Landmark Company History

Landmark is in the business of altering what is possible for people.

Unique in the personal and professional development field, Landmark is also recognized as the worldwide leader in the field with more than 2.4 million people having participated in their courses in 21 countries worldwide.

Powerful and practical, the combination of both Landmark’s programmes and its leaders allow people to cause lasting breakthroughs in their performance, communication, relationships, peace of mind, and overall quality of life. In fact, more than 94% of programme participants surveyed say Landmark’s programmes made a profound and lasting difference in their life. And their programme leaders are widely recognized for their excellence. According to Marketdata’s definitive report on the personal development industry, Landmark has one of the best faculties in the business.

Landmark’s programmes are based on intellectual material and methodology created and developed by Werner Erhard, who has for over four decades been widely recognized for his groundbreaking transformational models and applications for individual, organisational, and social transformation. In November 2015, Mr. Erhard was described to The New York Times as “one of the great intellectuals of the century” by renowned Harvard economist Professor Michael C. Jensen, who has collaborated with Erhard on academic articles, papers, and curricula.

In February 1991, a group of highly committed individuals, who had worked with Erhard and who had a commitment to making a profound and lasting difference for people, established a new company called Landmark. The enterprise they formed is today the top provider of development programmes in the world. Landmark offers over 60 programmes in more than 125 locations throughout 21 countries around the world.

Landmark programmes: How they work

Landmark courses are customized to allow individuals to focus on what they really care about, and the people who participate in Landmark’s courses cause breakthroughs in the areas of their lives that are most important to them. The programmes’ material and methodology leave people with new ways of seeing themselves, their relationships, and the world around them. The result is people are left with dramatic elevations in their effectiveness in life, and an extremely high quality of life.

Dr. Joe DiMaggio, Director of Landmark’s Research, Design, and Development Division, explains how this is accomplished: “What makes our methodology and programmes unique is that they’re grounded in an ontological and phenomenological model—not in a theoretical context, but rather from an ‘on-the-court,’ directly applicable perspective. Ontology, in the way we’re using the term, is the study and examination of the nature of what it is to be a human being. By phenomenological we don’t mean something theoretical or conceptual, but rather people examining their lives from how their lives are actually lived. This educational paradigm is distinct from the traditional education that most of us are familiar with, in that its aim is not the delivery of new information that needs to be remembered or applied, but instead its aim is to produce unprecedented and lasting breakthroughs in people’s lives that become part of their natural self-expression.”

Catalysts for change and leadership

In addition to altering individual lives, Landmark’s programmes have had a remarkable ripple effect. The unique and powerful principles and tools are also making an extraordinary difference in business, communities, academia, government, and not-for-profit organisations around the world.

For example, Landmark’s Self-Expression and Leadership Programme has been the primary catalyst for participants creating more than 100,000 community projects around the world.

Further, in the business domain, employers who use Landmark’s programmes and services as a resource report significantly higher levels of leadership and vision, company and employee performance, creativity and satisfaction. Vanto Group, the subsidiary founded to serve its corporate customers, has worked with a wide range of organisations worldwide, including Apple Inc., Banco do Brasil, BHP Billiton, GlaxoSmithKline (Europe), Guidant Corporation, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Lockheed Martin, Lululemon, Mercedes-Benz USA, NASA, New Zealand Steel, Panda Express, Polus Group (Japan), Reebok International Ltd., Standard Chartered, Tata Group (India), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, VisaNet, Walgreens, and hundreds of others.

A new era—and a new vision

Now in its third decade, Landmark is endorsed by thousands of accomplished leaders worldwide, including CEOs of global corporations, world-class athletes, renowned artists, widely respected academics, top health professionals, and internationally recognized humanitarians.

Landmark continues to innovate and develop new content and create even more powerful programmes—all within the context of making an enormous difference in people’s lives and providing an extraordinary experience for its customers. Even beyond that, Landmark is passionate about its overarching mission: to create a new paradigm that alters how people view themselves, the world, and what is possible.

All of this—everything Landmark is up to—reflects Landmark’s core commitment to empowering and enabling people in fulfilling on what they’re interested in, what they care about, and what matters most to them.