Behind Smart Fit’s remarkable growth across Latin America stands a distinctive leadership approach cultivated by its founder, Edgard Corona. The “dono da Smart Fit” has developed management principles that have transformed how fitness companies operate, creating a culture that prioritizes employee growth and customer satisfaction above all else.

Breaking Away from Command and Control

Corona’s leadership journey began with a significant shift away from traditional management structures. Around 2003-2004, when Bio Ritmo had approximately 12-13 locations, Corona realized his centralized approach wasn’t sustainable.

“Service businesses can’t rely heavily on command and control,” Corona explains. “Service requires clear indicators of what the team delivers because the moment of truth is exactly that—a moment.”

This insight led him to implement Net Promoter Score (NPS) as a core metric back in 2003, well before it became widely adopted. Rather than dictating solutions to problems, Corona began asking his teams to develop their own approaches based on these clear performance indicators.

“If you tell your team they need to deliver something different, you gather everyone and say, ‘Look, Felipe’s location has a much better score than ours. What do you think we should do?'” Corona describes. This simple question transforms employees from passive followers into engaged problem-solvers.

Creating Pathways for Growth

Smart Fit’s approach to talent development represents another cornerstone of Corona’s leadership philosophy. The company maintains a comprehensive training system often referred to as a “university” with three distinct career tracks.

For fitness professionals, Smart Fit offers technical advancement opportunities guided by educational experts. A second track provides tools for those seeking management careers—from unit manager to regional director and even international roles. The third path supports academically-focused staff pursuing master’s or doctoral degrees.

“These three tracks create a compound of highly qualified people delivering service,” Corona notes. This investment in employee development has yielded remarkable results—many of Smart Fit’s top executives began their careers as gym floor instructors.

“Our operations director for Colombia, Costa Rica, and Panama started as a classroom instructor from a Rio de Janeiro community,” Corona proudly shares. “He became a unit manager, then regional manager, and now runs operations for three countries.”

Balancing Freedom with Accountability

Corona believes in giving teams significant autonomy while maintaining clear performance expectations. Smart Fit uses sophisticated technology systems to support local decision-making while ensuring consistent brand standards across 15 countries.

“It’s utopian to think you can centralize an operation of this size—it becomes very expensive,” Corona explains. “So we have few metrics. We measure specific things and seek efficiency levels with degrees of freedom for the teams we’ve trained.”

This balanced approach creates accountability without micromanagement. Teams understand their targets and develop their own methods to achieve them, creating more efficient and adaptable operations across diverse markets.

Through this distinctive leadership philosophy, Edgard Corona has created not just a successful business but a thriving organizational culture. By trusting employees, providing clear growth pathways, and focusing on meaningful metrics, the dono da Smart Fit has established a leadership model that continues to drive remarkable results across multiple countries and cultures.

The intricate world of global energy markets demands a rare combination of analytical precision, strategic insight, and adaptive thinking—qualities that Kurush Mistry has consistently demonstrated throughout his remarkable professional trajectory. His career represents a compelling narrative of expertise development in one of the most critical and dynamic sectors of the global economy.

Mistry’s intellectual foundations were meticulously constructed in Chennai, India, where he pursued a Commerce degree and distinguished himself by achieving exceptional success in the Chartered Accountant qualifying examinations. Ranking among the nation’s top performers, he demonstrated early on an exceptional capacity for analytical thinking that would become the cornerstone of his future professional achievements.

His academic journey continued at the prestigious Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, where he obtained an MBA with a concentrated focus on finance. This educational background provided Kurush Mistry with a robust intellectual framework that would prove instrumental in navigating the complex landscape of energy market analysis.

The global financial crisis of 2008 became a pivotal moment in Mistry’s professional evolution. Transitioning from his initial roles in Interest Rate Research, he began to cultivate analytical skills that would become crucial in understanding the intricate dynamics of oil markets. His first significant entry into oil analytics occurred in 2009 when he joined a leading oil trading firm, contributing to the expansion of analytics capabilities for gasoline and diesel teams in the United States.

A defining chapter of Kurush Mistry’s career commenced in 2014 with his appointment at Freepoint Commodities as the firm’s sole oil analyst. Over a remarkable nine-year tenure, he played a transformative role in establishing a robust global oil analytics framework. His approach was distinguished by the incorporation of alternative data and close collaboration with over 25 traders, providing nuanced market intelligence and innovative trade strategies.

Mistry’s expertise spans an impressive range of oil-related domains. His analytical capabilities encompass a comprehensive understanding of oil market fundamentals, intricate knowledge of refinery operations, and sophisticated modeling of local and global supply-demand dynamics. He developed an exceptional ability to recognize asymmetric trading risks and comprehend the multifaceted impact of various market events.

Throughout his career, Kurush Mistry has navigated and analyzed some of the most significant global events affecting oil markets. His analyses have been instrumental in understanding the complexities arising from the Fukushima disaster, IMO2020 regulatory changes, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Each of these events presented unique challenges that tested and showcased his remarkable analytical capabilities.

The Fukushima disaster presented a compelling case study of market disruption. With Japan’s entire nuclear power generation capacity offline, substantial fossil fuel importation became necessary. This triggered significant shifts in crude and fuel markets, particularly affecting heavier crude premiums and refining margins.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mistry demonstrated exceptional adaptability by incorporating alternative data like mobility and work-from-home statistics to model gasoline and diesel demand across the United States and Europe. This approach highlighted his ability to derive insights from non-traditional information sources.

Recognizing the evolving energy landscape, Kurush Mistry expanded his expertise in 2022 to include renewable fuels. His portfolio now encompasses Sustainable Aviation Fuel, Renewable Diesel, Ethanol, Biodiesel, and US Soybean Oil—demonstrating a forward-thinking approach to energy market analysis.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict presented another complex analytical challenge. Mistry estimated the evolving impact of sanctions on Russian crude oil and refined products, tracking significant changes in global product flow patterns and customer dynamics. His work highlighted the intricate interconnections within global energy markets.

Mistry’s domain expertise covers an extensive spectrum of oil-related products, including Crude Oil, LPG, Gasoline, Fuel Oil, and Refinery Margins. His ability to provide insightful market analysis in unpredictable circumstances has been a hallmark of his professional reputation.

Kurush Mistry’s professional narrative transcends traditional market analysis. He represents a new breed of energy market expert—one who combines deep technical understanding with strategic foresight and adaptability. His journey underscores the critical role of continuous learning and intellectual flexibility in interpreting the ever-changing global energy landscape.

From early academic achievements to sophisticated market understanding, Mistry has consistently demonstrated an exceptional ability to interpret and predict market trends. His work is not merely about understanding current market conditions but anticipating future shifts and potential disruptions.

The story of Kurush Mistry is ultimately a testament to intellectual rigor, strategic thinking, and the power of comprehensive market analysis. He has not just observed the energy market—he has been an active interpreter, predictor, and navigator of its complex, ever-shifting terrain.

Beyond his professional achievements, Mistry’s journey reflects a broader narrative of intellectual curiosity and adaptability. His ability to navigate complex market dynamics, incorporate innovative analytical approaches, and continuously expand his expertise serves as an inspiration for emerging professionals in the energy sector.

In the grand tapestry of global energy markets, Kurush Mistry stands as a distinguished analyst whose work has contributed significantly to our understanding of this critical economic domain. His journey reminds us that true expertise is not just about technical knowledge, but about the ability to connect dots, anticipate changes, and provide meaningful insights in an ever-evolving global landscape.