Landmark Worldwide

Not to be confused with Landmark School or Landmark College.

Landmark Worldwide

Company type	Private LLC
Industry	Self-help
Founded	January 1991
Headquarters	San Francisco, California
Key people	Harry Rosenberg: director, CEO; Mick Leavitt: President
Products	The Landmark Forum, associated coursework
Revenue	USD$77 million (2009)
Number of employees	525+ employees
Subsidiaries	The Vanto Group Tekniko Licensing Corporation
Website	landmarkworldwide.com

Landmark Worldwide (formerly Landmark Education), or simply Landmark, is a limited liability company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It offers programs in personal development.

The company started with the purchase of intellectual property based upon Werner Erhard's est training seminars. Landmark has developed and delivered over 40 personal development programs. Its subsidiary, the Vanto Group, also markets and delivers training and consulting to organizations.

Landmark's programs have been categorized by some scholars as religious or quasi-religious in nature. Landmark and many of the company's customers deny such characterizations, while some researchers question that categorization as well.

Corporation

Background

The Landmark Forum, its direct predecessors the Forum, est (Erhard Seminars Training) and its other, related, iterations have been proffered by a continuum of various companies beginning with the founding of Erhard Seminars Training, Inc. by Werner Erhard in the early 1970s. Erhard had no formal training in psychology or psychiatry and had previously been a successful salesman, became involved with Zen Buddhism, Scientology and Mind Dynamics. This brought about the idea of starting an organization to promote his vision of human transformation, which he entitled est (both for the Latin "it is" and as an acronym for "Erhard Seminars Training"). He considered setting up est as a church, but instead chose a for-profit model, with a complex web of onshore and offshore companies. These were set up by the "controversial" corporate attorney Harry Margolis.

A company controlled by Margolis was renamed Erhard Seminars Training Inc (EST Inc). Erhard sold his intellectual rights (which Erhard and Landmark call the "technology") to a Panamanian company Presentaciones Musicales S.A.(protected by Panama's corporate secrecy laws) and run on his behalf by Margolis. This in turn licensed the "technology" to EST Inc for $1 million and licence fees. Erhard was employed at a very modest salary while and license fees were made to offshore companies. As corporate staff expanded, Erhard hired Scientologists to create a program (the "Well Being Department") to monitor and motivate employees and volunteers.

After Erhard's attorney was indicted for irregularities involving his tax shelter schemes, he and Margolis went about restructuring the business on a non-profit model. In 1979, EST Inc. was dissolved and replaced by a charitable foundation named "est, An Educational Corporation". At the same time his intellectual property was transferred from the Panamanian company to, a new company in the Netherlands named, Welbehagen. which licensed the foundation to present the seminars. to "est, An Educational Corporation". A Jersey Charitable Settlement to own the foundation with a Swiss entity, the Werner Erhard Foundation for est, set up to control it.

By 1981 Erhard decided to simplify the complicated structure of est-related entities. Werner Erhard and Associates (WE&A)was established, with Erhard as sole proprietor, which purchased the assets of the various corporations and charities. This was arranged through a series of loans

In 1984 Erhard launched another company, Transformational Technologies (TT), to market est-based courses and consulting services to corporations and government entities. In its first 18 months, TT licensed over 50 franchises at a $25,000 licensing fee with revenue based royalties.

Erhard had experimented with a modified version of est as early as 1983. By 1985, faced with increasing controversy and drastically falling recruitment numbers, Erhard replaced the est seminars with a slightly modified and less authoritarian program which he "rebranded" as The Forum. Later, managers realized that there was significant revenue generated from signing up participants for follow-up courses. The duration of the The Forum was reduced from 6 to 3 days which enabled presenters to hold more courses. With the same staff WE&A was able to reduce the cost and increased the throughput of recruits, which also increased the number of the acquaintances to whom participants marketed The Forum. period. More recruits resulted in increased enrollment for the higher-priced follow-up courses.

Incorporation of Landmark

By 1990, Werner Erhard and Associates was faced with lawsuits, tax investigations, bad press and declining enrollments. Erhard decided to leave the U.S. and began liquidating his personal assets. A company named Transnational Education Corporation (TEC) was set up, headed by Erhard's brother Harry Rosenberg. TEC acquired various assets from WE&A and Erhard on 31 January 1991. Erhard had no direct ownership of the new entity, but retained control of the intellectual property used in the courses. He also retained rights to run the Forum operations in Japan (which accounted for 70% of Werner Erhard & Associates International's revenue) and in Mexico. TEC licensed the intellectual property for a period of 15 years in exchange for $3 million and license royalties. These amounts were not paid to Erhard but rather to overseas corporations and trusts. The business of WE&A continued operations with much of the same staff under the new name. In May 1991 TEC changed its name to Landmark Education Corporation. In June 2004, the company was reorganized into a limited liability company, Landmark Education LLC, and subsequently renamed to Landmark Worldwide LLC in July 2013.

Landmark has claimed that it has never paid royalties to Erhard. which is true, as the payments were paid to Erhard's corporations and trusts. Landmark CEO Rosenberg has stated that Erhard's rights on the intellectual property on which the Forum and other courses are based was purchased by 2002.

While Erhard has maintained a degree of relationship with Landmark and has appeared at company events, Landmark has insistently denied that he has any involvement with the current business and has downplayed its historical connection to Erhard and to est.

Current operations

Landmark Worldwide LLC operates as an employee-owned for-profit private company. According to Landmark's website, its employees own all the stock of the corporation, with no individual holding more than 3%. The company states that it operates in such a way as to invest its surpluses into making its programs, initiatives, and services more widely available. In addition, its subsidiary, the Vanto Group, focuses on marketing and delivering training and consultation services to corporate clients and other organizations.

The company reports more than 2.2 million people have participated in its programs since 1991. Landmark holds seminars in approximately 115 locations in more than 20 nations. Landmark stated in 2005 that annual attendance at its courses was 200,000, with 70,000 to 80,000 participants in the Landmark Forum. It has stated that from 1991 to 2008 more than 1 million people had taken part in Landmark's introductory program, the Landmark Forum. Landmark reported revenues of approximately $81 million as of 2011.

Terry Giles is Chairman of the Board and Erhard's lawyer.

Business consulting

Vanto Group, Inc., founded in 1993 as "Landmark Education Business Development" (LEBD), a wholly owned subsidiary of Landmark Worldwide Enterprises, Inc., uses the techniques of Landmark to provide consulting services to various companies. The University of Southern California (USC) Marshall School of Business carried out a case study in 1998 into the work of LEBD with BHP New Zealand Steel. The report concluded that the set of interventions in the organization produced a 50% improvement in safety, a 15% to 20% reduction in key benchmark costs, a 50% increase in return on capital, and a 20% increase in raw steel production. LEBD became the Vanto Group in 2008.

Licensing intellectual property

Tekniko, Inc., formerly owned by Werner Erhard, was the successor organization to Transformational Technologies, which was incorporated in 1984 by Erhard and management consultant James Selman. Tekniko Licencing Corporation, a California corporation owned by Terry M. Giles, later acquired this technology. In 2001 Landmark Education formed Tekniko Licensing Corporation, a Nevada corporation, which purchased Tekniko Technology from Giles' company. Tekniko Licencing Corporation, a California corporation owned by Terry M. Giles, later acquired this technology. In 2001 Landmark Education formed Tekniko Licensing Corporation, a Nevada corporation, which purchased Tekniko Technology from Giles' company.Since that time, the Vanto Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Landmark Worldwide, has used Tekniko to license the "Tekniko methodology and intellectual property to a wide variety of corporations".

The Landmark Forum

Landmark's entry course, The Landmark Forum, is a prerequisite for the majority of their other programs. The Landmark Forum takes place over three consecutive days and an evening session (generally Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday evening.) Each full day begins at 9:00 a.m. and typically ends at approximately 10:00 p.m. Breaks are approximately every 2–3 hours, with a 90-minute dinner break. The evening session generally runs from 7:00 p.m. to 10:15 p.m. The course varies in size between 75 and 250 people, and is arranged as a dialog in which the Forum leader presents certain ideas and participants are encouraged to take the floor to relate how those ideas apply to their own lives. Rules are set up at the beginning of the program, such as strongly encouraging participants not to miss any part of the program. Attendees are also urged to be “coachable” and not just be observers during the course.

Various ideas are asserted and explored during the course. For example, the course maintains that there is a big difference between what actually happened in a person’s life and the meaning or interpretation they made up about it, and that human behavior is governed by a need to look good. Another tenet of the course is that people pursue an "imaginary 'someday' of satisfaction", and that people create meaning for themselves since "there is none inherent in the world". The course also maintains that people have persistent complaints that give rise to unproductive fixed ways of being, but that people can “transform”, by a creative act of bringing forth new ways of being, rather than trying to change themselves in comparison to the past. Course participants are encouraged to call people they know during the course, with whom they feel they have unresolved tensions, and either be in communication with the other person or be responsible for their own behavior.

An evening session follows closely on the three consecutive days of the course and completes the Landmark Forum. During this final session, the participants share information about their results, and bring guests to learn about the Forum.

Companies such as Panda Express and Lululemon Athletica pay for and encourage employees to take part in The Landmark Forum.

Religious characteristics

Some scholars have categorized Landmark and its predecessor organizations as new age, self religion or a new religious movement. Other observers have noted relationships between the training programs and a spiritual experience, including a lack of religious elements in the programs and the compatibility of the programs with existing religions. Others, such as Chryssides, classify Landmark as either quasi-religious or secular with some elements of religion (although various scholars have disputed this characterization). Landmark has denied that it is a religion, cult or sect, and "freely threatens or pursues lawsuits against those who call it [a cult]".

Journalist Amelia Hill with The Observer witnessed the Landmark Forum and concluded that, in her view, it is not religious or a cult. Hill wrote, "It is ... simple common sense delivered in an environment of startling intensity." Karin Badt from The Huffington Post criticized the organisation's emphasis on "'spreading the word' of the Landmark forum as a sign of the participants' 'integrity'" in recounting her personal experience of an introductory "Landmark Forum" course, but noted, "at the end of the day, I found the Forum innocuous. No cult, no radical religion: an inspiring, entertaining introduction of good solid techniques of self-reflection, with an appropriate emphasis on action and transformation (not change)".

Public reception

In his review of the Landmark Forum, New York Times reporter Henry Alford wrote that he "resented the pressure" placed on him during a session, but also noted that "two months after the Forum, I'd rate my success at 84 percent." Time reporter Nathan Thornburgh, in his review of The Landmark Forum, said "At its heart, the course was a withering series of scripted reality checks meant to show us how we have created nearly everything we see as a problem …I benefited tremendously from the uncomfortable mirror the course had put in front of me."

A series of investigative articles in the Swedish national daily Dagens Nyheter reported serious complaints about Landmark practices, including a report of one person who suffered from acute psychosis after taking a Landmark course. The chairman of Föreningen Rädda individen, a support organization for those affected by cults and destructive movements, told Dagens Nyheter that Landmark is one of the most dangerous sects in Sweden.

Pièces à Conviction

In 2004, France 3 aired a television documentary on Landmark in their investigative series Pièces à Conviction. The episode, called "Voyage Au Pays des Nouveaux Gourous" ("Journey to the land of the new gurus") aired during prime time, a first for the show, and was highly critical of its subject.

Shot in large part with a hidden camera, the episode was an expose of sorts and had filmmaker Laurent Richard attend a Landmark course and visit their offices. In addition, the program included interviews with former course participants, anti-cultists, and commentators including the then vice-president of the Parliamentary Commission on Cults in France, Jean-Pierre Brard, as well as Catherine Picard, Jean-Pierre Jougla, Jean-Marie Abgrall and Gilles Bottine, the secretary general of MIVILUDES. Landmark left France following the airing of the episode and a subsequent site visit by labor inspectors that noted the activities of volunteers, and sued Jean-Pierre Brard in 2004 following his appearance on the show.

The Pièces à Conviction episode was uploaded to a variety of websites, and in October 2006 Landmark issued subpoenas pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to Google Video, YouTube, and the Internet Archive demanding details of the identity of the person(s) who had uploaded those copies. These organizations challenged the subpoenas and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) became involved, planning to file a motion to quash Landmark's DMCA subpoena to Google Video. Landmark eventually withdrew its subpoenas.

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• Wright, Stuart (2002). "Public Agency Involvement in Government–Religious Movement Confrontation". In Bromley, David G.; Melton, J. Gordon (eds.). Cults, Religion, and Violence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521668980. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)