One of the most renowned women leaders in the health and fitness industry, Shraddha Sheth – VP- Sales, Operations and Marketing at Gold’s Gym India, has not only distinguished herself in the industry but has inspired a lot of female leaders to keep innovating it.
A life science major and post-graduate degree holder in Food & Nutrition Shraddha Sheth’s career stretches back to 2002 when she started her journey as a dietician in a hospital and later got appointed as a sports and clinical nutritionist at the first International Gym Chain: Gold’s Gym in India at Flagship club which was launched on 2002. During her 2-decade-old journey, Shraddha achieved numerous milestones and created her expertise across Customer Service, Acquisition and Retention, Customer experience enhancement and gym operations.
Shraddha wears various hats with specialization in Business Strategy planning and introducing new experiences to members to run a sustainable business with a growing and satisfied members’ quotient.
Let’s hear more from the leader herself.
Edited excerpts
About Gold’s Gym
Known for delivering an impeccable luxury fitness experience while assisting customers to attain their health & fitness goals, Gold’s Gym India today stands as the country’s fastest-growing international master franchise with 140 running fitness clubs, 5-under construction projects and 10 new to-be-built sites. Within two decades, the company has leased 10lacs sq. ft. retail space as gyms across the country. “Our business revolves around our customer’s comfort and preference. We provide services like Endurance Training, Agility Training, Body-weight Training, High-Intensity Training, Tabata etc. under the supervision of our certified and knowledgeable trainers. We also promote group training(s) like Yoga, Combat Training, Dance Fitness and Boot camp workouts. We have grown to a happy family with 1 million-plus customer base.
Our fitness Brand believes in philosophy – the heart of our business are trainers and their skill sets will enable customers to attain their fitness goal. We have embarked upon formalizing fitness education called Gold’s Gym Fitness Institute, which is a fitness academy that has given personal training career opportunities to 15000 plus students across the country. Catering to the age group 16 to 85, we help customers who want to have weight loss, gain weight, tone up, improve stamina, rehabilitation, injury recovery, pre-diabetic & hypertensive care is also given.
How much has women entrepreneurship evolved in the last decade in India?
Women entrepreneurship has evolved immensely. In the last decade, our company at the management team level had 40% women in a senior leadership position. 50% of the faculty who teach at Gold’s Gym Fitness Institute are women. Compassion, Empathy and handholding come naturally to women leaders hence the retention of employees is intact even in the pandemic. There is an evident evolution, where women are recognized as leaders amongst both B2B & B2C businesses across the country.
How can women entrepreneurship help in changing the gender pay gap for the better in the coming times?
Women as leaders are a go-getter and don’t shy away from making a visit to their clients at the offices or addressing a group of people. In our industry, women employees are perceived to work as group exercise instructors or in the customer service sphere. Women senior leadership roles come to a very few because of the still prevailing old work norms that hinder their growth. To change this, women-friendly policies should be introduced and special privileges should be given to women like having a crèche at a workplace where mothers who were previously working during their pre-pregnancy period can be encouraged to re-join. Times are tough and dual-income is necessary for every family. Hence, a little encouragement could inspire many more women to take up a career path that they can commit to. It is said;
“When women do better, Economies do better“
How important it is to promote the term Women Entrepreneurship specifically?
Extremely important, because girls are brought up in Indian homes differently. They are encouraged by parents to get educated but post the age of 23-24 they are allured to get married. Once they get married, the education that they gained could not be converted into work experience due to other family priorities. Even FMCG brands, when they endorse their new product launches, have always positioned women as mothers or daughters instead of showing the ones who are leading from the front for companies as women entrepreneurs. Movies scripts too, revolve around men where the role of women is subtle where the hero role is still acclaimed by men. The same goes for various other sectors.
How you are seeing the world change for women after this pandemic?
Each of us has ample time to re-think, reboot and re-start our lives during the pandemic and in fact, it’s been a boon in some way, as we see many women have restarted working who were on sabbaticals as work from home has become a new normal. Social media has a pool of influencers who are mothers, ladies and have learnt how to monetize from the comforts of their homes.
Our Latest Edition: TOP 10 Futuristic Women Entrepreneurs in India 2022
What are your plans for development?
As I continue representing the top luxury fitness brand in the country, I would like to further strengthen and learn new skill sets that will complement the growth of our company. Knowledge upgrade is a continuous process, we all must work towards becoming cutting edge professionals. We are looking forward to bringing in new wellness solutions in India with our focus on contributing continuously to the health & fitness of the country. Our goal is to change the fitness penetration of the country by reaching every town, city, and state.
What has been your biggest challenge and subsequent learning from growing the company?
My biggest challenge has been sourcing and nurturing talent. One comes across professionals who have short term goals, mid-term goals and long term goals. As our industry falls into the service sector, it’s very important to have continuity of the same team that customers prefer interacting with on regular basis. Retention of customers is linked with a familiar team providing them with their tailor-made services and great experience.
However, this challenge was overcome when our company grew, expanded and multiple career paths were set on an annual basis. This secured the team’s needs and increased the retention of our employees.
To every woman out there who aspires to be an entrepreneur this decade, what would be your advice to them, especially after this pandemic?
Be Nimble, Be Alert, Be proactive & become digital-friendly. Be open to change, adapt quickly and this will lead to self-growth and growth in business.
