IHRSA - Mar 2005 CBI Editor

A Narrow Focus For Wide Appeal

Editor's Welcome

It has been less than three months since a tsunami born in the Indian Ocean devastated the countries lying on its shores.

The human toll will never be known, and the financial loss, never fully calculated.

It is hard to wrap one's mind around large groups of people-to envision, relate to, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, of individuals. That, in part, is why, less than three months later, the tsunami is yesterday's news, its victims very nearly forgotten.

Try to picture the face of someone you care about; now try to picture the face of a crowd-that's the problem.

Ironically, those who are able, in a way, to manage the latter feat-to recognize, to know, that the crowd is comprised of singular faces, of solely-begotten lives-are often able to make a unique contribution to society.

Gen. Tommy Franks, U.S. Army Ret., the keynote speaker, this month, at IHRSA's 24th Annual International Convention and Trade Show, led hundreds of thousands of troops in such troubled places as Afghanistan and Iraq. He owed his success to his courage, intelligence, and determination, but also to the fact that he never forgot his personal responsibility to the young man, the young woman, in his charge.

Nerio Alessandri, the founder and president of Technogym, the fitness-equipment manufacturer, oversees a workforce of some 1,000 people, but, like Franks, appreciates the intrinsic worth, prizes the critical value, of each one.

Two months after Francesco Nicoletti joined the firm, Alessandri sent him an e-mail wishing him a happy birthday. "It made me feel special that he took the time to do that," Nicoletti told Fortune magazine. "And he sent me a telegram when my child was born. It showed that, for him, I was an important part of the company."

That is why Fortune recently named Technogym the "Best Company to Work for in Italy" and one of the "10 Best Companies to Work for in Europe."

Another industry entrepreneur featured in these pages, Paul O'Lone, the owner of Accessible Fitness, in Santa Clara, California, also understands how vital and rewarding it is to concentrate on each face. A competitive bodybuilder living with multiple sclerosis, O'Lone has created a club designed, specifically, to meet the needs of the disabled. People who know him attest that, when O'Lone is working with a client-they're the only person in his world.

One of the beauties of our business is that it is predicated, conceptually, on the primacy of each club member. But, when facilities serve hundreds, or thousands, that focus may blur, or even, in time, disappear. It's fortunate we have people such as Franks, Alessandri, and O'Lone to remind us of our mission.

Craig R. Waters is the editor-in-chief of CBI and can be reached at c.waters@fit-etc.com.