Latest 15 of 24 Total Comments Show All

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  timorborder at 09:19 AM JST - 2nd April

  What is the problem here? Based on what is written there seems to be nothing illegal (then again the article is not that detailed). I think the problem for G is that they don't realize the aura of them being the "white knight" in the Nova debacle has worn off. This is competition.

  Moreover, based on what is written above, I think that G might be deceiving themselves if they think that they can take somebody to caught over targeted advertising. If such a claim was successful, where would it end? For example, at supermarkets these days you have targeted coupon offers. These are fed into a computer and when a certain product crosses the cash register, a coupon is issued.

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  SuperLib at 09:19 AM JST - 2nd April

  "By this I mean how can they take legal action against another business seeking customers? "

  It's a bit confusing, but I'm guessing the are offering discounts/incentives to former Nova customers. The article mentions "preferential offers" so maybe they are offering a "ex-Nova student package" where they are getting discounts or something. If it's something that's offered to all students who walk in the door then it's fine, but if they target customers of one company and offer them a special, separate deal, then it might not be legal.

  But I'm assuming and guessing above. The article really doesn't make it clear.

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  lipscombe at 09:20 AM JST - 2nd April

  they are out of their tiny greedy whining minds

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  Taka313 at 09:20 AM JST - 2nd April

  Nimbus, That's a pretty rock-solid argument. If they want the students, they need to provide a better product or a similar product at a better price.

  Taka

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  romulus3 at 09:35 AM JST - 2nd April

  well obviously the French section should have been poached. I mean they gave up on French, or so a good buddy of mine told me

  Anwya welcome to the real world gcom. Business is business. do you want government protection from poachers? You are not NTT!

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  Chucky1 at 09:53 AM JST - 2nd April

  The whole claim is silly becauae the Government actually asked other language schools to pick up the burden left by the then out of business 'Old' Nova.

  By the way, this new G-Comm. thing is not being very successful from all reports. Some schools are understaffed yet people were let go in the Feb-March period. Others are jumping ship quickly and there were reports that G-Comm. have lost half a billion already. The schools are now located in inconvenient locations and advertising has been virtrually non-existant.

  It will be interesting to see how long this 'New' Nova stays afloat.

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  pathat at 09:57 AM JST - 2nd April

  Nutsagain hits the nail right on the head. Other schools have been doing what G. comm claims for a few months now, and, as this part of the story makes clear, G. comm is just looking for a way to save face before axing people left and right:

  "In late November, right after Nova applied for the application of the corporate rehabilitation law, the receiver of Nova asked the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to make arrangements for other schools to accept Nova students.

  The language association and other industry bodies announced that they would accept students at the request of the ministry."

  Yes, it is very regrettable that G. comm doesn`t want to do its share to help all English schools rebuild trust among the many Japanese who pay to learn the language.

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  JR2007 at 10:14 AM JST - 2nd April

  Is this firm for real? That Hideo Sugimoto of G.communication is merely turning himself into a laughing stock! He can't go threatening competitors with ‘‘legal action’’!?... when there's simply no unfair competition basis. It's nothing but business intelligence and competitive tactics. (Go back to your Kotler guys) The truth is G.com only hoped for the best, but never planned for the worst. They have no marketing budget (way to go by the way!)to advertize and their sales are quasi non existent, because most people don't know a thing about G.Com or G.Ed (outside Nagoya, Aichi and Sapporo maybe)and former Nova victims are hesitating to return. And anyway, it's a little too simplistic and way too late to whine about something they agreed on months ago (if not asked for). This is April 2008. Ex-Nova, G.Com and other officials implored fellow language schools to help rescue former Nova students last year and that status quo has pleased every one so far. A word to the wise Sugimoto : instead of ridiculing yourself, read a book on cross-functional and cross-cultural management and reward the remaining number of loyal instructors you still have in lieu of treating them as disposable pawns, damn it!

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  SuperLib at 11:45 AM JST - 2nd April

  OK, so people here are saying that GCOM is simply angry that other companies are competing against them and they sent a letter asking the other companies to stop?

  I can't say I know everything about the situation, but I have a feeling there's more to it than that.

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  JR2007 at 12:51 PM JST - 2nd April

  Yep SuperLib. Trust your gut! It's probably their overrefined way of giving up and disclosing their fiasco by putting the blame on someone else ...

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  Desiderata1967 at 03:19 PM JST - 2nd April

  G.Communications (a laughable name in itself) should not be threatening legal action when it has breached so many contracts itself since last October.

  Also, for the attention of the president of G.Communications: I have an English school, and I proudly display a large poster in the front window of that school, offering cheap lessons to NOVA students, with a school they can trust! Bite me a-hole!

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  skipthesong at 07:03 PM JST - 2nd April

  GCOM can sort of take legal action, its called Eigyou bougai and it may (I am not an expert in this area because I have only heard of this in Japan, never in the US) be able cause a problem for the schools, that rightfully so in a business sense, who have taken on those said students and that can be proving right off the bat by saying "Hey EX-Nova students, we will get you half price or somehing" which they would not be giving to other students which is considered un-fair business practices.

  Where the problem may also come from the "national" duty, kind of like the cell phone companies, if you owe one a bunch of money, it would be difficult for you to get a new phone.

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  Cos at 08:08 PM JST - 2nd April

  That's getting funny !

  Why didn't they complain when NOVA was the number one poacher ?

  Remember when NOVA was organizing dumping campaigns to steal students from other schools in a certain area. That was a party ! New students, scouted in the street 30 meters away from their current language school, were getting incredible welcome discounts in the first months. They were even getting free bunnies ! The best teachers of the chain were welcoming them in pera pera nihongo with efficient lessons, promotion material was saying we are better than neighbouring schools, and students could book lessons any time, any day, Nova would call a teacher from another school for just one lesson rather making them wait 50 minutes. Then ta ta ta... Rain falls. After the neighbouring independant schools had closed, that was becoming increasingly difficult to book lessons (unluckly okyakusan, you day off is on Wednesday, and this day is very busy, what about one lesson at 7:30 next month ?) no more discounts, no lessons of other languages than English (while they claimed they were on ads on their doors and provided the trial lesson etc), no more charismatic and experimented teachers (only high-school drop out working holiday part-timers replaced very other week), no paying back (sorry okyakusan, you have bought 300 lessons, and it's your problem if you take only one lesson each month)... No more free bunnies. And after a while, they'd move the school and merge it with another one, the students had no other choice than to give up losing all their money or follow. In addition no other school was left near their place. Natsukashii, ne?

  That took 15 years to the METI to even comment on that. And now, they would be starting actions that quickly against schools that help students out from the NOVA-G scams ?

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  usaexpat at 11:38 PM JST - 2nd April

  Isn't that called competition? The only way to grow your business with a declining pool of customers is to steal someone else's. Has no one at G-Com has ever studied American business or worked in the States I see. As a former sales exec in a different line I can say you pretty much stop just short of killing the other guy for a big customer or pool of clients. Sounds like G. Comm is lucky they aren't the victims of a media blitz such as "new name same old Nova"

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  frontandcentre at 03:27 PM JST - 8th April

  Hilarious - complaining about rivals taking fair advantage of the P.R. disaster that surrounds the failure of NOVA. What did G-Com think that they would do, just carry on exactly as before?

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