[Sangetsu]

I am very familiar with Geos, I have a few friends who work there (one of my GF's friends was Geos' top manager in Japan), and we hooked up for drinks last night after the big Geos meeting in Nihonbashi.

The problems with Geos had nothing to do with the quality of the teaching, as far as conversation schools go, Geos probably has the best teaching method and texts of them all. Geos' problem was it's management style and high overhead costs.

Geos managers had to endure incredible pressure to enroll new students, renew old students, and do what they can to meet the school's goal each month. The head office calls every day and questions managers about their progress and their plans for the day. As a result of this pressure, managers typically quit after 2 to 3 months. Typically, about 4 of 10 Geos schools have no manager, which makes enrolling and renewing students difficult. Added to this was the high cost of the administration. Though most of the individual schools have been earning a profit, it has not been sufficient to cover the admin costs.

Late last year Geos finally changed some policies, tried to keep a manager in each and every school, and revenue increased. Unfortunately, a few months ago the company which owns the Geos schools in Australia went bankrupt. Even though the company running the schools was an Australian entity, the bankruptcy damaged Geos' credit, making financing their operations through the year impossible.

As things stand now, a company called G Communications has purchased Geos. Of the remaining 320 Geos schools, about 100 will be closed. The remaining schools will reopen on Friday, with all staff now working for G Communications.

G Communications is the same company which bought out Nova after their bankruptcy. From all that I hear, Gcomm seems to have a better management style and business strategy, and will probably be a better company to work for than Geos.