We are happy to welcome several guests to our community Wednesday as we officially mark construction of our $81 million manufacturing and warehouse facility near our World Headquarters, one of seven sites around the world where we are expanding manufacturing.

We first announced this project last year as part of a larger investment in U.S. operations. Work is ongoing in Quincy, Washington, and in Buena Park, California. And our new protein powder plant at our World Headquarters became operational last year.

But tomorrow the spotlight will be on our 317,000-square-foot plant at 5101 Spaulding Ave. SE. just down the road from our main campus. Since we’re renovating an existing building, a ground-breaking ceremony with gold shovels didn’t seem appropriate. So invited guests, including distributors, employees, local business and government officials and the media, will bear witness to a “beam-signing” to officially kick-off the project.

We anticipate the plant will yield 200 jobs over the next three years with construction wrapping up in 2015. Stay tuned!

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.

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

“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.

Amway President Doug DeVos, in the April 2013 edition of  Harvard Business Review, shares the lessons Amway learned working through China’s direct selling ban in the 1990s.

“The idea that direct selling could be outlawed was incomprehensible to us. This method of marketing was the foundation of Amway’s business—it had been tested and proved over time and across borders. And now it appeared that we could be put out of business, despite our commitment to and investment in our China operation,” he writes in Harvard Business Review.

In “Amway’s President on Reinventing the Business to Succeed in China,” Doug describes how Amway worked with government officials to create strong direct selling legislation and made significant changes to the way it did business in China, such as opening stores.  Doug details four key lessons – understand the market, stay true to your mission, build strong, trusting relationships and take a long-term view – that helped Amway become the industry leader in China.

Doug’s column also appears in the China edition of Harvard Business Review in April, along with a story about Amway China’s innovation and growth strategies. 

Wikipedia defines a guide as one who leads others through unknown or unmapped territory. And as the direct selling industry looks toward 2013 and beyond, two prominent Direct Selling Associations (DSAs) have elected Amway executives as guides at the helm.

Amway Hong Kong General Manager Louisa (Liu) Chan will lead the Hong Kong DSA and Amway UK/Republic of Ireland General Manager and Director Andy Smith will do the same for the DSA of the United Kingdom.

From financial planning, strategic thinking and operations to managing information technology, membership and marketing, it’s no small task to lead these groups that provide consumer education and protection, proactive and reactive communications, and ethics training and guidance on a daily basis.

It’s a commitment – one that more than 50 Amway company executives, including Andy and Louisa, have made to the industry and the associations that represent it around the world.

Last week marked the fifth annual Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW), the world’s largest celebration of the innovators and job creators who launch startups, bring ideas to life, drive economic growth and improve the human condition. Global Entreprenership Week is recognized in 120 countries.

From the Dutch government’s recognition of the important role played by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in its country to 17 connection meetings between Latina entrepreneurs in Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and Chile, each participating country designs local and regional events to inspire others and help them explore their own potential.

It was the first year Guatemala celebrated GEW, and proponents in Indonesia used the week as an opportunity to try to change and improve its country’s entrepreneurial culture.

Global Entrepreneurship Week happens only once a year, but here at Amway, we celebrate our distributor force – the entrepreneurs that inspire us– every day.

You can learn more than just soccer skills at the AC Milan Junior Camp No One Left Behind by Nutrilite.

Monica Milone, Amway Italy director of corporate affairs, said that Amway’s support of the camp is about preparing kids for life. “We really believe in sport as an element of aggregation, education and personal growth,” she told reporters recently. 

Amway Italy gave the Milan Foundation USD$20,000 to help 100 at-risk children from Naples attend the Junior Camp.  While at camp the kids worked on soccer basics and learned about sportsmanship, teamwork and respect  -  skills that will help them succeed on the field as well as in life.

At camp the kids scored goals to win matches, but Amway Italy hopes they left thinking about making goals for the  future.

300 films.  70 countries.  One leading lady of beauty. 

Amway Korea in partnership with Amway Japan recently announced ARTISTRY Skincare and Cosmetics as the official Diamond Premiere sponsor of the 17^th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) – among the most prestigious international film festivals in Asia, attracting celebrities and entertainment industry professionals from around the globe.

Renowned for introducing new films and emerging directors — especially from Asian countries — film festival winners will receive an originally-designed award conceived by Olivier Van Doorne, French-born President and Worldwide Creative Director of the New York based ad agency for the ARTISTRY brand.

The festival takes place October 4-13, 2012 in Busan, South Korea. We’ll share more news live from the Red Carpet where Australian actress and ARTISTRY Global Face, Teresa Palmer, will take the spotlight on behalf of the brand.

Amway World Headquarters will be closed in celebration of the U.S. Labor Day holiday on Monday, September 3, and reopen on Tuesday, September 4.

We wish our employees, distributors and their families safe travels over the holiday weekend.