Former CEO of UK Active, Steve Ward left the trade association to join Go Fit as chief transformation officer and bring the brand to the UK. He talks to Kath Hudson about how having to pull the plug on these plans yielded surprising benefits

I joined Go Fit in 2019 with two objectives. One was supporting the transformation of the company from an energetic start-up environment to a multinational professional organisation with more strategic rigour.

The second part was to drive our entry into the UK market, where we see a tremendous opportunity for our model – a public sector desperate for a new way of doing things presenting a clear gap for us to be really successful.

The pandemic arrived shortly after my onboarding, yet the opportunity remained clear for us in the UK and we were still actively pursuing it.

We got really close – we were just a lettuce leaf away from investing in the UK when Liz Truss’s mini-budget caused our main shareholder to say “we can't do this”.

We adopted a ‘simplify to win’ strategy, defining what it means to win and focusing on that

The UK had had a challenging time from an international investor’s perspective – the uncertainty around Brexit, the pandemic and the cost of utilities – however, we were still prepared to go ahead because Go Fit is a long-term business, thinking in 40-year time frames. However, the additional layer of government collapse was the straw that broke the camel's back. The margin for error had become too small with what was going on around interest rates and inflation.

It was a painful decision, because we’d ploughed a lot of time and money into the project which was the fruit of an enormous amount of collaboration with a huge number of people outside the company.

We weren't alone in having to make some painful decisions at that time relating to the UK. It's a very sad state of affairs when the sixth largest economy in the world with the largest fitness market in Europe, a vibrant consumer market,

a highly-educated population and a strong commitment to wellbeing across all stakeholders represented itself internationally as an uninvestable basket case. Unfortunately, that was the perception of the UK among international investors at that time.

Under Liz Truss, the UK represented itself as an uninvestible basket case

Focus on what you can control

When the context changes so dramatically in a way you can’t control, you have to make the best of the situation and focus on what you can control. I love Go Fit and believe in its uniqueness and the team, so I decided to pour my full energy into making sure that the first part of my mission – to transition it into a multinational, data-driven company – was successful.

We were having a transition in CEO from the original founder – an incredibly visionary guy who came up with the concept – to a new CEO who was part of the drive towards internationalisation and new levels of professionalisation. It was immediately clear that my opportunity was to facilitate that transition and work with him. It also reinforced the cultural shift that we were making by adopting a ‘simplify to win’ strategy – defining what it means to win and focusing on that.

You go through different phases in your career and it has a natural rhythm and evolution. In time you start to view it as impossible to sprint your entire career. This truly is a marathon and anyone who’s done one knows there are some very challenging sections.

Not going to the UK allowed us to have an outstanding execution of our plan for Italy

It's about finding a sustainable model of leadership for yourself and for the organisation you're part of, regulating your pace and deciding when to push and when to not. Sometimes you have to force yourself to take a step back, prioritise and say no.

This is a personal trait I've had to develop over many years. My colleagues at UK Active would probably say I was like a pitbull when I had something I wanted to get done, and maybe only later realised that it wasn't the best thing to have such tunnel vision. Now I think I'm quite calm in deciding when to surf the wave and which ones to let pass.

Instead of going to the UK, we put our focus on Italy. Not going to the UK allowed us to have an outstanding execution of our plan there in this cycle between 2023 and 2028. Now we're much better placed for success and have learned lessons we can take to the UK in the future.

The opportunity for Go Fit in the UK will only get bigger. We don’t have to rush

We see a lot of opportunity in the years ahead. Our current strategic plan goes until 2028 and we're also starting to put specific things down for 2029 onwards. We're a much stronger company because of this cultural change.

On reflection, it was absolutely the right decision to not proceed to the UK at that time. If we had we wouldn’t be doing what we’re now doing in Italy. It would have been hard to have such success in two different directions.

The opportunity for a high quality concept such as Go Fit in the UK is a long-term opportunity that will only get more attractive. We don’t have to rush.