesting, the funny thing about the weight-loss pills. Do you think that people go basically to fitness centers to lose weight? "They chase results. Society changed, we don't have to walk to find food, there are remote controls, and automobiles... the guy stays in the office and does not walk at all. Therefore, a great percentage of people are overweight and the doctor says: 'You must lose weight, improve your conditioning...' We used to live for 50 years; now we live up to 100. The person does not have to be fit, but he or she has to think this way: 'I feel fine. I sometimes workout, take the stairs, I fit in my pants.'" How does your new network of fitness centers, Smart Fit, work? How can you charge less without losing quality? "You see, the equipment is similar or basically the same. What we realized is that many clients said things like: 'I don't need an instructor.' 'I don't take gym lessons.' 'I just come to walk on the treadmill.' Or even, 'I just come twice a week, why do I have to pay for this, this and that?' So I thought: if the guy does not need an trainer, that's ok. However, I didn't want to lose these guys so let's create a model that does not need a trainer, does not offer any type of lessons in groups. There is just an instructor for supervision in the room without any individual assistance, without a trainer attached to the client all the time. Therefore, we formatted this lower-cost model. There is no need for a one-year contract, we do everything online, and the costs are low, and so on. Did I meet the client's expectations? Yes, I did." What about your body? This is your business. However, what is your personal workout routine? How do you keep fit? "I work out three times a week at 7:30 AM when the phone doesn't ring and few people can interrupt me. On the weekends, I walk and run. So, I do some kind of workout four times a week. Since I was very heavy when a child, I have a tendency to be chubby. It is a matter of genetics and it won't change. However, I run 4 or 5 miles, I do some heavy physical activity, and all medical examinations are OK." Did the crises affect you this year? "We did not have any serious crises in Brazil. Even less, in the service sector. What affects fitness center businesses is a lot of holidays or too much rain. Because of holidays, perple end up postponing their decision to workout, or there is too much traffic due to the rain, and people have no time and consequently they does not register. However, I cannot complain, we are satisfied."