In 2011, our sales numbers were impressive and we reached several milestones, including our first month with sales over $1 billion.

But years from now, we won’t have those numbers memorized. What we will remember are the people who made our success possible.

That sentiment was recently echoed by Amway President Doug DeVos.

“While it’s a business and we talk about sales numbers and growth, what we’re really excited about is the people in our business … our business owners from around the world who make Amway what it is,” he said during an interview with a dozen journalists from Turkey who visited Amway World Headquarters.

During their stay, the journalists toured our cosmetics plant as well as our research and development facilities. They also visited the Van Andel Institute and Gerald R. Ford Museum in nearby Grand Rapids.

“This is an exciting time to be part of the Amway business,” Doug told the journalists, adding the distributor force behind the company is what it makes it unique. “We’ve had great business performance in the past few years, especially last year, and we’re proud to be part of a vibrant and growing industry.”

When we say we’re a company built on values, we mean it.

Freedom. Family. Hope. Reward.

Those are our Founders’ Fundamentals that are embedded, literally, in stone in front of our World Headquarters in Ada, Michigan.

These principles, along with our corporate values and mission, provide a solid foundation for all our business operations, from our dealings with distributors to the leadership positions our executives hold within their communities.

To find out how, inspired by our values, we collectively improve the world around us, read our Corporate Citizenship Report.

Or watch this video of Amway Chairman Steve Van Andel and President Doug DeVos discussing what the Founders’ Fundamentals mean to our organization.

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 When Dick DeVos and Doug DeVos are inducted as members of the U.S. Direct Selling Association (DSA) Hall of Fame, they’ll join their father, Amway Co-Founder Rich DeVos, in this exclusive group of direct selling pioneers and leaders.

And Rich will be there to welcome them to the club.

The DSA announced today that Rich will present Doug and Dick as the newest Hall of Fame honorees June 5 during the organization’s annual meeting.

It will be a family affair as Rich welcomes his sons to the association’s honorary group of leaders who have made significant contributions to the industry.   It is the first time since 2009 that DSA will add industry leaders to the Hall of Fame.

The announcement that Amway’s parent company reached sales of USD$10.9 billion in 2011 made headlines.

And this week, Amway’s chairman and president shared the story behind the headlines with some major media.

Amway President Doug DeVos explained during an interview on the FOX Business show Varney and Company that the “American dream” is alive and well not just in the U.S. but all over the world.  DeVos and Amway Chairman Steve Van Andel sat down with The Wall Street Journal’s Dennis Berman for a “Big Interview” about how Amway helps people achieve their goals through a business of their own.

Click on the photo below to view the “Big Interview.” 

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!

When is the best time to start a business? According to Amway President Doug DeVos – a passionate champion for free enterprise – it’s a personal decision not to be swayed by fears about  the economy or other external factors.

“Start it now,” he told business leaders and students gathered recently at the Detroit Economic Club. “You have the ability to allocate resources, to make investments of your time, your talent and your treasure. Invest them now.”

DeVos singled out the key role business can play in reinvigorating the economy. He suggested that the business community partner with government officials to create an environment that can help unleash the power of the entrepreneur.

Business, he said, has the capacity to create prosperity which generates economic freedom and, in turn, leads to personal freedom. Making investments in time and talent right now will help the economy recover.

“It’s up to us to take action and do something about it. And I believe improving the quality of life for people in our communities is a cause worth fighting for.”

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The current issue of Chief Executive magazine features a story about “Amway’s New Way.”

That “new way” is how Amway has successfully crossed borders, bridged cultural gaps and adapted to the needs of consumers in the more than 80 countries and territories in which we operate.

As Amway President Doug DeVos says,  ”What we’re trying to do now is become really good at being local in every market in which we operate. It’s not just a multinational effort, but really understanding what it means to be an Indian company in India, a Chinese company in China, a Brazilian or Mexican company in Latin America.”

Part of that, adds Chairman Steve Van Andel, is a commitment to understanding the different needs everywhere we operate, to ”take a look at all the markets we’re in and figure out how to better service those customers.”

Global success?  For Amway, it’s a matter of going local.

Editor’s Note:  This post was originally published on the Interns Expose Amway blog.

My internship has been the best thing that has ever happened to me, it has been a dream come true in every sense. From my project, to the people I have had the chance to interact with in the company. Fortunately, I have been extremely busy, but a busy that I really enjoy!

The reason why I love Amway, is because it is so different from my former job in the Cemex Way –which I used to think was the best job on Earth!-. But it falls really short when I think of how cool the purpose of my job is and the company culture is. Imagine sharing cookies and refreshments with your whole division including the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Candace Matthews and be the first topic in the meeting to be formally addressed. At the start of the meeting the marketing interns were welcomed one by one to the company. That is how important interns are at Amway. The environment in here is so cool that employees’ share all their personal and professional accomplishments which include: getting married, having babies, being promoted, launching a product, completing a marathon, receiving recognitions from inside or outside of the business, and retiring from the company after 30+ years of service. I cannot imagine how difficult it is for people to leave the company if I am already suffering from thinking of the end of my summer and it has only been seven weeks. It would be really cool if I could stay forever!!!

Apart from participating in the divisions’ meetings, interns participate in the professional series where the undergrad and masters degree interns obtain career advice from different managers, among them we had the chance to hear Amway’s President Doug DeVos speak.

In addition, my fellow masters’ degree intern class and I also get the chance to interact more intimately with C-level executives, like Jim Payne (Amway’s Executive Director) to learn more about the company direction.  As part of his presentation we were requested to deliver him an email with suggestions on how to improve the business from what we have experienced in our areas. Mine appeared to be successful; I got an email back from him telling me that he had really liked my suggestions and that he wanted to share my insights with other executives. Isn’t that amazing?

Also, I participated with my department on the employee appreciation day, a lunch when top management serves food to their fellow employees. Besides, my department’s director, some managers in my area and I attended two fellow brand managers Latin dance class in the fitness center. These have been some highlights of my internship, since management in here is so approachable and down to earth.

Moreover, HR organizes a reverse career fair, which is a great opportunity to know more employees in different areas, touch base with the members of my cross functional team, meet the interns from California and learn more about all the interns’ projects. Alicia did a great job organizing the event and everybody put a tremendous effort on the materials that they prepared for the presentations. I feel very proud of belonging to such an amazing intern class!

But let me tell you more cool things about my summer, my internship project consists on the responsibility to create the business case and the business brief to seek approval for the introduction of a new product line in one market.

Preparing the business case entails leading a cross functional team to state the strategic and financial prospects for the company should the product launch in the market, in addition to that I am the brand’s gatekeeper for the project. Also, as part of the process it is important to communicate the potential opportunities across different managerial and operational networks to gain commitment, support and alignment until the project is finally approved. Upon approval, I lead the team to prepare a detailed launch plan where we include the future activities. This is the fun marketing side that everybody knows about where we work with creative to prepare commercials, teasers, samples, and gifts.

This phase also requires for us to start planning for the next best thing that will be used in the market to regain momentum once the product novelty to the consumers is gone.

As part of those efforts, I get to try a lot of make-up, skincare and hair care products and I had the chance to participate in an immersion and an ideation session where we conducted ethnographies (that is the fancy word for watched consumers use products in the category) and observed trends to develop the next best thing.

Finally, since most of my team is based in New York I get to spend time in there, which is always a lot of fun. It is an opportunity for me to learn a lot about our business, our products, and the trends. The best is that as part of my internship I spent 4^th of July in New York City. It was an amazing experience for me, because I arrived to the US last fall, which means this was my very first time celebrating Independence Day. It is so different from our independence celebration, that I cannot express how much I loved the fireworks. This has been a great introduction to the American Way!!!

What cool things have you done in your summer?

Editor’s Note:  This post was originally published on the Interns Expose Amway blog.

Last week I attended an intern bi-weekly meeting and we had the pleasure of having Doug DeVos, President of Amway, speak to us about the company.  I was really pumped for this event because there are not many opportunities to have an hour and a half (it was only scheduled for an hour, but he was nice enough to stay longer than planned!) of his time to listen to his perspective of the company and ask questions. Also, I think it speaks volumes about the value of Amway’s internship program because people with high positions are taking time out of their day to help make your experience at Amway the best one possible. In fact, Candace Matthews, Amway Chief Marketing Officer, came out to talk to us at our last bi-weekly meeting. You really get the sense that employees here want you to succeed and do well in your professional development.

During Doug’s speech, he touched on three main points about the business. The first one he discussed was unleashing innovation. In order for us to grow as a company, we cannot keep doing the some of the same things, especially if it is not as effective anymore.  Instead, we need to challenge ourselves and think outside of the box. We always need to be thinking about the next step by setting goals and targets. In addition, everyone is responsible for innovation and that we need to continue creating an environment where this can happen.

The second point was the emphasis to focus on consumers. Amway needs to be competitive in the marketplace, but hold on to its foundation and heritage at the same time. To do this, we always need to look at things from a global perspective as well as understand other people’s culture, background, and language. Basically we cannot operate in a vacuum, which can be difficult for many companies. Amway will continue to embrace the challenges that come its way.

Lastly, Amway is performance driven. Everything that we do needs to generate results so we can measure and evaluate. This way we can see what is working and what is not. A good attitude must be present because a person may not receive the results they were expecting. Therefore, a person is challenged to come up with new innovative ideas that will achieve the desired results.

As you can probably tell, the key word throughout Doug’s speech is “challenge”. I believe that this is probably one of the best ways to learn because it forces you to think differently. I know I would not be the person I am today if I just took the easy ways out and kept doing what I was comfortable with.  Have you experience any challenges that changed you personally or professionally that you would like to share?

I hope to hear back from you!

P.S. One of his favorite Amway products is Double X. I couldn’t help myself, I had to ask