Lado
From Eikaiwa Wiki
Lado (also known as 'Lado International College) was deemed as bankrupt by the Japanese courts as of 11:00am, Thursday, 5th April 2007. The bankruptcy only pertained to the schools in Japan running under a holding company called TIS, Inc. and were only a franchise of 'Lado International schools and services' based out of Washington D.C. in the United States. Lado had about 4000 students and 40 teachers across 4 schools, two in Tokyo (Ginza & Shinjuku) and the others in Osaka and Nagoya. The owner, Mr. Ogawa, lost everything as he had put up his house and even his life insurance policy as collateral and eventually declared bankruptcy himself.
Lado was started by Dr. Robert Lado, born in Tampa, Florida to Spanish immigrants. His parents soon returned to their native Spain, and it was not until he came back to the United States later that he learned English. This experience would inspire Dr. Lado's life-long interest in the practical aspects of foreign language teaching. He received his Masterfs Degree from the University of Texas at Austin and his doctorate from the University of Michigan, where, in the same year, he became the Director of the English Language Institute. In 1960, he founded the Georgetown University School of Languages and Linguistics, where he served as Dean until 1973. Dr. Lado was one of the founders of TESOL. He wrote innumerable articles and nearly 60 books on linguistics and the training of qualified teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL).
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[edit] Video and audio pertaining to Lado
- Lado's bankruptcy in the TV news (youtube)[1]
- Audio reports of Lado's bankrupcy: [2]
- Lado Christmas Party Video 2006[3]
[edit] Analysis of the bankruptcy
The bankruptcy of Lado was the result of an inability to generate new sales. TIS Inc. had taken over the school in the Spring of 2005 and the company had been unable to show a profit for almost two years after the acquisition until the eventual bankruptcy. A final push in marketing using an expensive TV commercial featuring Spiderman yielded a very poor return in the 'mature eikaiwa market'. As financial strains in going into the final year increased, Lado became more desperate to find a way to generate sales, eventually resorting to "catch-sales", a very productive but emotionally abusive method of selling to vulnerable customers. According to Japan, Inc. Lado had bought black market lists of single and divorced women, aged 30-40, and set their 200 sales staff, who were 100% sales commission based, on to those lists. The company apparently paid their sales staff solely on a 100,000 Yen per sign up commission. Compounded by resistant management practices, it's clear now that debt and increasingly bad credit ultimately combined to bring the company to an end. The school was only one part of the TIS Inc. business, and many of the school's employees believe that Lado International College was the only part of the company that made money every month.
Although the Lado union achieved some historic Labor-Management Agreements, most notably getting the company to recognize teachers as permanent employees, the bankruptcy two days later had nothing to do with the union, there wasn't any time for the changes to have any impact on the schools finances. Like NCB, Lado senior management cited price competition as the major factor in the company's downfall. There are rumors that some former management from NCB (another eikaiwa that went bankrupt 16 months earlier) had been brought in at the last second to try and save the company. There were also observations of Yakuza present around the schools in the final days.[4]
Lado's collapse came with very little warning, one observer said "The first sign for me that they were no longer in business was the lack of Lado sales people I pass in Shinjuku when I walk to my wife's office after work." When the company went bankrupt, the Japan website loaded only a blank page. The US web site had a note for a short time after the closure:
- "Dear LADO students, staff, and vendors: We are sad to hear about the closing of the schools in Japan. LADO Enterprises, Inc. in Washington, DC has very limited information about the school closings at this point. The schools are run by a third-party operator, TIS, Inc. No further information has officially been made available about the status of the LADO Japan operator as of today. I would like to take this opportunity to appreciate your loyalty to Dr. Lado's legacy and your continued support through all these years. Thank you for your understanding at this difficult time."
[edit] Reports of the bankruptcy
- (Excerpt from "Terrie's Take":[5])
- This last week a small but high-profile English school called Lado International College of Japan declared bankruptcy in the Tokyo District Court and has subsequently shut down. Surprisingly, there has been very little coverage by the foreign press, possibly because of the sketchy details. The Asahi newspaper quoted Teikoku Databank as saying that Lado has left debts of somewhere between JPY3.3bn (US$28.2m), the amount stated on Lado's December tax filing, and JPY1.8bn (US$15.23m) given in the bankruptcy declaration. No reason has been given for Lado's senior management shutting their doors, but a couple of days before the bankruptcy declaration, the teacher's union for the company announced that it had won major concessions about how staff are treated. The signing of the agreement was prompted by threatened stike action which would have shut down the company's 3 main schools.
[edit] Business & Services
Lado class sizes had up to six or eight students.[1]
[edit] Employment
[edit] Personal accounts
[edit] References
- ↑ Japan Times. July 31, 2007 Eikaiwa' vets look beyond Big Four
