My passion towards the health industry and my desire to achieve job satisfaction by reaching out to people and being a part of their wellness journey made me choose the profession I am in. Besides executing my duties as the CEO, it gives me great job satisfaction when I see my clients benefiting from our style of exercising, be it weight loss, weight gain, keeping common ailments in control, and remaining active and healthy. We also conduct workshops where we educate working professionals on exercises that can be done sitting on their office chairs, stress management programmes, functional training workshops, and diet counselling. Their sedentary jobs contribute to their ill-health, and a little stretching exercise done sitting at their desk helps them to be stress free and fit and reduce the incidence of lifestyle disease.
My job profile includes supervising multiple branch operations, coordinating marketing campaigns, HR functions, Public Relations and Brand Management. It also involves valuating operational plans for all our centres, ensuring they are on track, identifying critical weaknesses in all the centres and implementing immediate corrective actions. It further entails training employees at all levels of the company, human resources training, business etiquette training, cross cultural training, presentation skills, time management, customer service, sales training, planning, organising and leading, co-ordinating activities, sales promotions, quality of performance and services.
I like my work because it gives me an opportunity to spread wellness through a medium of equipment-free and natural way of living in a healthy way.
The challenges I face include opening franchises with the right kind of partners who understand the nature of business and the industry, handling overseas franchise and dealing with unskilled labour. Also, the concept of achieving fitness without machines is a new concept and needs to be explained and promoted to be accepted.
The wellness sector in India is growing at the rate of 20 per cent every year and, thus, there is a need for training institutes, nutritionists, dieticians, skilled sales staff and niche marketing experts.
My future plans include expansion of our work to the national and international audience in the next 2 to 5 years. I am excited because we plan to open more franchises – pan India, venture into fitness apparel, training institutes across India, launch national marketing campaigns, attract potential investors, launch a wellness magazine, wellness and health-based TV channel, and take Mickey’s philosophies the world over.
The healthcare sector is projected to grow to nearly $40 billion. The future of the wellness industry will create fortunes. Also, medical tourism is one of the major external drives for growth of the Indian healthcare sector. A large number of tourists travel to India to pursue studies in Yoga and Ayurveda. Many international private insurance companies have moved to India and formed joint ventures for health insurance.
There are plenty of opportunities in this field in India due to rapid development in the health and wellness sector more so because of its potential from traditional systems of wellness such as Yoga, Ayurveda and spiritual healing. In addition, people today are more health conscious and want to lead a healthy lifestyle. Also, changing demographics, disease profiles, eating healthy, disposable income, purchasing power parity, media exposure, awareness and exercising play a major role. All this awareness has been the leading factor for the promotion of health and wellness industry.
To succeed in this field, like in any other field, one needs initiative, determination and the ability to make practical and time-critical decisions. However, since this is a rather new industry in India, it is important to convey correct information.
For those who would like to enter the wellness industry, it is important to identify which aspect one would like to specialise in. After the decision is made, it is very important to have thorough knowledge and experience in the field because we are dealing with people’s health and fitness. After meeting these criteria, persistence is the key. Since the field is growing at a phenomenal rate and new techniques and information are available, it is important to constantly develop one’s skills and have a keen interest in the field of healthcare.
I did a PG in Mass Media Management from MET School of Management, Mumbai in 2008, and a Diploma in Human Resource Management. I have also done a three-year course along with my B.Com in Travel and Tourism. I have successfully completed a one-month teacher’s training programme in yoga from The Yoga Institute, Mumbai and followed it up with a comprehensive seven-month teacher’s training course from the same institute.
Education is integral in grooming one as an individual and as a responsible professional in the later years. In today’s world, however, a competitive edge is determined not only by the degrees one holds, but also by aspects like professional discipline along with networking and people management skills. Thus, it is essential to be willing to learn and upgrade one’s skills regularly so as to always remain relevant to the needs of a growing business.
(As told to Monarose Sheila Pereira)