We believe it’s important for people to have a safe, clean place to live.

Since the Amway One by One Campaign for Children partnered with Habitat for Humanity last year, distributors and employees across the Americas have worked hard to make that happen.

Here are three examples where our distributors and employees are building hope for others.

In Guatemala, Amway employees and distributors from the United States, Mexico, Barbados, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Honduras, Colombia and El Salvador built a dozen homes. They also raised half a million dollars, matching a $250,000 gift of Tim Foley, longtime Amway distributor and Amway Founders Council member. These  funds will finance construction of more than 40 homes throughout Latin America over the next five years.

In São Paulo, Brazil, Amway distributors and employees raised nearly $5,000, and used it to renovate two homes. Their next  project? Already they are evaluating how to apply their time and talents to help people affected by the devastating floods in Rio de Janeiro.

Finally, after raising $16,000,  more than 25 Amway Colombia distributors, employees and their families constructed two homes in only two days.

Visit our Amway One by One blog to learn how we’re making a difference in 2012. Make your own difference, too, at Habitat for Humanity.

The results are in! We’re pleased to report that our Nutrilite brand ranks as the top-rated vitamin and supplement brand within the direct selling category in a consumer satisfaction survey by ConsumerLab.com.

More than 10,000 ConsumerLab.com subscribers participated in the survey, rating more than 1,500 brands.

Our Nutrilite brand continues to be a fan favorite around the world — also chosen by consumers as one of the top three health supplement brands in the AsiaOne People’s Choice Awards.

We appreciate the public votes of approval. Earning our customers’  loyalty is the best reward of all.

Are you eating a variety of fruits and vegetables in your diet? You’re in the healthier minority if you are, according to the latest research by the Nutrilite Health Institute.

The findings were published today as the lead story in the peer-reviewed Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, following its online debut in November. In fact, this month’s entire issue is devoted to research on phytonutrient intake in the U.S.

The study, “Phytonutrient Intake by Adults in the United States in Relation to Fruit and Vegetable Consumption,” was co-authored by Nutrilite scientist Keith Randolph.

The findings show that the majority of U.S. adults get key phytonutrients from only four sources: oranges, tomatoes, strawberries and carrots. But to receive important health benefits, you need a variety of these natural nutrients.

 We’re proud of Keith and his colleagues, and look forward to news on their next discoveries. In the meantime, you can learn more about their work in this brief video.

We are delighted to announce our partnership with Australian screen actress, Teresa Palmer, as the new Global Face of ARTISTRY skincare and color, effective December 2011. Teresa will work exclusively with the ARTISTRY brand through 2014.

She is best known for her work in the box office hit, “I Am Number Four” with Alex Pettyfer, and has appeared in the “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” alongside Nicolas Cage, “Bedtime Stories” with Adam Sandler, and “Take Me Home Tonight” with Topher Grace.  Her most recent film, “Wish You Were Here,” will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this month. She will also star in “AWOL” with Liam Hemsworth this year and “Warm Bodies” with Nicholas Hoult, which is slated for release in August 2012.

“I’m delighted to work with a brand like ARTISTRY that provides independence to so many women around the world, and does so with amazing products that help us look good and feel good about ourselves,” said Teresa Palmer.

 The decision to align with a celebrity face marks the emergence of ARTISTRY as a global competitor in the prestige beauty space with a revamped aesthetic, signature packaging and new product collections emphasizing innovation and performance, designed to meet the unique skin care needs of different ethnicities around the world.

Teresa Palmer will make her global debut in Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa as the face of ARTISTRY’s fall 2012 color collection, Escape to Paradise.

For now, here’s a glimpse of Teresa from our latest photo shoot. We hope you think she’s as stunning as we do!

With Harry Potter’s gleaming eyes staring at them, journalists from around the world checked out the Fulton Innovation booth at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas last week, attracted by the variety of uses our sister company has come up with to utilize its eCoupled technology.

Dozens of reporters from technology-focused publications like CNET, Gizmodo, Pocket-lint, and GadgetCom, and more traditional outlets like USA Today, CBS Detroit and MLive, were eager to learn more about an Entertainment Week magazine cover that had been wirelessly charged through printed electronics, making the headline and Daniel Radcliffe’s eyes light up. Also on display was a charging pad that wirelessly powers cell phones while still in a handbag.

Fulton Innovation is also the first company to use inductive energy through metal and provided a glimpse of that technology showing a car console able to wirelessly charge different devices.

In an interview with Engadget, Dave Baarman, director of advanced technologies for Fulton Innovation, said the company continues to look for new opportunities to deliver wireless charging capabilities to as many different consumer electronic products as possible.

So next January, stayed tuned. Who knows what Fulton Innovation will come up with by then?

It’s a big job – or perhaps we should say jobs – to provide support to more than three million entrepreneurs around the world.

Those jobs might be in market research; product development; marketing; logistics; project management; finance; or training and education. No matter what department, the width and depth of career options at Amway may be one of the talent acquisition world’s best kept secrets.

Until now.

The Talent Acquisition team at Amway recently updated its Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter presence to include real-time job postings, build a vibrant community for job seekers, and use social media to help select and hire the most highly-qualified candidates.

After all, the 14.4 million people who used social media to find their last job can’t be wrong. Neither can the five out of six recruiters who use it to keep pace with the intense competition for the best and brightest employees.

We’ll be using these channels to do much more than recruit. We’ll be telling stories of our global achievements. Showcasing our expertise. And in general, providing an experience to job candidates that gets them talking about Amway, no matter the results of their current job search. So if you know someone who aspires to help people live better lives through employment at Amway, send them our way.

You can help us put Amway on the A-list of A-list talent.

[Pictured: Consumer & Market Insights Manager Randy Locke.]

As top distributors celebrated their 2011 accomplishments at a recent Amway Latin America Leadership Seminar, hundreds of distributors from Venezuela to Argentina cheered them on, both in Portuguese and Spanish.

For the first time, they were able to share the excitement only the top distributors of the region usually get to experience – without leaving their home markets. 

Amway TV broadcast the event live through a new webcast recently unveiled by the Instituto de Negocios (INA) of Amway Latin America.

Amway TV serves primarily as a training tool, allowing distributors to watch live in-language interviews with product experts and Amway staff. During the Toronto seminar, distributors were able to take part in a bigger motivational event that included presentations by Amway President Doug DeVos and Amway Latin America President Jeff Dahl.

INA Coordinator Michael Corcoran said distributors liked what they saw, as the webcasts received more than 12,000 views and 500 comments. Said one distributor, “What a beautiful moment… I’m not there but I can feel the energy that’s being lived there.”

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January is where people find out what’s hot, what’s new and what’s next.

The DIY Network on December 28 and 30 is looking back at the “cool tools” showcased at the 2011 CES – including our own Fulton Innovation eCoupled wireless power technology.

But if you want to preview what’s new for 2012, check out eCoupled CES preview here or by watching the video below.  It shows how the applications of wireless power have gone from cool to coolest.

YouTube Direkt

The digital marketing team for Amway Korea was formed less than a year ago. And earlier this month, the Korea Internet Professionals Association (KIPFA) bestowed one of the team’s projects with a Grand Prize during its Smart App Awards 2011.

The project is a web application known as sABN, with the “s” standing for smart. The app provides Amway distributors with an easy-to-use shopping interface and sophisticated design. It won the Grand Prize in the Specialized Shopping Category.

Amway Korea Manager of Digital and Integrated Marketing Hyun Dong Kim said, “This success is mostly attributed to the members of our Digital Business Task Force, who put their full efforts behind sABN. Our collaboration with the digital team at Amway World Headquarters also played a large role.”

This newly formed – and clearly very talented – team is off to a great start.

This time of year we see lots of “top 10″ lists, as notable books, movies and music of the current year are celebrated.

But another “top 10″ list has us talking today.

That’s because Amway’s Chief Marketing Officer Candace Matthews was just named one of the “Top 10 Women in Business 2011” by the Little Pink Book.

The list recognizes women who lead companies and divisions and are leaders in their own communities.  More importantly, they share advice  for other women climbing the corporate ladder.

“I have been blessed to have strong mentors and role models at critical points in my career,” says Matthews. “I am very aware of the necessity to continue to blaze the trail and be a strong example for others to follow. You never know whose career path you are impacting.”