For finite semigroups (and thus monoids), the Krohn–Rhodes theorem gives a decomposition into (simple) groups and aperiodic semigroups (subsemigroups of the flip-flop, which is idempotent). However, the decomposition is more complicated than a separation into a “group-like part” and an “idempotent part”; it is in terms of iterated wreath products (or alternatively, iterated semidirect products, I guess).
Emil Jeřábek
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