For centuries, the tea house has been a key element of a Japanese garden.

It’s a tranquil place. Before you enter, you cleanse your face and hands to symbolically check your cares and worries at the door. 

It’s a harmonious place, where you meet with friends, receive special tea and cake, and enjoy your time together. 

It’s also a familiar place for our recent guests at Amway World Headquarters, who participated in the Georgetown University Leadership Program, supported by Amway Japan and The Japan Times.

They were excited to learn that a tea house is planned for the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, as part of The Richard and Helen DeVos Japanese Garden. Construction for the project begins in 2013.

During a preview and personal tour of the future garden site, they shared their stories and suggestions for the first official tea ceremony with David Hooker, president and CEO at Frederik Meijer Gardens.

Already new friendships are starting to blossom.

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.”

Some of the best online videos are designed by people who might not be experts with a camera, but who have unlimited imagination and enthusiasm.

We’ll uncap some of that creative talent in Europe, where we’re celebrating the first anniversary of our Amway Home brand with a call for original video demonstrations.

Video entries are due today for this pilot program. The videos are made by and star our distributors, as well as Amway Home laundry, dish or surface products. To date, more than 160 videos are contenders. [Update: The final number of entries totals more than 220.]

It’s a simple idea, but one that could have far-reaching potential. Our research shows that a home care demonstration increases sales volume, and improves both distributor and customer engagement.

Our Research and Development team will help judge the winning entries, based on novelty, simplicity and relevance.

We can’t wait to meet the winners later this year. Not only do they each earn a trip for two to Amway World Headquarters, they’ll also perform in their own demos, which will be professionally produced.

Watch the Insider for a future sneak peak!

Jesseca Frost, Amway Public Relations Intern, co-authored this post.

Japanese distributors Yoichiro Omura and Kana Yoshida visited Amway World Headquarter this week.

But while this was their first visit to our West Michigan headquarters, they are hardly new to Amway. Both literally grew up in the Amway business, as their parents are and were Amway distributors in Japan.

But that’s where the similarities end.

Yoichiro’s parents have had a great experience in Amway and are still distributors today. Kana’s father and mother tried Amway but found it wasn’t for them.

For Yoichiro, his parents’ experience inspired him to be a distributor. For Kana, becoming a distributor was a way to find out for herself if the business was right for her.

Their time here was spent absorbing Amway’s facilities, manufacturing and history. They took plenty of pictures to share with their parents, fellow distributors and prospects back home.

And add these shots to their “family albums.”

It’s not every day that a beauty queen passes through our World Headquarters to say hello and give a piano performance, but yesterday, that’s exactly what happened.

Employees rolled out the red carpet to welcome Miss America 2011 Teresa Scanlan to our hometown. As the brand ambassador for Artistry, the official skincare and cosmetics sponsor of the Miss America Organization, Teresa is here to learn more about Amway, Artistry and the science behind one of the world’s top five, largest selling, premium skincare brands in the world.*

Follow Teresa’s travels while she’s in town!
Facebook: Artistry US
Twitter: ArtistryBeauty

*Source: Euromonitor International Limited; Beauty and Personal Care database; premium cosmetics sector; global 2009 RSP; global brand name classification.

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.

Photo by Sri Soekarmoen McCarthy.

It’s that time of the year, when New Year’s resolutions start to be forgotten and gyms become less and less crowded. But not here at Amway World Headquarters.

To help our employees keep those resolutions, Amway’s Optimal You wellness program hosted a fitness open house offering information, healthy cooking demonstrations and advice from Nutrilite and Artistry experts.

Optimal You has also issued a Total Minute Challenge to our Ada-based employees, encouraging them to complete 900 minutes of fitness activities in six weeks. We’re also offering on-site health screenings to help our employees identify possible health risks.

With an on-site fitness center open 24/7 and all these programs, all our employees need to meet those New Year’s resolutions is the resolve!