Editor’s Note:  This post was originally published on the Interns Expose Amway blog.

Last week I attended an intern bi-weekly meeting and we had the pleasure of having Doug DeVos, President of Amway, speak to us about the company.  I was really pumped for this event because there are not many opportunities to have an hour and a half (it was only scheduled for an hour, but he was nice enough to stay longer than planned!) of his time to listen to his perspective of the company and ask questions. Also, I think it speaks volumes about the value of Amway’s internship program because people with high positions are taking time out of their day to help make your experience at Amway the best one possible. In fact, Candace Matthews, Amway Chief Marketing Officer, came out to talk to us at our last bi-weekly meeting. You really get the sense that employees here want you to succeed and do well in your professional development.

During Doug’s speech, he touched on three main points about the business. The first one he discussed was unleashing innovation. In order for us to grow as a company, we cannot keep doing the some of the same things, especially if it is not as effective anymore.  Instead, we need to challenge ourselves and think outside of the box. We always need to be thinking about the next step by setting goals and targets. In addition, everyone is responsible for innovation and that we need to continue creating an environment where this can happen.

The second point was the emphasis to focus on consumers. Amway needs to be competitive in the marketplace, but hold on to its foundation and heritage at the same time. To do this, we always need to look at things from a global perspective as well as understand other people’s culture, background, and language. Basically we cannot operate in a vacuum, which can be difficult for many companies. Amway will continue to embrace the challenges that come its way.

Lastly, Amway is performance driven. Everything that we do needs to generate results so we can measure and evaluate. This way we can see what is working and what is not. A good attitude must be present because a person may not receive the results they were expecting. Therefore, a person is challenged to come up with new innovative ideas that will achieve the desired results.

As you can probably tell, the key word throughout Doug’s speech is “challenge”. I believe that this is probably one of the best ways to learn because it forces you to think differently. I know I would not be the person I am today if I just took the easy ways out and kept doing what I was comfortable with.  Have you experience any challenges that changed you personally or professionally that you would like to share?

I hope to hear back from you!

P.S. One of his favorite Amway products is Double X. I couldn’t help myself, I had to ask

It's summer at Amway, which means the interns have invaded and are hard at work in departments all around the company.  This year we have more than 100 interns at our West Michigan headquarters and 20 or so out at Nutrilite in California.

Which means more action at the Interns Expose Amway blog as this new crop of interns gets settled in for the summer.

Check out the blog as some interns who are graduating recall their time here and as new interns share their thoughts and experiences.  You'll also see our interns at work — and play — building a KaBOOM! playground  last  week as a One by One community service project.

Editor’s Note:  This post was originally published on the Interns Expose Amway blog.

The 2009 Walk With Me event at the John Ball Park & Zoo last week went grrreat!  Here are a few photos from the event:

Editor’s Note:  This post was originally published on the Interns Expose Amway blog.

One of the reasons I was anxious to graduate from college is because I believed my to-do list would become shorter. The thought of nice relaxing weekends without any homework assignments lingering over my head sounded fabulous. Since graduation, my list appears shorter, but I feel like I am busier than ever. I can’t believe it’s almost July! Lately, my time has being spent on planning a wedding, serving as a PR committee member for the festival of the arts in Grand Rapids, going to open houses for high school graduations, and moving into a new apartment. Needless to say, all of my weekends have been booked.

Interning at Amway Global keeps me quite busy during the day as well. One of the main projects I have been helping with recently is media relations for the Mobile Experiences for Artistry and Nutrilite. They are going to be in Seattle for the Rock ‘N Roll Marathon this weekend and Greg Meyer (the last American male to win the Boston Marathon) is going to be there representing Nutrilite. I also attended the Easter Seals Walk With Me event in Grand Rapids last week. It was awesome to see so many Amway Global employees come out to support the walk. In fact, the company raised $62,000 for Easter Seals.

I am not complaining about being busy. I actually prefer to be busy. I cannot stand not having anything to do, it drives me crazy. That is why I get involved in so many organizations. I love to put my time towards making a difference and developing my professional career. However, I know it is important to have “me” time and to just relax. For me, this usually consists of exercising, watching a movie, shopping, or reading. What works for you? Do you find that sometimes you forget? I know that it sometimes gets put on the back burner for me.

P.S. I am really pumped for Thursday because Doug DeVos will be taking time out of his day to speak to interns. I’m sure it will be great! I will definitely write a post about this one

Editor’s Note:  This post was originally published on the Interns Expose Amway blog.

If you talk to any of my family members or close friends, you will learn that a lot has changed about me since I was just a lad.  With the exception of my height, of course.  I actually stopped growing in 5th grade while everyone on the planet continued getting taller and taller, as normal people tend to do.  This, my friends, is a topic for a completely different discussion which I will inevitably title “Living with Short Man Syndrome (SMS).”

Okay, so I don’t actually have SMS.  In fact, I’m sure I just made that up.  The truth is that although my height hasn’t changed since I was a toddler, many more things have.  From the ages of 9 to 16, I was heavily involved in acting.  I performed in over 20 community theater productions and appeared in local TV advertisements and magazines.  When I was 12, I appeared in a nationally-televised Capn’ Crunch commercial where I was paid to act like an idiot for 30 seconds.  Take THAT tall people!

After graduating from high school (with a whopping 2.2 GPA), I was accepted into the Western Michigan University theater department to further my ambition of becoming a professional actor.  However, I changed my mind after hearing the program director say to us, “The majority of you will not make it as a professional actor.  Instead, you will wait on tables most your life as you do small gigs here and there in an attempt to make it big.”  I thought, “Hmmmm…not for me.”  When I called the program director to inform him of my decision, he insisted he wasn’t talking about me, since I was their first pick into the program.  His comment was flattering.  But I had made my decision already.

This is when my life changed dramatically.  Shortly after refusing the WMU offer, I came home with enlistment papers.  I signed up to be a United States Marine.  Yes, the Cap’n Crunch kid was going to be a hardened, military machine!  My family cried, my friends were confused, and I was scared.  After all, it was October 2001 when I was shipped off to California for boot camp – less than one month after 9/11.

My military career was a great one.  I was stationed in Southern California for most of my enlistment, and was deployed to Iraq twice in two years.  I was an infantry scout responsible for driving ahead of the tanks to clear their paths and report enemy movement to commanders in the rear.  In March 2003, I found myself crossing the Iraq border as one of the first vehicles in the war.  In 2004, I was living in Fallujah – one of the most volatile places in Iraq and the world at the time.  I witnessed a lot of carnage, destruction, and loss of life during my time in the military, and although I struggle to deal with these issues at times, they are what make me who I am today.  I’m very open about my experiences and try to use them as positive influences in my life as best as I can.

I married my middle school sweetheart in 2003, between my two deployments.  Following my enlistment, we moved back to Michigan where we both started going to school.  We had a girl, Rylee, who is now 2 years old.  She is the absolute joy of our lives and we cherish every moment with her.  Her mom doesn’t know this yet, but Rylee looks exactly like me. 

Finding work was tough.  I possessed a significant amount of real life experience and maturity for my age.  But all of the places I applied to required a college degree, period.  I remember walking into a local security company and having them offer me $7.00 an hour as a security guard.  They claimed that, based on my resume’, I only qualified for their lowest ranking position.  This was a humbling experience.  Especially after I spent the last year as a Marine infantry Sergeant, commanding my unit in one of the most hostile and dangerous places in the world.  But, I digress.

I continued with school, and eventually began my internship here at Amway in April 2008.  Unlike the other companies I encountered, Amway took a chance on me and offered me a position on the Business Intelligence team – despite my lack of IT experience or education.  In September, I moved to the Web Technology team for a second internship.  Again, with little IT experience, the management at Amway took a chance on me.

Just recently, I was offered a full-time position on the Web Technology team as an Associate Systems Support Specialist. I am very excited and grateful for this opportunity.  Amway is a great place to work, and the company values are contagious among its employees, IBOs, and customers.  For me, Amway was able to do something that not many companies are able to do.  They were able to look beyond my lack of IT experience on paper, and instead value my progressive thinking, leadership experience, and dedication to learning.

I wanted to introduce myself by providing a short life story.  Additionally, I hope that I was able to give a real-life example of how Amway provides opportunities for individuals from all walks of life.  Amway recognized traits of mine that are not easily conveyable on a resume but are reflected in my personality and experiences.  I encourage those of you who may not know exactly what you want in life to try new things, expand your comfort zone, and take a chance once in a while.  You never know what might happen.

If it can happen for me, it can happen for anyone.  After all, I’m living with SMS!

Editor’s Note: Michael recently has made the tranisition to a full-time position with the Web Technology team as an Associate Systems Support Specialist! We look forward to hearing more from Michael about his experiences and would like to say congratulations on your full-time job!

Editor’s Note:  This post was originally published on the Interns Expose Amway blog.

The 2009 Easter Seals Walk With Me Grand Rapids event is TONIGHT at the John Ball Park & Zoo!

Easter Seals is Amway Global’s partner in the U.S., supporting the One by One Campaign for children. Easter Seals is an organization that is about putting hope within reach for people with disabilities and as the National Presenting Sponsor of Easter Seals we support walk events, like our local walk tonight, all over the country!

Here are some de”tails” on our Grand Rapids event:

• Free Yesterdog and Culver’s frozen custard to all walkers!
• A magician and face-painting
• 5:00p.m. Pre-registration, Yesterdog and face-painting begin
• 6:30p.m. Walk begins
• Free admission to the zoo for all walkers

It may be raining, but even if it is, it will at least be a grrrrreat time and a fun way to make a difference! I’ll post some photos from this year’s event and let you know how it goes! For more information on the Grand Rapids event, click here.

Amway would like to congratulate president Doug DeVos and chief marketing officer Candace Matthews for having received prestigious national honors.

Doug accepted the Circle of Honor Award, the highest honor given by the Direct Selling Education Foundation, last Tuesday in Washington D.C. The award recognizes outstanding leadership to the foundation. From Doris Christopher, DSEF chair:

“Doug has been a real leader, a visionary and a voice of reason for the foundation.”

Also last week, Candace was inducted into the Executive Leadership Council, one of the most prestigious associations of African American corporate officers of Fortune 500 companies. Steve Van Andel, Amway’s chairman. proclaimed:

“Amway is proud to work with Candace, and proud to see others recognize her leadership and track record.”

Truly, news to be proud of!

With last night's win, the NBA Finals go to at least five games — and that means more exposure for Amway in the series!

The next two games are Thursday, June 11 and Sunday, June 14 at the Amway Arena in Orlando.

Are you keeping Score with Amway?

We're tallying the number of times people hear or see the Amway name during these games at the Score with Amway blog.  Come join us and guess how many times hundreds of millions of people in more than 200 countries will see and hear our name — in 42 different languages!

We'll be posting our count for last night's game a bit later today.  Check the blog and follow us on Twitter and Tumblr.

It has come to our attention that a certain arena bearing our name in Orlando will be part of tonight’s televisied NBA Finals at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.

And by “come to our attention” we mean that we have been downright giddy just thinking about hearing and seeing “Amway Arena” on camera and from the mouths of fans and commentators.

So much so that we decided to track the number of Amway mentions tonight, as well as Thurs., June 11 and, if necessary, June 14. We even launched a new blog today to help keep score. An Amway Arena placard on the scoreboard? That counts. Anything from tip-off to final buzzer—and we’re asking our friends, employees, customers and distributors to help.

Tune in and take a guess!

During this week's Direct Selling Association (DSA) annual meeting in Baltimore, the Direct Selling Education Foundation (DSEF) bestowed its highest honor on Amway President Doug DeVos, by welcoming him to its "Circle of Honor." 

The Circle of Honor recognizes leaders in direct selling who have made exceptional contributions to the foundation.  Doug was cited as  "a leader, a visionary, and a voice of reason for the foundation at exactly the right moment in time."

Doug was a member of DSEF's board of directors earlier this decade and served as the organization's chairman.  Today, he continues to help the DSEF achieve its mission by working with DSEF's International Grant committee. Doug's father, Amway Co-Founder Rich DeVos, was inducted into the "Circle of Honor" in 2001.

This is the latest recognition of Amway's long service to the Direct Selling Association.  Many Amway Corporation and Amway Global staff serve or have served on DSA or DSEF boards and committees to help increase understanding of our industry.