Well we're here somewhere near London Bridge today, actually it's the basement, which may seem unusual
But it's actually an example of what has become a multinational business which is the
business of Bikram Yoga. Now, Bikram Yoga is a very successful yoga but there's been a
lot of growth generally in the demand for yoga. Yoga is to get said to relax and reduce
stress, so Bikram Yoga has been growing incredibly rapidly. Today it's
hard to keep track of the number of studios. There's over 600 actually in 40
different countries. It's huge in America, Canada and Australia and of course in the UK
In London alone there are around 50 Bikram yoga studios and a number of
other hot yoga studios as well. Now, I need to describe to you what Bikram Yoga is
briefly. Bikram Yoga is a series of 26 postures that are the same postures on
every session. The teacher stands at the front on the platform with a microphone
and actually though a monologue suggest what we should all be doing next. Visualize a
packed room, even more extreme is the temperature which is at least hundred
and three degrees. Now the purpose of that is so that not only does do we get
our muscles going but also kind of protects the joints and enables them to
stretch even even more. I've actually sat down and worked out the key areas of
value which Bikram yoga adds. And they are very powerful but I feel they're made to
be made more explicitly. The obvious ones I think like flexibility and strength
then there's back trouble which disappears. I no longer have any back
trouble. There's also cardiovascular. People associate yoga as being a soft gentle
exercise. This is awesome, as you will have seen in the postures that Olga, who runs
this yoga studio has just demonstrated. And there are all kinds of other subtle
areas of value
Ones like stamina, concentration, mindfulness and balance which have
important benefits way outside that and percolate through our everyday lives. So
as I said it can become really quite addictive. On top of that Bikram yoga
has got powerful competitive advantages in the form of efficiency, in the form
of a premium brand. It's also protected from imitation. The founder of Bikram
Yoga, Mr Chowdhury, who founded it in the nineteen seventies, so it was a very very trendy
era that, actually patented the Bikram yoga series in 2002. So you can't just go
on set yourself up as a Bikram yoga studio. So that's a powerful edge and
it's very subtly marketed and so a heap of different competitive advantages,
apart from the value-added, which I've talked about. However, this market like all
markets inevitably is maturing so I feel that Bikram Yoga needs to rethink
sometimes perhaps reinvent itself to think about how else it can communicate and
add value so these areas of value are really poured on top of which I feel
that those aspects of mindfulness and meditation and even mixing other forms
of yoga alongside Bikram, which could be added into the into the pot. So I
think there's mileage again as we had a constant theme on these videos of
seeing into the future of time traveling. So a really crucial lesson from this case
study is that you may be so so successful and profitable but that's
exactly the time to not be complacent and to think future. So I'd like to
invite you to do that for five minutes on your own business