Q: Statistics confirm that the wellness industry is now one of the world’s fastest-growing and most resilient markets, valued at about 4000 billion USD. How is the wellness industry doing in Romania?
Letitia Pescariu: Romania is also part of this fast-paced uptrend, with a wellness industry that is growing from one year to another. As the economy continues to grow, a more mature Romanian market is developing.
This natural evolution is based on an increasing social focus on self-image, self-worth and overall strive for a healthy life-style.
Q: How do you see the consumers concerns and trends in sports, health, beauty and fitness industry? How do you see your company and industry long-term?
Letitia Pescariu: People worldwide are shifting towards a healthy lifestyle. They are following fitness trends, especially across developed markets where healthy lifestyle aspirations have become a must.
This phenomenon is translated into an expanding client base for sports, nutrition products and related services. Nonetheless, the challenge for companies is to comprehend the transformations of their client pool and potential changes in their client profiles.
The use of social media and crowd culture is one key for a better customer communication, tailored products and services innovation, to fuel consumer demand.
Our forecast suggests that Pescariu Sports & SPA finds itself in an organic growth cycle, with a steady increase of the clients’ pool.
Our results show an increasing focus on sports and healthy lifestyle and a particular taste for high quality services amongst our clients. Sport is one of the key ingredients of health, and we should all keep health on the top of our wish lists.
One consequence of our hard work and devotion consists in winning The Best Day Spa Award. Pescariu Sports & Spa has been nominated the Best Day Spa Winner, in the second TERMALIA 2018 Awards Gala; a prestigious event that brought together the most important companies in the field.
Q: In your opinion, as a CEO, what is the most important question to ask in the investment committee: what can go right, or what mistake can you not afford to make? Why? Is there any other question that you ask your investment committee for 2019?
Letitia Pescariu: Today’s financial markets can be confusing, as are the many different strategies for managing money, and sometimes even clients are clueless in terms of what to ask for. The most important question in my opinion is:
How can we help people go beyond their own boundaries?
At last, the worst mistake a company can make, is that of not taking into consideration its mission, therefore its clients.
Q: Crises come and go. But looking back at the latest global crisis we witness today a very large economic expansion and 2019 still looks good. Can you see a relation between the economic environment and the demand for sports, health, and beauty and fitness industry?
Letitia Pescariu: The economic expansion affects us all. Stress levels have increased over the years. Alternative solutions provided by the sports, health, beauty and fitness industry are received with arms wide open, which is a gain momentum for the wellness sector and for our clients, as well.
The macro affects the micro, and now, more than ever, we’re living in a period where we educate ourselves to become our best version.
Facing all kind of crisis should not come as a surprise for us, as individuals. Being able to cope with it, comes as the effect of offering yourself quality time (i.e. in the gym, spa, pool).
And that’s what makes the difference: healthy habits!
Finally, we believe that no matter how hard the times are, or will be, our industry should not be affected as it is an intrinsic aspect of a balanced life.
Q: What is your company’s good attack strategy for further development in 2019 and what is your good defense for what might come?
Letitia Pescariu: Our strategy has always been the same: investing all our energy in making our members feel good!
The value of communication during a crisis is essential and on these grounds we constantly rely on the feedback we receive.
We don’t provide services, but a story, an experience, a quality certificate and credibility!
In the end, what do we search for during a crisis?
Places to gather our power back, our strength and our faith. Pescariu Sports & Spa is wisely structured under this concept of finding oneself.
Q: In an acute workforce crisis, more businesses are realizing that creating a positive company culture (placing staff and their wellbeing at the center of the equation) is essential for attracting and retaining top talents. As wellness is an important part of wellbeing, how do you see the Romanian companies’ interest for using such tools for keeping their talents?
Letitia Pescariu: The real capital every company owns is a talented team of passionate individuals. This ingredient only, represents our core motto and we absolutely know that it can overcome any challenge. As a company, we are focusing our energy and attention towards our team, hence they’re focusing on our members.
To be able to provide top-notch wellness services we need to be well – on all operational levels, for that reason we’re constantly investing in our team.
Q: How do you prepare yourself, as a leader to become better? How do you get out of your comfort zone? Nowadays, how do you find the balance between work and life?
Letitia Pescariu: Having grown up in a world driven by technology and under the influence of the emerging new Age, I saw the potential for interconnection, inter-dependence. As the world becomes more interconnected, relationships in organizations become more complex.
Leaders must be able to work with others across reporting lines, collaborate across boundaries, influence by example and drive profits through values and principles.
Essential to becoming a better leader is to add the human touch, hence to create a dedicated team. For a lot of people, the pursuit of a healthy work/life balance seems like an impossible goal. While we all need a certain amount of stress to spur us on and help us perform at our best, the key to managing stress lies in that one magic word: balance.
To achieve equilibrium, our company has its own recipe:
- Set manageable goals each day
- Don’t over commit
- Communicate effectively
- Get support: Get help if you need it
- Stay active: Treat your body right
- Give yourself a break: Tune into your passions
Q: How do you capitalize on the opportunities of the digital age in terms of sports, health and fitness industry? How do your customers capitalize on such opportunities being they wearable, fitness trackers and so on? Is Virtual Reality (the idea of working in a captivating visual environment) the future of wellness?
Letitia Pescariu: In the Era of Big Data, ignorance is a choice. The digital economy is reinventing the business world. We had the opportunity of hosting the “Let’s move for a better world!” fitness contest. Every member of ours joined the race of reaching more than 3 000 000 trackable moves, that have been transformed in donations, for a charitable cause.
To underline our take on the opportunities of the digital age in terms of sports, health and fitness industry, we strongly believe and advise our clients to using their devices in a smart way, rather than letting themselves be used by them (i.e. procrastination).
Virtual Reality is the present. The idea of working out in a captivating visual environment has been gradually establishing itself since 2014, when Les Mills opened the world’s first fitness studio at 24 Hour Fitness Super-Sport in Los Angeles. VR is not for gaming only anymore; it’s used to improve your health, and soon will become a mainstream global wellness trend.
Q: Disconnect to reconnect seems to be a fair logo for a digital detox. How do you see the need for digital detox from your industry perspective?
Letitia Pescariu: Disconnect to reconnect is based on the same principle that wellness lives by and that is: The quickest hack towards a better living is mindfulness. The quickest hack towards pleasure is pain. Therefore, putting your life in context, means to connect and disconnect as often as you feel like doing it. Our SPA was created specially to prevent the point of burnout: one massage at a time.
We encourage our member to practice digital detox every day.
When you train, train. When you swim, swim. When you’re in the sauna, be in the sauna.
Q: Do you see a profound shift in the way people consume wellness?
Letitia Pescariu: Indeed, we noticed an important change in the way people consume wellness services and products. Our clients are interested in expanding their horizons beyond the typical wellness magazine cover story. To answer their question, we created a brand-new concept of events: “SAVE THE (THURS) DATE. WELLNESS & MINDFULNESS”, where every Thursday we host, alternatively, a live music show and edgy topics workshops.
Consequently, our club is a space where our members have the chance to exercise their intention of educating the body, the mind and the soul.
Our clients don’t only train here, but they are informed accordingly, so they can easily decide upon the best wellness options tailored for their needs, remembering that the greatest wealth is health. We invite you to join us and enhance your gym experience!
