Amway President Doug DeVos was on the road this weekend, visiting Thailand for our affiliate’s 25th anniversary celebration.

During Amway Thailand’s National Convention in Muang Thong Thani near Bangkok, more than 40,000 distributors gathered to celebrate their success in their Amway businesses as well as the affiliate’s milestone.

Doug was there to not only commemorate the achievements of the employees and distributors at Amway Thailand, but also to pay tribute to Preecha Prakobkit, who is retiring as Amway Thailand’s managing director this year. 

Preecha led Amway Thailand to become one of Amway’s top markets during his 23 years with the company. Always innovating, he explored new ways to connect with distributors and customers, in recent years using social media personally and professionally.

A major milestone, an incredible career and the success of many - definitely reasons to celebrate!

Every October, CLEO Magazine Thailand inducts a number of products to its Beauty Hall of Fame. Judges include beauty bloggers such as this one, well known makeup artists, and writers and editors from CLEO. All use the products for at least a month, but usually longer, in order to accurately report on the results.

This year, Artistry took home not one, but seven, Hall of Fame awards. Some of the categories honoring Artistry and the Artistry Essentials line included “Best Makeup for Newbies,” “Best Acne Healers,”  and “Best D.I.Y. Product.”

CLEO is about confidence, naturalness, energy and fun for young Thai women. So we think it’s only fitting that Artistry now holds a place in the magazine’s history.

Three Thai Amway distributors Naruss Mahakkapong (known as  ”Bob Joe”), Samornsri Klungsupavipat (nicknamed “Nuch”), and Kitja Watcharapichat  journeyed from the “Land of Smiles”  to Amway World Headquarters to meet and exchange ideas with our staff. 

Bob Joe and his wife, Nuch, are a  young and energetic couple who have found novel ways to share the Amway business with people of all ages. They use social media, technology, hip hop music, and  multimedia tools to talk about the business and strategies for success.

As much as Bob Joe and Nuch are focused on the here and now, they have a deep respect for the past.   They devoured books about  Jay Van Andel and Rich DeVos’ lifelong friendship and business partnership. They’ve been inspired by the Amway cofounders’ achievements.  And they made the trip to see where  this business started in Ada, Mich. 

But they didn’t dwell on the past too long.  For them, Amway is the business of the future and they’re eager to share it with others – using music, Facebook or whatever means possible.

Our Amway and Nutrilite brands were recently named among the best brands in two Asian rankings.

In Singapore consumers picked our Nutrilite brand as one of the top three health supplement brands in the AsiaOne People’s Choice Awards.

About 1,400 kilometers away in Thailand, consumers polled by BrandAge named Amway the “most trusted”  direct selling brand for the third year. 

As they say during other awards ceremonies, it’s an honor to just be nominated. 

Because  for Amway and Nutrilite,  winning the trust and confidence of our consumers is its own reward.

Amway Thailand has supported environmental awareness and protection programs since the 1990s, including efforts to preserve Thailand’s wild elephant population and educate Thai youth about the the need to protect the planet.

But this time of year, Amway Thailand talks trash – keeping Amway’s plastic packaging out of the trash, that is. 

The company has kept 3.77 million plastic bottles out of landfills since 2006 through its annual ”I’m not Rubbish” campaign, which launches November 4.

This month-long effort encourages distributors and customers to recycle and earn points for each bottle they return to Amway.  Points can be redeemed for Amway products during the campaign.

Last year more than 1.5 million bottles were returned – nearly double the number recycled in 2008.  

That’s the kind of trash talk we like to hear.

This week  the Amway for Thai Society Foundation announced a 400,000-baht sponsorship for library development for the Border Patrol Police School of Na Yaw village, Chachoengsao province.  This school serves 530 students from kindergarten to grade 6.

This is the 23rd donation Amway has made to support Thai libraries, ensuring that students are well-read and well-equipped for their studies.

Amway makes headlines around the world on a daily basis.

And if we’re not in the headlines, you might see our executives’  bylines as they share their thoughts in print and online.

Today Amway India’s managing director Bill Pinckney bylined a column in The Hindu about the need for nutritional supplements.  He cited changing diets, stressful lifestyles and different ways of cooking as reasons more people need supplements to fill their nutritional gaps.

Yesterday in Thailand, Preecha Prakobkit, Amway’s managing director there, wrote about sports marketing at the BangkokBizNews.com CEO Blog.

So we make headlines and our execs create bylines.  In other words, Amway makes news and our newsmakers share views.

“Don’t be fooled into thinking that direct sales are a thing of the past,” begins a Fortune article online today. “Amway is not only still alive and well, it’s actually growing, even as many retailers continue to struggle.”

The story  showcases how Amway has not just survived but thrived, highlighting  our success in China and how our business model and products – like best-selling Nutrilite protein powder –  have fueled our growth in that market.

As the article concludes, “In the modern era of direct-selling, protein powder may be the new lipstick.”

We’re alive all right.  Alive and kicking.