Our Business Innovations team has some great stories to tell.

We posted one last month about asking the simple question: What if? Here’s one about a pilot project they supported in Ghana.

It’s a wonderful tale of creating choices, reducing barriers and empowering people as told byAmway Business Innovations Manager Seth Starner.

“When our founders Rich and Jay were thinking about this business – this was a business for everyone,” Starner says. “So how do we truly live up to that dream of creating opportunity for everyone?”

Watch the video to find out.

vimeo Direkt

It’s no secret that one of the perks of success in Amway is that we send our distributors on business and incentive trips to some of the world’s most beautiful locations. But just as often, we simply bring them home – to our World Headquarters in Ada, Michigan, a community of 10,000 residents that is also home to rivers, working farmlands and a historic town village.

When they visit, they share their stories with employees, who frankly, never tire of hearing about who they are and how they’ve built their Amway business. Employees consider this a privilege, and we hope our Amway Insider readers will, too.

A few days ago, Founders Council member Wonbo Shim told us that when he was a mechanical engineer in California, he was relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota, with no say in the matter. That’s when he realized, “my life is not mine,” and started his Amway business.

During that same employee meeting, Deidre Sala told us that when she was a young girl, her mother bought fruits, vegetables and Amway products from a small truck that drove through her tiny town on Australia’s Gold Coast. Naturally, her first thought when someone approached her about the Amway business was, “but we don’t own a truck!” She soon learned what it actually takes to be an Amway business owner – no truck necessary!

Igor and Valeria Kharatin, Ukranians, shared, “We both started our careers as teachers, but now, we have our own school.” Igor and Valeria used their profits from Amway to set up a school teaching sportsman-like conduct to young athletes.

And to wrap up that day’s meetings, Foo Howe Kean, an Amway Founders Council member from Malaysia said, “They say opportunity never knocks twice, but for me, it did.”

He was shown the Amway compensation plan once, but was unsure if was for him. That second ”knock” came from the former chairman of the Dental Association of Malaysia, a friend of his at the time. Foo joined Amway 35 years ago. Since then he has also started Amway businesses in China, Indonesia, Taiwan and Thailand.

Perhaps Deidra’s husband Mitch summarized how we all — employees and distributors alike — often feel. He said, ”We all become slightly better people than we were when we joined [Amway].”

We welcomed more than 200 Founders Council members and other attendees to our World Headquarters this week, and we did it in grand style. Check out some of the photos on our Amway Facebook page. And if you missed the live stream of their arrival courtesy of our Amacam, the replay is available here. Watch for more coverage in the weeks to come!

The 2013 Founders Council began today in Grand Rapids, Michigan! Tomorrow we welcome them to our World Headquarters. Here are some fun facts. Did you know…

For Amway President Doug DeVos, growing up around the family business meant more than simply watching his father, company co-founder Rich DeVos, go to work each day.

For Doug and his siblings, it meant welcoming distributors to the family’s home, serving food and cleaning up afterward.  He was even recruited to do product demos.

“The business came to the family and the family came to the business,” Doug recalled.  “We got to be involved. That’s not true with a lot of family businesses.”

Doug recently talked about  growing up in Amway, what he learned from his father and how he leads Amway with Chairman Steve Van Andel today in an interview with the Sunday Morning Townsquare radio show.

He also shared the value of listening to and learning from distributors in creating the products, training and support to help them succeed.  Keeping that orientation, Doug said, ensures that Amway is relevant today and remains so for future generations. 

Listen to the interview here.

We are preparing to welcome about 200 members of our 2013 Founders Council to West Michigan next week, and for the first time ever you are invited to watch part of the festivities.

We will present a live broadcast of their arrival at our World Headquarters in Ada, Michigan. The one and a half hour live-stream will air on May 14th at 2:00 p.m. EDT via a special tab on Amway Corporate Facebook page.

Thanks to new technology – our Amacam – we are able to share all the glamour and excitement of the event with Amway distributors, prospects and friends around the globe.

The Amacam consists of three high-definition cameras (two inside and one outside) that will showcase the members as they arrive to walk the yellow carpet and be welcomed by hundreds of Amway employees.

Attendees to this year’s Founders Council group come from 15 different countries and include 11 new Founders Council members!

So, mark your calendar and plan to join us for the celebration. (How many of our top distributors will you be able to identify?)

Post by Gary Wade.

Amway’s Gen Y distributor force continues to leave their distinctive mark on countries around the globe, creating a social network that is paying off – literally.

Tamsen Sala, 24, of Queensland, Australia, is a thriving entrepreneur who understands the appeal of the Amway business for her generation. “This is a very flexible business,” Tamsen said. “You can work it full time or alongside whatever else you have going on. That’s very appealing to my generation.”

Tamsen is a second-generation distributor who started her Amway business in 2007 at age 18.  “I wanted the life my parents had and the life they provided me growing up,” she said.

“The business has offered me skill sets such as work ethic, discipline, people skills and goal setting. It also offers an environment of … positivity, which I haven’t seen outside the Amway business.”

The flexible business and her newly acquired skill set also helped her volunteer with a program mentoring teen girls.

“I try to be a positive role model and show them that they can be in control of their success,” she said. 

Tamsen is proof positive that Amway doesn’t depend on age or education, just work ethic and determination.

“The Amway products sell themselves and really appeal to my friends,” said Tamsen. Her personal favorites? The full line of ARTISTRY^TM cosmetics and XS Energy Drinks.

Post by Gary Wade

When Amway and Microsoft recently hosted an event celebrating and promoting women leaders in business, people took notice – including Forbes.com contributor Anne Doyle, who wrote:

“When two global corporations with the economic impact and cultural  influence of Amway and Microsoft – both reach and employ millions of consumers and change agents all over the world —  recognize that the women’s leadership engine is revving up and they’d better get on board, the possibilities for paradigm shifting change are enormous.”

More than 200 women attended the event, which started with a conversation between Amway managers and their Microsoft account executive about the need to better support women seeking leadership roles.

It resulted in a daylong gathering that included keynote speeches from Amway Chief Marketing Officer Candace Matthews and Microsoft Americas Premier Support Vice President Kelly Rogan, who explained why being a “street fighter” is just as important as being a great collaborator.

We can’t wait to see where this conversation leads.

(Guest post by Nick Wasmiller)

“Amway was founded on the belief that, by helping people improve their lives, they could make the world a better place.”

So begins the message from our Chairman Steve Van Andel and our President Doug DeVos in the Amway 2012 Global Corporate Social Responsibility Report released today.

The annual report highlights the many ways our company, its more than 21,000 employees and more than 3 million distributors make a difference in the lives of others.

That includes building homes in Latin America, providing water filters in Haiti, building libraries in China and adopting schools right here in the hometown of our World Headquarters.

Corporate Social Responsibility is built into everything we do: our people, our products and our performance.

 Steve and Doug credit their fathers for recognizing the potential in this business for making a difference.

“They made it their mission to be more, do more, give more. And more than a half-century later, we’re still emulating their powerful example. … We’re awed by how far we’ve come and inspired to keep becoming more, together.”

Read the full report here.

It was mid-day, but the stars shone bright at Figure Skating in Harlem’s Skating with the Stars Gala Monday.

Amway was among the shining stars at the event where some of the world’s greatest skaters, celebrities and corporate and community leaders united for an evening of ice skating at the Trump Wollman Rink in New York City’s iconic Central Park.

Amway has been a proud sponsor of this event and organization for the past five years, but this was the first as presenting sponsor.

Candace Matthews, Amway Chief Marketing Officer, joined Figure Skating in Harlem’s Board of Directors in 2005 and has served several terms as FSH’s Board Chair and Gala Co-Chair, including this year.

Learn more about this fabulous event, including photos and some of the big names that were there, at our One by One blog.