Martial Arts World News Magazine - Volume 22 | Issue 2

STAFF DEVELOPMENT
How to Have a Five-Star Curriculum
in a Multi-School Organization
By Master Zulfi Ahmed
In my multi-school organization, we have an eclectic curriculum. The curriculum is by
itself a unique system: it’s not pieces, it’s a whole all by itself.
My system, Bushi Ban, isn’t described as kicking, punching; it’s
a collective system. Let’s say I’m giving you advice on how to make
your martial arts school a five-star school, which will provide you with
retention, financial success, and integrity-based martial arts teaching.
The first star is people. It’s all about your leaders, personnel,
prospects, population, and students. Leadership has to be ever
evolving. It takes responsibility to lead, but when you lead, lead
for their benefit, not yours. The personnel have to have the same
vision, mission, and thought process as the leader. The prospects
must connect to your system. The population is all about how
we’re catering and servicing populations of people.
The second star is your product. Taekwondo, for example, is
the product. That’s what we give, and it’s always going
to be needed. The martial arts are not going out of
style or need. I tell my students, “You found the
fountain of youth. You found a lifestyle that will
make you healthier, happier, and just give you
life within your life.” The product is what you
teach on the floor, how you teach, when you
teach, why you teach what you teach.
The third star is your business model. Are you
in a sprint or a marathon? Are you there for the
long term? Is your student growing with you and expanding,
or is the student there for only six months,
six weeks, three years? Are they going to go
or grow old with you? You are in a lifelong
relationship. You and your student grow,
evolve, learn, and share together.
Your fourth star is your culture.
What culture are you providing? Are
you providing a militaristic culture like, “I’m the Grandmaster
and you’re my humble student,” or I am equal to you and we’re
friends? We care about each other. We want to benefit each other.
We have to have a win-win situation. Is your culture friendly?
Dry? Warm? Welcoming? Is the atmosphere genuine?
The fifth star is very important: you can have all of the above
four, but if you don’t have the fifth star, then you only have limited
success. The fifth star is becoming a community. Does your school,
your organization, represent a community-based brand? I’ll give
you two different examples: Hell’s Angels, the motorcycle gang,
that’s also community. They’re based on their philosophy and principles.
People who drive a Porsche, they also have a community.
There’s a community at ATLAS. Your organization is a community.
Your martial arts school or organization, do people feel it’s a community
or is it a business? Does the community have a culture, or
do people just come for a business transaction and then they’re
out? Is it business centric or people centric?
People, product, at the end of the day, we can have all of the
above. But if the product is poor or weak, you can only keep
people connected for so long because when people come to you,
they don’t come to you because of who you are or what kind of
culture or community you have; they come to you for the product.
They want to learn something from you, and they’re assuming that
you can fulfill their wants and needs and address their challenges;
you’re a problem solver for them. The balancing act of a successful
business is to put people first, then your product, business model,
culture, and then your community. Is it a community or just a transactional
process? Anybody running any type of business, regardless
of whether it’s martial arts, if they keep the five stars in mind, I
think they will be very successful.
GRANDMASTER ZULFI AHMED has amassed acclaim as a world-class competitor, martial
arts educator, and is most notably founder and designer of the internationally renowned style, Bushi Ban.
With over 45 years of martial arts experience and over 300 martial arts awards, his schools include ten
locations across Texas.
102 MARTIAL ARTS WORLD NEWS VOLUME 22 | ISSUE 2