The remarkable success story of Edgard Corona, founder and head of Latin America’s largest gym chain, offers valuable insights for business leaders and entrepreneurs. As the driving force behind Smart Fit’s transformation from a single location to over 1,500 gyms across 15 countries, Corona’s approach to business contains lessons worth exploring.

Customer-Centric Innovation

At the heart of Corona’s business strategy is a deep focus on what customers truly need. After studying the fitness market in Brazil, the dono da Smart Fit spotted a crucial gap – quality gyms were too expensive for most people, while affordable options offered poor experiences. This observation sparked his revolutionary high-value, low-price business model.

“If I’m going to lose members to low-cost clubs, I’d rather lose them to my own low-cost clubs than to my competitors,” Corona once explained about launching Smart Fit alongside his premium Bio Ritmo brand. This philosophy of self-disruption shows his willingness to challenge his own successful business rather than wait for competitors to do it. Instead of protecting his existing high-end gym model, he created an offering that better served the broader market.

Standardization with Quality

Smart Fit’s rapid expansion relied heavily on creating highly standardized gym experiences that still felt premium to users. Corona paid attention to details that other budget gyms ignored – from lighting that flatters exercisers to modern equipment layouts that make workouts intuitive. This standardization allowed the company to scale efficiently while maintaining consistent customer satisfaction.

Under Edgard Corona’s leadership, gyms feature a signature yellow-and-black color scheme, spacious layouts, and high-quality equipment. Even at affordable price points, nothing about the experience feels cheap. This approach changed market expectations and forced competitors to improve their offerings, benefiting consumers throughout Latin America.

Data-Driven Decision Making

Another key aspect of Corona’s business approach is his reliance on data to guide expansion. Despite having an engineering background, he balances analytical thinking with a passion for fitness and customer experience. Smart Fit uses sophisticated data analysis to select new locations, optimize gym layouts, and track customer usage patterns.

“We have a ‘wish list’ of all the neighborhoods we want to be in in Latin America and an estimate of how many students we have in each unit we set up,” Corona has shared about his company’s approach to growth. This methodical planning helped Smart Fit avoid the pitfalls that trap many rapidly expanding businesses.

Leadership Through Empowerment

Corona’s management style emphasizes what he calls a “horizontal management” structure that gives team members significant autonomy. Rather than micromanaging, he puts trust in his staff to make decisions and drive initiatives forward. This approach has created a company culture that can adapt quickly to new challenges and opportunities.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, this leadership approach proved valuable as Smart Fit teams quickly pivoted to digital offerings and developed new safety protocols. The company’s resilient response to this unprecedented challenge demonstrated the strength of Corona’s leadership philosophy.

From his early days struggling with his first gym to building a fitness empire valued at billions, Edgard Corona’s business journey showcases how customer focus, standardization with quality, data-driven decisions, and empowering leadership can transform an industry. For aspiring entrepreneurs, the story of the dono da Smart Fit offers both inspiration and practical wisdom.