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Part 3 of the FujiSankei Business i's series on the rise and fall of Sahashi.

Part 1

Part 2

The end of the fairy tale success story

The generals jump ship and the fairy tale success story comes to an end

With the success of the business, Nozomu Sahashi began to surround himself with the trappings of the company. While this was going on, student frustrations erupted over how refunds for contract cancellations worked to NOVA's advantage. Loyalty was out the window, his generals were gone, and the fairy tale success of NOVA began to crumble at its foundations.

"That one, that one, and that one," was how Sahashi picked out his secretaries from a pile of photos of new employees spread across his desk. They all had the model look--tall and thin. "He terrible at mixing is public and private affairs," recounts a former director. "There was even a category in the hiring criteria called 'flowers.'"

At the ceremony to celebrate the listing of NOVA's stock in 1996, Sahashi surrounded himself with his young female staff as he rang the bell at the stock exchange. "He never called a single board member. That was the moment loyalty went out the window," recalls the former director.

From that time through to 2004, senior members started leaving. "The expansion was out of control and the organization began to disintegrate," says a former employee.

By 2005, NOVA had rapidly grown to 480,000 students and nearly 1,000 schools. But there weren't enough instructors, and complaints about not being able to book lessons came in one after another. With NOVA losing the battles in the courts over the way it calculated refunds, NOVA's rebuttal was, "This makes no sense, we created our refund method based on the guidance from METI and the Tokyo Metropolitan government."

"At least let me stay in business." In 2006, with the company in the red, Sahashi trotted out the often-heard platitude: "You won't get more instructors until business turns around," while instructing his staff to tell the students the white lie that NOVA would be increasing the number of instructors soon. However, the days of glory were gone, drowned out by the rumours from of the staff.

NOVA hired 1,000 new employees fresh out of university, but a mere 10% of them stayed on for 3 years or longer. Finding work was a seller's market and an executive at a NOVA affiliate points out, "The quality and cohesiveness of employees degenerated." Sahashi himself is said to have yearned for the days when he knew the name of every employee.

After METI sanctioned NOVA last June, Sahashi sent a hand-written fax instructing staff to "be strong." As the pay delays continued, it did nothing to stop the revolt from growing. About a month later, Sahashi helped himself to the employee's welfare fund for which he was arrested on suspicion of embezzlement. Sahashi believed he could save the company and tried to raise money up until the very end, but the foundation had already crumbled and there was no avoiding collapse.

Original article

【砂上の楼閣ＮＯＶＡ】（下）私物化で消えた忠誠心

FujiSankei Business i. 2008/7/3

■側近去り成功神話崩壊

好調な経営の一方、英会話学校ＮＯＶＡの元社長、猿橋望容疑者（５６）は会社の私物化を強めていく。そうした中、受講生が不利になる解約制度などで批判が噴出。「忠誠心が消えた」と側近が去り、成功神話は足元から崩れ始めていた。

「あれとこれ、それも」。新卒社員の写真を机上に並べ、秘書らそばに置く女性を吟味。すらりと背の高いモデルタイプをそろえた。「女性社員の人事の公私混同はひどかった」と元幹部。採用基準には「華」と呼ばれる項目があったという。

１９９６年、株式公開を祝うセレモニー。取引所で鐘を打ち鳴らす猿橋容疑者のそばにいたのは若い女性社員ばかりだった。元幹部は「当時の幹部は一人も呼ばれず、忠誠心が消えた瞬間だった」と振り返った。

その後、２００４年にかけて古参役員が相次いで辞めていく。「拡大路線に歯止めが利かなくなり、組織の崩壊が始まった」（元社員）という。

０５年には受講生４８万人、教室数も１０００近くに急拡大した。一方で講師不足も目立ち、「レッスンの予約が取れない」と苦情が続出。中途解約精算金をめぐる返還訴訟で敗訴し、「経済産業省や東京都の指導に従って精算方式を作ったのにおかしい」と反発した。

「とにかく営業してくれ」。０６年、赤字に転落すると社内会議で再三号令を掛けた。「業績が好転しないと講師は増やせない」と説明しながら、「受講生には『講師はすぐ増えます』と伝えろ」とうそを付くよう指示。しかし、かつての威光はなく、社員の私語にかき消された。

新卒社員を１０００人採用し、３年勤続はわずか１割。就職も売り手市場になり、関連会社の元幹部は「社員の質とともに求心力も落ちていった」と指摘。猿橋容疑者が「社員全員の顔が分かる時代は良かった」と漏らすこともあったという。

昨年６月の経産省の処分後は、直筆のファクスで「踏ん張ってくれないか」と指示。給与遅配が続く中では、反発を増大させる役割しかなかった。社員の積立金を流用したとされる逮捕容疑は約１カ月後。復活を信じ、破綻（はたん）直前まで金策に駆け回るが、既に崩壊は避けられない状況だった。

Sahashi's rise and fall has all the makings of a movie: An idealistic man with an idea who parlayed it into money, women, and power, only to lose it all due to hurbis. It makes me wonder if the FujiSankei Business i had Shelley in mind when they were writing their stories.

OZYMANDIAS

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Percy Bysshe Shelley