Nearly 70,000 Amway distributors, employees and their guests: That’s the total number of people who came to see Amway Chairman Steve Van Andel on his recent tour of three cities in China and one in Taiwan.
Our leadership makes annual trips to markets across the world to recognize the our top performing distributors, rewarding and recognizing them for their hard work and leadership and motivating them to keep striving.
Van Andel spoke to 11,000 in Beijing, 13,000 in Guangzhou and 10,000 in Shanghai. And when he traveled to Taipei, Taiwan, he spoke to two crowds of 17,000 each. In Taipei he also was joined by Dr. Sam Rehnborg, president of the Nutrilite Health Institute and, at one of the events, Holly Chen, one the most successful distributors in Amway’s history.
In the more than 50 years that Amway has been operating, Van Andel told the crowd he has seen many changes in the company.
“But what hasn’t changed is the people,” he said. “It’s the people that make Amway successful. People like all of you.”
Did you know that Amway employees and distributors have volunteered more than 2.5 million hours to make the communities where they work and live a better place?
Celebrated in Taipei, the event stars 48 of the world’s best female billiard players, who compete for the top spot of their sport.
This year, we also reached out to help younger players, whose quest to win the world’s major billiard competitions has just begun.
Shirley Chen, general manager for Amway Taiwan, recently awarded scholarships to 60 high school and college students to support their journey toward future success.
It’s a pleasure to keep our eye on the brightest talent of today. In them, we see the powerful potential for tomorrow.
If you read The Wall Street Journal on February 15, you’ll learn that the “future of business” is a 68-year-old grandmother and Amway distributor that the Journal calls “one of the most prolific salespeople on Earth.”
The Journal profiles Holly Chen, one of the most successful Amway distributors ever, and how she leads and inspires a global network of distributors that stretches from her home in Taiwan throughout Asia, Europe and the Americas.
Her advice to those pursuing an Amway business?
As she is quoted in The Wall Street Journal,
“…when you’re in the Amway business, of course you change your mindset, you change your attitude, and your outcome will definitely change with it.”
And perhaps Holly has the potential to change minds, as well as mindsets. As the Journal reports, “Of all things, of all places, perhaps the future of business looks like an Amway convention.”
Our Taiwan and Hong Kong affiliates recently renovated facilities to offer brand-new brand experience centers for our distributors and their customers.
The Amway Kaohsiung Experience Center in Taiwan originally opened in 1987 as the first pick-up center for distributors. Today it’s a thriving destination for distributors and customers to experience our Nutrilite, Artistry and Amway Home brands and products plus learn more about the company and business opportunity.
The Causeway Bay Shop in Hong Kong first opened in 2003. The renovated center has interactive stations where customers can try Artistry skin care and cosmetics or learn which Nutrilite supplements are right for them.
The Hong Kong and Taiwan centers are among more than 600 shops and brand centers around the world that showcase Amway brands and products.
When we launch a new Nutrilite product, we arm our distributors with all the information they need to sell the product to their consumers.
But some distributors take learning about our products a step further – or in the case of a group of distributors from Taiwan, miles further.
About 250 Amway distributors from Taiwan recently visited our Nutrilite Trout Lake Farm in Washington to learn about Nutrilite Triple Guard Echinacea, which will launch soon in their market. During their visit distributors learned how the echinacea, or coneflower, plants are grown, harvested and processed before becoming part of our product.
But they had more than science lessons at our farm. The group learned about the social responsibility of our operations - sustainability efforts that include organic farming, social responsibility and helping the communities where we do business. And they left with ideas about how they could make small changes to make a big difference in their corner of the world.
“I came expecting to hear about how we could sell more products. Instead, you told us about how we can change the world by planting a tree, helping a neighbor or picking up trash from the street,” said one of the distributors who attended the trip. ”We’re not just selling a product. We’re also changing the world.”
This is a tale of two cities, one near and one far, and of sixty people with a common destination.
Last week we hosted two groups of distributors. Forty distributors from Detroit, Michigan drove to our world headquarters and a group of 20 distributors from Taipei, Republic of Taiwan flew halfway around the world for a visit. Both groups toured our manufacturing areas and learned more about the history of the company behind their businesses.
Many have been distributors for a long time but some have just began. No matter whether they’re from near or far, they share a goal to build better lives for themselves and for others.
For the 14th consecutive year, Amway Taiwan sponsored the recently-concluded World Pool Billiards Association’s (WPBA) Women’s 9-Ball Open. It’s a long-standing naming rights relationship, but 14 isn’t the only impressive number in this equation. Also:
48 players from countries all over the world qualify.
143 nine-ball matches are played during the seven days of the tournament.
The balls are racked 1,511 times.
Approximately 13,500 balls are made for the tournament.
Ga Young Kim won the tournament in a well-fought 11-8 victory.
Kim, 29 and a native of Seoul, Korea, befittingly won the tournament on her father’s birthday. He taught her to play the sport when she was 12, inspiring her to pursue competition as a career.
Kim and Amway Taiwan’s Managing Director are both featured in this video of the closing ceremony, but we know that it when it comes to her career, and our commitment to athletes of different backgrounds and talents the world over, the story is just beginning.
About 11,268 miles or 18,148 kilometers separate Taiwan from Amway’s World Headquarters in Ada, Michigan.
But for distributors with global businesses like Andy Chuang and Olivia Wu, executive diamonds from Taiwan, the distance between the two points isn’t measured by miles or kilometers but by relationships.
Wu and Chuang visited Amway today, along with about 200 distributors in their organization. Some had traveled halfway around the world to get here, and others just a few hours from their U.S. or Canadian homes.
Regardless of where they came from, they’re connected by a business that spans borders, cultures and languages. And that begins with one person reaching out to another.
“Amway is not an either-or choice, but a matter of one plus one,” Chuang and Wu have said.
And for Wu and Chuang and countless others, that adds up to success.
This past weekend the winning team from the Amway Nutrilite Junior NBA challenge, the Tigers, made their trip to Los Angeles to attend the NBA All-Star game.
Their journey began last spring when four cities in China and Taiwan held basketball skills challenges for thousands of kids between the ages of seven and twelve. Six lucky kids selected from each city were invited to a city camp where they worked one-on-one with Dwight Howard of the NBA’s Orlando Magic. The boys were then divided into two teams of twelve players each. They competed against each other in games in both Beijing and Taipei. And the winning team made the trip to the United States.
On Friday the team spent the day at the Nutrilite COH in Buena Park where they toured our facilities, enjoyed a fun-filled round of our “Color Yourself Healthy” beanbag game, and were put through the paces in a fitness session with Diane Paetz, Nutrilite’s fitness instructor.
On Saturday they played an exhibition game against the Junior NBA Clippers at the NBA Jam Session in the LA Convention Center. Throughout their visit their biggest support came from Taiwanese celebrity, and former Asian basketball star Chen Chien-Chou, affectionately known as “Blackie” in Asia, who accompanied the team on their trip.
This past weekend the winning team from the Amway Nutrilite Junior NBA challenge, the Tigers, made their trip to Los Angeles to attend the 
On Friday the team spent the day at the Nutrilite COH in Buena Park where they toured our facilities, enjoyed a fun-filled round of our “Color Yourself Healthy” beanbag game, and were put through the paces in a fitness session with Diane Paetz, Nutrilite’s fitness instructor.