Received this afternoon from an email address at processperformance.com, unfortunately substantiating my prediction of a couple of weeks ago:
Subject: BPMG / BPMV Ltd Chairman’s Final Statement
I communicated with as many of the BPMG members as I could a short while ago about the unfortunate position with regard to the company. As I said in that e-mail I took over the running of the company in an attempt to resolve matters.
I must unfortunately report that I have been unable to resolve these matters and Bennu Group LLC continue in their refusal to reinstate our websites or release any information that would give BPMG access to those sites. According to public record information Steve Towers is a director and officer of Bennu Group LLC. At no time did Mr Towers declare his Bennu status to his fellow directors on the board of BPM Ventures Limited or BPM Group.
The report that I have presented on June 29th 2007 is confidential to the board and shareholders of BPM Ventures Limited but I can indicate that it identifies certain matters that may well become the subject of legal claims in the future. My task in this matter was to try to resolve the matters as quickly as possible in the interest of the members and clients of BPMG. Having provided my report to the board and not being able to resolve the position I have no desire to continue in this role and I have therefore resigned my directorship in the company although I remain a shareholder.
At the same time our Administration and Finance Manager Rose Butler has also resigned. She will no longer be able to answer BPMG members or clients queries. In addition, David Lyneham-Brown has also resigned his roles and directorships of BPMG. With David being the prime technical developer of the BPMG training and development approach this is regretful. Imre Hegedus has stepped down as our Global Director of Chapters and the principal organiser of our autumn conference having done a sterling job in both these areas to date. We have already advised people that we cannot run the conference because like our other web sites Process2007 has been entirely under the control of Bennu Group LLC and we have had no access to it. As of June 30th 2007 Stephen Bernard Towers is the sole remaining director of BPM Ventures Limited and the BPM Group and all enquiries should be directed to him.
I would like to wish Imre, David and Rose the best for the future and I am sure they will continue with their very effective contributions to international BPM training, development and practise. I would also like to thank the many members and clients of BPMG who have contacted me with information and best wishes over the last few weeks. I can only regret that we have been unable to resolve matters in their best interests.
I would expect to see some commentary on all of these things on the BPMG and Bennu web site as I feel it is likely that the BPMG web site will be quickly reactivated. I will have to leave it to your own discretion as to your belief in any commentary in relation to my actions.
Kind Regards
Stewart Ashton
Sandy – All I can say is “oy”!
I know that there have been problems between the multiple stakeholders at BPMG but all this airing of laundry is a bit disconcerting for all parties involved. It makes one wonder if he/she should be associated with any of it.
David
I attended a couple of the BPMG meetings in Toronto, and I’ve spoken at their conference in London, but I have to agree: seems best to keep a distance from this right now. I still can’t believe that Terry Schurter would “steal” the BPMG domain name and redirect it to his own site — how can he expect people to trust him in business when he behaves like that?? Obviously we don’t know the whole story here, but I would have to say that the domain name is the rightful property of BPMG, not of Terry.
From Stewart’s final message it appears that Steve is back in the command chair so there will likely not be anyone to file any legal action against Bennu (where Steve appears to be a Director even though he has denied that to me.) I’ve met Steve – he comes across as honest and trustworthy. I have not met Terry but feel I’ve come to know him from his actions and his writings (assessment: he’s a loose cannon.)
The message of Successful Customer Outcomes that Steve and Terry espouse says it all. Shame neither of them got the memo.
Regardless of the internal bickering that brought the BPMG to this meltdown, their web presence and intellectual property belongs to the company and the blatant denial of service by Bennu’s action is criminal.
Stealing another company’s website is gauche and in bad form. With that track record I’d never trust these perpetrators with my intellectual property and no one else in the community should either.
But, alas, I predict this will all fade into the ether over time and reckless behavior will win out. Shame!
Has anyone here recently paid for BPMG training, did not receive the training, and are having difficulty obtaining a refund?
Aretina, I’m unaware of anyone in that position. Are you saying that you are?
Sandy, my understanding is that there are a number of people who had booked training that may no longer be offered with the demise of the company. I do know some of the BPMG subcontractors are trying their best to help people in that situation get what they paid for.
Aretina, if you send me an email I’ll try to pass it along. I can’t promise anything obviously as I am not now nor was I ever part of BPMG, but I do know some of their former people who are trying to help out people in your situation.
Kevin, thanks for this. I’ll pass your message and email address along to Aretina.
Aretina, I sent you a private email yesterday with Kevin Brennan’s information; he promised to send your information along to some people involved with the training to see if they could help you out. I also know that Jim Baird, who was starting up the Toronto BPMG chapter and does BPMG training, is offering to honour some of those commitments as well. You can reach Jim through http://www.bpm3inc.com
Yes, both my director and I paid for training, did not receive training due to the demise of the company, and have not been able to obtain a refund. We have been offered online training through the Bennu Group but this is not what we paid for. It has been a very frustrating situation.
Actually, Jim is the person I was thinking of who might be able to help. I’ve passed this thread along to him.
Great! I talked to Jim last week and he said that he was doing this.
Hi folks. I would like to confirm what you have seen in this blog and thank Kevin and Sandy for bringing it to my attention. In the next couple of weeks we will be announcing the formation of the Business Process Transformation Group which will be available at http://www.BPTG.org. A new course schedule will be posted and anyone who has paid for training at BPMG will be offered the course that they have paid for at no charge. Please keep in mind that I was as surprised as everyone else with the demise of BPMG as I was contracted to train for them and was not a shareholder of the organization. Although we did not receive any of those funds that were paid to BPMG we find that the situation is deplorable and feel that this is the honourable thing to do. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected].
Jim, you’re a totally upstanding guy 🙂
I’ll reprint this in a full blog post.