Smith's School of English Franchises Japan

I've recently decided to write about Smith's school of English, a system of franchised English conversation schools located in Japan. After working within and closely observing the company for a few years I feel I have a pretty consistent idea of what they stand for and what they're trying to accomplish, both as an English school and as a franchise system. As I have a lot to say, I plan to update this page with new content as I have time to add it. For the most part I'd like to discuss the human and business aspects of this group; how it operates as a franchise. Even more specifically I'd like to examine how it acts as a business and franchised English school here in Japan.

Responding to Trouble

A franchise system is often thought of as being a safety net. One benefit they are intended to provide is assistance in an emergency. This is the same reason people buy insurance. Chances are nothing will go wrong. Perhaps you could start your own business and remain healthy and safe for the duration, but not everyone is so lucky. Who's responsibility is it to call an ambulance should something dire occur? It seems Smith's takes this responsibility very seriously.

In one instance a teacher/school owner actually suddenly collapsed, completely debilitated by a serious disorder, right in the middle of a lesson. The student, shocked, called the free dial number to the head office. Smith's head office staff mobilized immediately to get help. While one secretary arranged for emergency medical pick-up, another was already calling each student scheduled for lessons that day to explain the situation and reassure them that their lessons could be rescheduled at their convenience. They also explained that their teacher was getting the proper care he needed and not to worry. It's my understanding that students reacted favorably and expressed their concern for their teacher, rather than lost lessons. From a business point of view this is really important to me. In the case of an independent teacher, this could have led to a string of students showing up to a school with no teacher and them not knowing why. Would they come back next week, hear the explanation and forgive the teacher? Probably. Might at least one student become angry and quit without ever coming back, never knowing the gravity of the situation? It's possible. Smith's knew about this and took steps to protect the school owner.

Another instance happened outside normal business hours. It was late night, I don't remember what time exactly but head office had closed so it was after 10PM anyway. A school owner was at home, but had become ill and needed take be taken to hospital. Now, what do you do when you need to go to the hospital? Do you call an ambulance yourself? Imagine not being able to understand the operator on the other end. What now? Call a family member? This school owner's family was all far away back in his home country. One of the biggest challenges of moving to and living in a foreign country can be the complete loss of your social network and support from family and friends. At that time, the school owner had no one to call for help, he was lucky a student happened by and drove him to the hospital. She then called the franchise head office and they went into full support mode. Smith's is of such a structure that franchise owners have direct access to the franchise founder Mark Smith. Mark assisted by another office staff member drove directly there and ensured in person that the hospital was appropriate, that insurance was in place, that the hospital administrator was aware of all the financial arrangements. Furthermore they remained there and assisted with language until such time as they were assured that the school owner's insurance was in order and taken care of. Meanwhile they were in touch with head office staff who were running defence on lessons and preparing a substitute teacher. "Nice to have someone you can count on," probably doesn't accurately describe the gratitude that the school owner was feeling at the time, but I think you probably get my meaning.

More recently a school owner came into big trouble of a more financial nature. She had entered into a franchise agreement in cooperation with a foreigner. It was understood that they would build the school together, but that relationship suddenly ended... and the foreigner was no longer in the picture. Now the owner of the school was stuck. She had paid her money and used a great deal of the initial investment in setting up the school. She couldn't teach lessons herself and had no means of paying a teacher to hold open lessons while she promoted to gather students. The school was dead before it even had a chance to begin. One thing about Smith's that strikes me as unique is its tendency to help the underdog. School owners walking out of schools aren't technically the franchiser's problem. But instead of shaking hands, telling the school owner "tough luck", handing back the unused investment money (at a huge loss to the school owner) and closing the book, Smith's said "Hang on a sec.... Let's try and make this work." Smith's head office arranged for not only a teacher to teach classes on the fly for the initial students coming in, but to support the school's local promotion as well. The owner was able to protect her investment. She was ready to walk away, but Smith's said she didn't have to. Now she can choose when she wants to sell that investment, rather than throw it away at a loss.

Do you see what I mean about taking responsibility? None of the instances above were done with the interest of turning a profit. One could argue that somewhere down the road, Smith's stands to profit from any of these good deeds... yeah, ok, but I could make the same argument for any good deed. That's how a Cynic thinks. I see these acts rather as a genuine concern for the person that is part of the franchise group. It seems like a rare attitude for a company. I'm glad to see it here.

Now you may wish to ask, did all this extra service cost the school owners? Not a penny, the company did it using their own human and financial resources simply because they wanted to.