Disruption cometh!
A private equity group is taking Lifetime Fitness private in a $2.8B deal.
Why the move to private by one of the largest fitness clubs in the U.S.?
A March 16th, 2015 Wall Street Journal article cited, “Companies have been facing pressure from boutique fitness classes such as SoulCycle LLC and niche workouts like CrossFit.”
I see and drive disruption every day. Frankly, I could see it coming. I predicted that disruption was accelerating in the sector and that the “old-school” fitness clubs need to turn to digital disruption to better serve their clients of today and tomorrow.
In Fitness Clubs Digital Disruption Is Next, I discuss the Uber Effect in the Health and Wellness and in the Fitness Clubs sector specifically. For example, ClassPass is poised to continue to eat at the revenues and stifle growth within the sector with their subscription based niche studio business model.
Continuing the disruption conversation in Fitness Clubs Digital Disruption – What’s Next?, I share my personal experience at one of these old-school fitness clubs and present digitally enabled strategies for how old-school can become new-school.
The fact is that Fitness Clubs like Lifetime are faced with the reality of Disrupt or Be Disrupted. Of course when you are public, it is hard to eat your own revenues as you go through the reinvention that disruption often requires. Going private may just allow Lifetime Fitness to lead the way as a first mover in driving digital innovation into their business model so they can Eat Instead of Being Eaten!
I work in innovation and disruption. At 3Pillar Global, we partner with our client’s to build the disruptive business models of tomorrow and transform existing business models of yesterday to be more adaptive and competitive by helping them achieve continuous innovation. The digital world is going to stop for no one. Businesses today are either leading, following or dying, at an unprecedented pace.
One thing is for sure, we live in an Ever Evolving World.
Do you see other industry sectors or sub-sectors that are ripe for digital disruption?
The Wall Street Journal article sited above can be found here.