Doug DeVos Interview on Amway

On Speaking of Amway, there’s a link to an interview with the current president of Amway Global, Doug DeVos (the son of Amway founder Rich DeVos). In the article, DeVos is asked what his biggest challenge has been. He replies:

The most fulfilling challenge has been initiating change at our 50-year-old company–seeing what works and what doesn’t–and then getting everybody, employees and distributors alike, to embrace the changes. Today, Amway is shifting from a sales-driven company of top-quality beauty, nutritional and household products to a world-class marketing organization that commercially applies innovative research and development to improve the lives of millions of customers.

Shifting from a sales-driven company to a world-class marketing organization? I’m not sure exactly what he means by this, but I think there’s something significant in this change. There’s debate over on IBOFB’s site on whether or not Amway should rein in all of the various Systems and create one global System for IBOs. If they are in control of the message — and the rules by which you can deliver the message — that might reduce the System abuses I’ve experienced first-hand and continue to see perpetrated by some. I’m all for reducing the impact of the Systems and having IBOs have a more direct relationship with the corporation.

How do you interpret what DeVos is saying in his interview about the mission statement for Amway Global?

IBOFightBack on Amway Global and Accreditation

Hope everyone has had a great holiday this season. I just read IBOFightBack’s latest post on accreditation. Check it out, as he takes a swipe at Amway Global’s weak attempt at enforcing accreditation within Dexter Yager’s InterNet Services Amway Motivational Organization.

A few weeks ago, I took aim at the Supreme Team Leader for bringing in former Congressman Bob McEwen to talk at a Team/MonaVie conference. I did not like how Woodward mixed religion and politics in a conference that was supposed to be about selling juice and making money. The speech was shortly before the election, and in its content were veiled and direct attempts to sway the participants’ votes to a certain political party. This was the sort of thing that I saw frequently from stage ten years ago while in Amway/Quixtar. Watching the first part of McEwen’s speech from Yager’s Free Enterprise Celebration conference, held in October — i.e. also before the election — I could see that it was pretty much the same speech.

Hey Bob? Didn’t you know that according to Woodward, Amway is bad, bad company that tried to ruin his life and livelihood? That it’s being run by people who have lost sight of the country’s and its owner’s founding principles? Apparently, Bob also did not get the memo from Yager about The Right To Differ (bold emphasis mine):

To: All Yager Group Diamonds and Personals (Intended for all ibos)

Fr: The Yagers

Dt: 9/15/08

Re: Best Practices Message: The Right to Differ

One of the criteria for continued accreditation with Amway Global/Quixtar is that all IBOs understand Amway Global/Quixtar’s best practices as explained through the IBO Communications Platform. The following message is sent in accordance with the Amway Global/Quixtar Professional Development Accreditation Program and is part of ongoing best practices messages you should expect to receive by email on a monthly basis. Please forward this message to all ibos in your organization.

The Right to Differ

You are attracting more and younger IBOs and more and more IBOs from different races, religions, and nationalities. It’s a very cool thing to see because it demonstrates what we’ve always said – that this is a business anyone can do. Regardless of your background, where you’re from, or who you vote for, this business can help you achieve your goals. And just as Quixtar is committed to supporting people who want to own their own business, we’re also committed to acceptance. This means tolerance and acceptance of those with differing beliefs and viewpoints- different religious beliefs, different political affiliations, or just different opinions in general. And this means there’s room for everybody in the business – which is what makes our business so strong and so successful.

We’re not here to exclude anyone; we’re here to include everyone. So we all have to be sensitive of the differences among us and appreciate that sometimes not everyone shares the same views. It’s especially important to be mindful of this during business meetings where there’s a tendency to share your personal beliefs with others from stage. While it’s OK to talk about how important your beliefs are to you in your own life and how they’ve helped you build your business, it’s not OK to say that others need to believe the same thing. The one belief that all IBOs do need to share is the power of this business. As long as we’re all united in our commitment to building Quixtar-powered businesses in the right way, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish, regardless of our differences. In fact, these differences can provide an even broader and stronger foundation for growing this business.

For your success,

The Yagers

Since the memo was intended for all IBOs, and if Bob is not an IBO, I guess the memo doesn’t apply to him?

IBOFB is disappointed that the company hasn’t enforced its own accreditation guidelines. If it’s not doing its job with Yager, could it be missing the boat with other Systems? Religious and political sermonizing from stage went on ten years ago and it’s still going on this very day!

It’s no secret that the founding family of Amway donate huge sums of money to the Republican party. Even the son of Rich DeVos and former head of Amway tried to run for the Governorship of Michigan a few years back. While it’s certainly possible for companies to separate politics from business, with the Amway business, I think it’s much more difficult due its 50-year relationship with the Republicans. This might be one reason why the company turns a blind eye to the sort of thing happening on Yager’s stage (and Woodward, when he was in bed with Amway).

Here’s my solution for all of this, remove the founding family from all business making decisions with the company and strictly enforce accreditation. Kick out — and I mean KICK OUT — those kingpins that do not follow the accreditation guidelines. The DeVos’ and the Van Andel’s will still make their money in this scenario, but the appearance of political favoritism will be reduced. Founder’s leave companies all the time; sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t. As long as they have institutionalized the things they purport to hold dear to their hearts — the importance of running your own business and helping others succeed — and not the wrong things — vote Republican and be a hardcore Christian above all other things — Amway may very well be on the track to healing its reputation with the public and its IBO force.

If not… well, 2009 is going to look a lot like 1999.

New Year’s Resolutions

People in “the business” talk all of the time about “making the decision” to move on and build the business. Nine years ago this time of the year, I made a different decision, that of moving on and leaving the business. The end of the year is a great time to evaluate the state of your business. In a few days, you can close out the books and know exactly how much money you’ve made and how many expenses you’ve incurred. If you got into Amway/Quixtar to make money, knowing your bottom line is critical. You should also factor in how much time you and your downline have spent running your business.

IBOs: What is your bottom line for 2008?

You don’t have to answer in the comments section below if you don’t want to, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t know the answer to that question yourself.

Armed with this information, you can make a decision on whether or not to stay in the business. If you decide to stay, good luck and make sure you continue to keep a careful eye on your finances. If you decide to leave, know that there are other opportunities out there to earn extra income.

Happy holidays to all and see you in 2009!

Spending More Than You Should

Much has been argued and debated about prices in Amway/Quixtar. Critics say that the products are overpriced whereas IBOs contend that the prices are fair considering the value. There’s just one problem with the IBOs argument, however: Every product has the bonus structure factored into the price. So, if you’re stuck at the bottom, you’re paying at least a 3-31% premium on everything you purchase.

So, what if the corporation lowered prices? They would have to make up for the lost profits by selling more products. Unfortunately, the majority of IBOs aren’t exactly retailing like gangbusters these days. I wonder what is the true purpose of Amway’s recent Now You Know (What?) marketing campaign. Could it be one day the corporation will start selling direct to consumers? I can certainly envision marketing like, “Amway. Same Great Products. New Lower Prices.”

I’ve been reading about these new performance bonuses for next year. There’s a 2-year Founder’s Diamond bonus of $500,000 that was recently announced. That’s a nice chunk of change, but how many IBOs are really going to achieve this? I’m suspecting that these super-sized bonuses are really geared towards keeping the kingpins happy and affiliated with Amway. With the TEAM debacle last year, the corporation doesn’t want other IBOs moving over to another MLM, so they have to provide incentive to stay in and work harder. I’m more interested in hearing about the incentives for people who are at the bottom. IBOs – tell us about those incentives!

Joecool on Retirement

Joecool recently wrote about the possibility of retiring from the Amway/Quixtar critic scene, and I must say, I can understand where he’s coming from. He’s been blogging about this subject for the past five years now, not to mention all of the time he was living, breathing, and thinking about “the business.”

I came back to the discussion on Amway/Quixtar for a few reasons: (1) to get off my chest some of the things that disturbed me about the business and (2) to help people who are experiencing the same things that I did make a more informed decision about their future. I feel that my criticism of the business and the System are still valid in many ways. I would like to hope that IBOs can earn good money by selling affordable, high-quality products, without spending a ton of cash on useless motivation and vacuous teaching. The corporation and IBOs who visit the site say that things are changing, but I’ve heard that familiar refrain before ten years ago. I’ll believe it when I see it. On this blog, I’ve also taken issue with some former-IBOs who have left to move to different companies; I feel like they are continuing to perpetuate the abuses I saw in my time. From my point of view, I’m correct; from theirs, I’m just another critic who doesn’t know what I’m talking about.

Everyone has their own destiny to follow, and each one of us is free to choose to believe one thing today and another thing tomorrow. I was once a hardcore believe in Amway/Quixtar, but now I’m not. What will your ultimate destiny be in the business? If it’s not working out financially, I really encourage you to evaluate what’s wrong. I would hate to have you spend five, ten, or fifteen years in the business and still be stuck at 100PV. One of the worst things that you can do to yourself is regret the mistakes that you made or the decisions that you left on the table. I, for one, believe that you need to trust yourself and not something else: your upline, a deity, or chance. The System and the kingpins all say to take control of your business and to make a decision. That decision can cut both ways: do more or leave. There are plenty of other opportunities out there in the world other than Amway/Quixtar. Spend some time exploring, and you might just find something that you can find yourself getting truly passionate about.

One day, I’ll have said my say and walk away. I’m not quite finished yet, but like Joecool, perhaps I’ll slow down on the amount of posting that I do in the future.

Masks and Identities

A couple of weeks ago, I submitted a comment on Orrin Woodward’s website about his post on Bob McEwen. My comment was never approved, and I think I know why, judging from a recent post, The Soul of Network Marketing:

If you won’t post under your real identity then why should I post your opinions?

What is real and what is fake when it comes to identity? We all wear various masks in our lives. How we interact with our co-workers is often very different from how we interact with our loved ones and friends. Even within these individual spheres of work, family, and friends, we often put on a different persona depending on who we are speaking with. For instance, you wouldn’t talk to your children like you would talk to your spouse. Nor would you speak to a subordinate in the same manner that you speak to your superior.

What’s more important than the mask you wear outwardly is the content of what you say. If you are not being deceptive nor lying, does it matter if you post behind a pseudonym? There was a common saying when I was in the Amway business (from where Orrin came from), “If your dream is big enough, the facts don’t matter!” I’m sorry to say but this quote really is a bunch of BS and should be rewritten as, “If your dream is big enough, the facts are really important!”

I have my reasons for not posting under my legal name, and unless Orrin’s comment policy has changed recently, there’s no requirement for entering a legal name.

If you would like to post contact information on your comment, please enter your information into the optional fields below:

Name
URL
Email

So, if Orrin feels strongly about this, I suggest modifying his comments policy to reflect what he wants. Orrin has in the past posted comments from people using handles, such as IBOFightBack, so there is precedence.

What Orrin is doing on his site is exactly that which is claims to be against in his post: a totalitarian! This is entirely his right, since it’s his website, after all. Compare, however, his exhortations on individual choice, freedom and free enterprise with the comments on his site. Why is there little or no dissent there? Are such opinions being moderated and suppressed or does everyone just plain agree with him?

Top Posts and Affiliate Marketing

Looking through this site’s logs, I see that the top posts are for my humor story on Dean Kosage in Who Moved My MonaVie and What Is XS Gold: Part 1. In aggregate, however, all of my posts on Orrin Woodward would probably take the top spot:

Now, let’s see how these terms stack up on Google compared with some other searches:

• iPhone: 297,000,000
• Red Bull: 21,900,000
• Amway: 4,110,000
• XanGo: 2,500,000
• MonaVie: 1,100,000
• Quixtar: 549,000
• Orrin Woodward: 18,800
• XS Gold: 4,190
• Dean Kosage: 1,790

I was a little surprised by Quixtar’s low ratings, until I remembered the corporation’s rather heavy-handed approach to how IBOs can market their business. One of the areas of transformation that I feel the corporation needs to work on is allowing IBOs to more effectively market their products and services to customers beyond the face-to-face, one-on-one approach. While I understand why in the past they didn’t want IBOs to be advertising in newspapers and TV ads, but times have changed.

For instance, why can’t an IBO have hyperlinks to products on their blog that link directly to their IBO account like with Amazon Associates? Right now, it appears customers have to go through this portal — often password-protected — in order to buy something from the corporation through that IBO. That’s not making things any easier, you know. IBOs, please correct me if I’m wrong on this one.

Technology is designed (although it doesn’t always succeed) to make things easier and more efficient. Sometimes I think the corporation is afraid of embracing technology because it wants to keep a level playing field.

Speculation: Orrin Woodward’s Next Book: “Launching A Tax Sheltering Revolution”

Update April 15, 2009: Article updated with a response this response from Kevin T., former legal counsel to TEAM. Also updated Robert Dickie’s position at AGO; a previous version of this article implied that he left AGO in September 2008.

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Supreme TEAM Leader Orrin Woodward proudly proclaims on his site that all proceeds from his book Launching A Leadership Revolution will be donated to All Grace Outreach, a 501c3 charitable organization. From its web site, the organization:

is committed to providing assistance to those in need. Our main focuses include helping abused, abandoned, and distressed children, supporting U.S. military families that have lost loved ones in war, and spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world.

In its newsroom section, All Grace Outreach lists a number of donations its made in the past two years:

• August 2008: $5,000 to Angel Arms
• May 2008: $5,300 to Evangelical Press
• May 2008: $25,000 to Whaley’s Children Center (through Board Members Tim and Amy Marks)
• May 2008: $5,000 to Special Operations Warrior Foundation
• Early 2008: $10,000 to Angelman Syndrome Foundation
• January 2008: $2,000 to J. P. Elder Middle School
• October 2007: $15,000 to Whaley Children’s Center
• January 2007: $6,000 to Here’s Life Inner City
• January 2007: $15,000 to Kindred Spirit

There’s nothing wrong with donating money to charity, and I’m sure that the organizations listed above are worthy causes.

Here’s what I’m seeing as suspicious, however. Look at the leadership of All Grace Outreach: Robert Dickie III, Chief Executive Officer of TEAM, Robert Cassidy, Chief Information Officer of TEAM, and Kevin T., Chief Legal Counsel of TEAM¹. Board members of AGO include Tim and Amy Marks. Who else is on the board of All Grace Outreach? I would wager that Orrin along with his other high-ranking TEAMmates are on the board.

Where is this idle speculation leading to? My main question is primarily financial. How much money is being “donated” to their organization that isn’t going to charity? Is All Grace Outreach being used as a tax-sheltering organization for Orrin and other members (Chris Brady? Randy Haugen?) of TEAM?

Orrin has a new post on his site today where he mentions December’s Book of the Month, The Go-Giver (which is available for just $13.57 on Amazon.com). Orrin comments on the Law of Value:

I have taught for years to give more than you receive. The goal should be to deposit more into each relationship that you have than can possibly be given back. This becomes harder the more relationships that you have and the more servant leaders that you have on your team. With that said, the goal is still to give more than you receive. When you add true value into people’s lives, people will want to add value into your life. Are you giving more in value than you require in payment?

How much is he giving to All Grace Outreach and then funneling back to himself?

Thoughts? Opinions?

The purpose of this post is not to accuse Orrin so much as it is to start a dialogue on the structure and organization of TEAM. In my opinion, there’s something that doesn’t quite add up when you watch, listen and read Orrin’s posts. Past and present TEAM members are encouraged to participate in the comments below!

Update April 15, 2009: I received an email response from Kevin T., the former legal counsel of TEAM, who wanted to respond to the question of whether or not AGO funds were ever misappropriated:

However, your article about AGO serving as a tax shelter has missed the mark entirely. First, it’s completely unfair to assume (without any factual basis) that someone is using a nonprofit organization as a “tax shelter.” The fact that Team officers are board members of AGO is not evidence of any wrongdoing. I value my integrity and I can assure you that funds from AGO were never used for any other purposes other than to promote its mission (spreading the gospel and helping disadvantaged kids). None of the board members were ever compensated, myself included.

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¹Kevin T. left his position from TEAM and AGO at the beginning of 2009 to work on his startup law ventures and private practice.