Technogym launched in 1983. How did you get it off the ground?
I founded Technogym in my garage with a dream but no financial resources, so the biggest challenge at the outset was to find the funds to grow the company.
Innovation was the way we overcame this difficulty: developing products that were so innovative and desirable that customers were willing to pay in advance for them.
This is the learning we’ve been applying ever since: innovation and speed have always been our way to overcome challenges.
You’ve always put design at the heart of everything you do. What value does it deliver?
I’m a designer myself, which is why I believe in the value of style and design to offer consumers not only a functional experience, but also an emotionally engaging one.
Design represents a huge added value – both in terms of product design and our interior design service – for operators to make their facilities even more attractive and to support them with engagement and retention by enabling memorable training experiences.
What R&D are you working on that you can share?
We’ve been investing for years in a unique digital ecosystem, with the aim of growing the industry, making it more attractive to end users and more credible in the eyes of institutional stakeholders, such as insurance companies, health professionals and the wider medical world.
How did you create this ecosystem?
Innovation has always been the engine behind our growth, but it didn’t come overnight.
In 1996 we launched the first software in the industry, then in 2003 the first TV screen built-in to the equipment. In 2007 the first internet connected equipment, in 2012 the first cloud platform to deliver wellness on-the-go and more recently our Technogym Live platform, featuring live and on-demand video workouts, which are available on the equipment and via our app.
Today, this Technogym Ecosystem – our open platform – can connect users to a personalised training experience anytime, anywhere. It can also be integrated with software applications such as membership software, marketing and payment platforms, as well as body analysis and assessment devices.
Additionally, Mywellness – the CRM component of the ecosystem – enables operators to accelerate their digital strategy, improving the user experience and increasing ROI, thanks to a focus on attraction, retention, upselling and secondary spend, enabling them to manage their business end-to-end.
At FIBO this year we launched as an open platform, meaning the ecosystem will now integrate with any brand of fitness equipment, not just our own.
Our goal is to keep innovating with new products, such as AI-based digital services and training formats to help operators attract and surprise their users with variety and personalisation.
How do you see the hybrid offering developing?
We launched our “wellness-on-the-go” strategy 10 years ago, with the goal of offering people a personalised training experience anytime and anywhere: at the health club, at home, in hotels, at the doctor’s and at work, for example.
This functionality represents a great opportunity for fitness operators to create new business in collaboration with the medical or corporate sectors, or to connect with users at home.
At Technogym we strongly believe in the hybrid model. We don’t see home fitness as a competitor for fitness facilities, but as a great opportunity for operators to also connect with their customers when outside the facility and to create additional sustainable business and value.
Home fitness helps users to stick to their exercise habit and stay loyal to the facility in the long-term, because their lifestyle is being fully supported.
The hybrid offering has also driven the launch of our new corporate offering – Technogym Corporate Club.
How will AI change the industry?
AI is changing many different industries and businesses and is also having an impact on fitness – an industry in which personalisation is crucial.
We’ve been investing in AI for many years and today – as previously mentioned – our ecosystem enables operators to personalise each individual training experience, thanks to a machine learning AI-based system that optimises and adapts the training experience based on individual needs, habits and passions, in order to boost engagement and maximise results.
That can be by suggesting new exercises, programmes and training content based on previous results and habits, or by personalising the user’s training experience on a given day – from the way they’re welcomed, to the progression they’re offered or the mood of the entertainment, for example.
Along with building products, you also embraced the concept of wellness. How did this come about?
In 1993 in a market dominated by bodybuilding and fitness, we launched a new concept we called wellness – a lifestyle that includes regular physical exercise, a healthy diet and a positive mental approach.
Wellness is a profoundly Italian lifestyle rooted in the Roman culture of mens sana in corpore sano (a healthy mind in a healthy body) and on the Mediterranean diet. If fitness targets a small niche of the population, wellness is more holistic and inclusive and appeals to everybody.
The vision – helping people live a better life through wellness – will never change for us. What changes every day is the technology and the way we deliver wellness to make training experiences more personalised, engaging and accessible for everyone – from Olympic athletes to the elderly or beginners.
At the opening of the Technogym Village in 2012 you hosted the entire Technogym family, along with Bill Clinton and the president of Italy. What did that day mean to you?
Of course, the occasion was incredibly memorable and marked a milestone that my family and I are proud of, but for me it was not a point of arrival, but the starting point of our new era.
Technogym was born in my family garage 40 years ago, the Technogym Village is our new ‘garage’ and a physical ecosystem conceived to shape our digital ecosystem and to inspire the entire industry with the culture of wellness.
What have been some of the other highlights of the journey so far?
Without doubt our involvement with the Olympic Games. Technogym has been the official supplier to the last nine Olympics. Our relationship with the Olympic Games and sporting champions has been key to the evolution of Technogym – on one side to innovate, thanks to the feedback of the athletes about our products and technologies, and on the other, in terms of communication, to inspire people to move more through the message of the athletes.
Technogym has also driven the development of the Wellness Valley in Italy – where everyone from schools to health and fitness clubs and businesses are involved with improving the wellbeing of the community. What lessons have you learned from this initiative that you believe can be shared globally?
Our Wellness Valley data – which is collected annually – confirms that investing in wellness and physical exercise for the populations has a strong impact on both public health and the economy.
As the Wellness Valley celebrates its 20th anniversary, the area where it’s located – Romagna – is now way ahead of the national average on important health indicators, including the percentage of the active population (55 per cent vs 46 per cent), sedentary population (16.1 per cent vs. 30.6 per cent) and innovative projects such as Exercise is Medicine.
These results validate the positive outcomes of work and investment on prevention in order to ensure a future for the next generation.
In addition to this insight from the Wellness Valley initiative, evidence from around the world on the benefits of regular exercise is clear and undeniable. There is no need for more evidence.
The challenge for our industry – and a rigour that will enable us to be credible and more influential – is being capable of delivering the right programmes that lead to the right results and being able to measure the impact. This means continuous assessment, personalisation, checks, feedback and result-tracking.
Tell us about the company’s eco credentials
Wellness has always been our inspiring philosophy and promoting wellness and health is strongly linked with the pursuit of environmental sustainability.
Technogym Village is the world’s first Wellness Campus and besides its design, the company’s sustainability commitment includes a number of actions that generate real change, such as a wellness lifestyle for all, responsible innovation and design and wellness for the community (www.technogym.com/en-US/technogym-village).
Although not classified as an energy-intensive company, we’ve always been committed to energy-saving initiatives. The company conducted energy diagnosis exercises in 2015 and 2018 and also completed the procedure for ISO 50001 certification.
We pay particular attention to regular monitoring and constant improvements when it comes to reducing waste – maximising the use of recyclable components in packaging is one example.
We have an in-house initiative called ‘I am green’ which seeks to reduce plastic waste and foster a strong awareness among staff, through correct waste disposal.
On the product side, our catalogue contains various self-powered machines which are not connected to mains electricity.
The group’s circular economy is enhanced by a refurbishment service, to give a second chance to products at the end of their first lifecycle. As a result, 51 per cent of eligible machines were refurbished in 2019. www.hcmmag.com/TGYMsustain
How can we make wellness more accessible to people on low incomes and those suffering from health inequalities?
By focusing on two areas – on one hand by making more of an impact on public institutions in order to drive more public investment and attention into programmes that deliver prevention and exercise and on the other, by working to educate people about personal health and wellness, starting with children when they’re at school.
How can we encourage children and young people to invest more time and energy in self-care, so they develop good habits from an early age?
Evidence on the fact that exercise is good for their health is not enough. Beside this rational approach, we need to work from an emotional perspective by making exercise desirable and attractive for children, by adding things such as gamification, socialisation, innovative content and virtual reality.
How can the industry harness the power of fitness to improve the health of people around the world?
Our industry has huge potential in this regard and a critical role to play. Wellness is a key priority for people now, more than ever, but in many cases, the medical community is not leveraging our industry as an opportunity.
We need to have doctors prescribing exercise, but to get to this level we need to be more credible as an industry and quality and personalisation are key enablers.
Another great opportunity for health club operators is sports performance – attracting users that mainly train outside, but are prepared to pay for training that’s specifically linked to their passion, by offering athletic training programmes in disciplines such as running, cycling and rowing.
The third opportunity lies with programmes and services related to improving mental health. Today there are approximately 200 million people in the world attending fitness facilities…the potential is tenfold, if – alongside fitness – we attract health-, sport-, and mental health-oriented customers.
What are the greatest challenges facing operators and what solutions do you see?
Since the start of the pandemic, consumer awareness on the importance of health and wellness has never been so high. The industry needs to manage people with different needs, goals, and aspirations, so being able to personalise programmes and services will be key.
Looking to the future, I think facilities will be able to compete by focusing on the value of service and experience. Adopting a ‘grow’ strategy (a focus on marketing and pricing to sell memberships, with little focus on service) is not sustainable in the long-term, rather it damages the market, as people buy memberships because they’re attracted by the price and then leave due to the lack of service and quality.
On the other hand, deploying a strategy based on value through delivering on personalisation of service, quality and care for the environment, guarantees long-term retention and profits.
Some call you the ‘Apple’ of the fitness industry. How do you respond?
There are common elements and synergies between the two brands, starting from the origins: both were born in a garage and have always had a strong focus on style and design, while building ecosystems with a focus on customer experience and continuous innovation.
Steve Jobs was an inspiration and I respected his values in business. If I had to pick one to highlight I would say his no-compromise approach. At Technogym we express this with our motto “masterpieces are made of details”.
