Tennis retreats are nothing new but tennis retreats for executives and their staff are. GLOBA TENNiS specializes in organizing company tennis retreats for Tokyo executives and their management staff outside of Tokyo.

Japan Today interviews tennis director Jean-Pierre Felix to find out what it’s all about.

Where is your background?

I was born in Madagascar off the east coast of South Africa, from parents who emigrated from Mauritius Island. I grew up in Madagascar and then in France from the age of 15.

Where did you play tennis?

I played a few regional tournaments in France for a few years, but my goal never was to become a pro player, but a coaching pro instead.

When did you first come to Japan and why?

That was 1997, after I received a professional teaching certification from a well-known tennis management company based in Texas. The company which is in the business of dispatching professional tennis coaches to a selected number of leading luxury resorts worldwide, assigned me to work at a five-star resort located in Chiba as tennis director in charge of all the tennis recreational programs.

Did you speak Japanese at that time?

None. I learned over the years and my wife is Japanese.

Where have you worked since then?

I remained with the same company for two years, working at the luxury resort in Chiba. Then I moved on to another local tennis management company that provides tennis programs mainly for the children of the expat community here in Tokyo. I did this for a year, and then went on my own teaching private lessons mainly to foreign executives for three years as an independent coach.

At the end of 2003, a big change occurred in my professional life. I had wanted to explore other business opportunities beside tennis, and I got an interview with an executive search consulting company based in Tokyo. I got the job and worked there for a year and a half until I was headhunted by another firm where I stayed for the next three years. I left the recruitment industry this year in April, and started my company, GLOBA TENNiS in May.

Why did you establish GLOBA TENNiS?

As its name implies, GLOBA TENNiS was created to bring together all the tennis players of different nationalities who love the game and would like to enjoy and share their passion with other like-minded individuals. And in the process, make new friends, enhance their business network, open up new opportunities, etc.

Tell us about the tennis retreats you organize.

I have been organizing tennis retreats for my loyal members for years at beautiful locations such as Karuizawa, Hakuba (in summer) and Lake Yamanaka (near Mt Fuji). These events usually take place on the weekends, and they are a perfect tennis getaway experience for those who are stressed, tired and need to refresh their body and mind away from the big city. My company organizes everything such as finding a nice location, a cozy pension hotel, making room reservations, renting a van or mini bus for transport, providing the tennis equipment and a fully-fledged tennis program. Barbecues are often organized at the hotel in summer, and hot-spring trips after a full day of tennis are very popular too to relieve the sore muscles.

How did the idea for corporate tennis retreats come about?

Many of my members are top executives in their companies. One day, one of them mentioned to me whether I would consider organizing a tennis retreat event for his department managers (finance, HR, sales, marketing, etc). His idea was to enhance the communication channels between his foreign and local line managers who were not communicating properly. He thought that by bringing them together to such a peaceful and non-work related environment and have them enjoy a fun 1-day or 2-day physical workout along with a casual and entertaining evening together at the pension, it would greatly enhance the quality of their relationships and hence the company atmosphere and performance. It was the beginning of a new adventure and mostly a newfound mission to help foreign executives improve the quality of management and staff communication within their firms.

We’ve organized a couple of tennis retreats for executives already this year and they were a total success. As a result, the same companies came back to us asking if we could put something together for the other layers a well (middle management and staff levels). We will be looking at organizing more tennis retreats for companies from next year in spring as the coming winter snow will prevent us for using the tennis courts at mountain locations.

How can tennis retreats help business?

To make sure that a high level of professionalism would be met during these retreats for executives, I convinced one of my business partners – Philippe Grall—to join me in this project. He runs his own company, and is a leading life-balance coach for foreign and Japanese company executives in Tokyo. Together, we organize these retreats.

My company puts together the physical aspect through a fully-fledged tennis program that brings the participants challenge, fun, and exercise. Philippe’s company designs the programs on the business side which are designed to help both the management and line Managers become more efficient on various levels: company strategy, increased sense of leadership, more open and efficient communication channels, strengthened sense of teamwork and belonging, enhanced work and private life quality.

Through both on-court and off-court sessions, Philippe who is also a NLP Master (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) teaches the analogy between tennis and business, and through unique and interesting individual and group exercises, teaches the participants to incorporate new thinking in their everyday business (and private) lives.

For more information, visit http://www.globa-tennis.com or Grall’s home-page at www.e-quilibre.jp.

3 Comments

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  jerseyboy at 06:06 PM JST - 8th October

  Chris...Is this guy a friend of yours? By his own admission, he has only organized "a couple of tennis retreats". But he merits his own story?????

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  KitsuneYoukai at 01:08 AM JST - 9th October

  and why is it only for executives and management staff? Why not all employees? The employees are what make a company succeed, not management.

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  butterfly1 at 08:51 PM JST - 9th October

  Good on Mr. Felix! He has found a business opportunity in something he is very good at.

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