School Exclusivity

Many people when first coming across the Callan Method and wishing to open a Callan Method school, ask if it is possible to have the exclusive rights to the use of the Method in a certain area. Such a system has been tried, and failed.

The Method is not like a car. A manufacturer can give an agent the exclusive rights to sell its cars in a certain area. This is because cars are objects and present no problems. The Method, on the other hand, is a people service and would require quality control, which means that a CMO (Callan Method Organisation) inspector would have to call two or three times a year to check that the Method was being used correctly and that guarantees were being given for the correct number of lessons. If this were not done, CMO would acquire a bad reputation by allowing itself to be directly connected with an individual school, as giving exclusivity is tantamount to recommending the school. If a school were not using the Method correctly, it would not only get itself a bad name but also CMO a bad name.

The cost of inspectors

Sending inspectors to schools would cost CMO an enormous amount of money, which means that it would have to ask the schools to give 3% of their gross income to finance the administrative costs and the salaries of the tens of thousands of inspectors required. The schools would also lose their independence and have to become, indirectly, a part of CMO, which past experience has shown they would resist.

A team of lawyers

CMO would also find it quite impossible to control the exclusivity areas in such far-flung places as Bolivia or Tibet – English being taught in every country of the world today. CMO would need a vast organisation to handle such a project. It would find itself constantly being dragged into border disputes between one exclusive area and another. For this, it would need a team of lawyers in each country. It is not in CMO’s interest to do this. It would not add a penny to its income and would present it with an enormous headache. It is also likely that exclusivity, being a form of monopoly, would be against the law in many countries.

Insufficient exploitation of the market

Another reason exclusivity does not work is that it does not ensure that the market is being exploited to its fullest potential. If, for example, a school were given exclusive use of the Method in an area of two square miles, containing a population of 100,000, and had 500 students, there would be no way of telling if it should not have 1000 students or even 2000, as there would be no competitor to keep it on its toes. An area of two square miles can usually take two schools with 1000 students in each.

A vast market

As in any business, competition ensures quality, by giving the customer a choice. In any case, there is little need to fight over territory, as the English-teaching market is so vast and constantly renewing itself as each generation comes along, that there is enough of the cake for everyone. It is also a constantly expanding market. Sometimes, when a school has 500 students, the Director thinks that that is all it is capable of achieving, only to be surprised that, when another school opens nearby and acquires 700 students, his own school also jumps to 700 students. Competition, therefore, can actually increase the size of the market.

Exclusivity is not necessary

Exclusivity is not, however, really important. If a school is teaching the Callan Method correctly, it should have little fear of competitors. It is the early bird that catches the worm. If a good school opens in an area where there is no school, it will automatically claim a kind of exclusivity for itself by the fact that it is a good school. No competitor would think of opening up in the same area, as it would be very difficult for it to succeed. It would only succeed if it was able to guarantee to take its students to the level of the Cambridge exams in fewer lessons than the first school to open up.

It is the guarantee that ensures exclusivity

It is all a question of guarantees and number of lessons. If, for example, School A guarantees to take the student to the level of the Cambridge First Certificate in 240 lessons, at £6 a lesson (a total of £1,440) whilst School B guarantees the same student the same result in 300 lessons, at £5 a lesson (a total of £1,500), the student is obviously going to go to School A, even though School B tries to undercut School A by £1 a lesson.

If the student cannot afford the £120 a month at School A, but can only afford the £100 a month at School B, School A can give him longer to pay. Instead of paying £120 a month over a period of 12 months, he could be allowed to pay £100 a month over a period of 14½ months, even though he stops studying after 12 months, having completed his 240 lessons.

It is always the guaranteed number of lessons that will attract the student. The difference between 240 lessons and 300 lessons is 60 lessons, which, at 20 lessons a month, means an extra 3 months’ studying time. No student likes to spend that amount of extra studying time. Even 20 extra lessons (one extra month) is too much. It is not just the time the student has to spend at the school that is important to him, but also the time travelling to and from the school.

The school that can do the job in the fewest number of lessons will always win, even if it means a temporary price war to see a competitor off the market and out of the area. In this way, a company can open up a chain of quality schools with the Callan Method.

The carpenter's tools

The Callan Method and the Callan Method schools should be looked upon as two separate entities. The schools do the job whilst the Method provides the tools for the job. The schools are like carpenters. They all buy the same tools (i.e. the Method), but some do a better job with them than others. One carpenter might make a superb table whilst another (not using the tools correctly) might produce a rickety construction that falls to pieces.

If a school were given exclusive rights to operate in a certain area, there would be no pressure on it to use the Method correctly or give guarantees for the right number of lessons, as it would have no competitors in the area using the Callan Method. This is, in fact, what CMO has found to be the case in its past experience. In essence, therefore, CMO is just a “bookseller”.