Amway is an organization that sells just
about anything, particularly in the US. That’s not exactly accurate, of
course, but the list of goods being sold without using traditional retail
channels is pretty extensive, ranging from vitamins and supplements to color
cosmetics, personal care and organically based home cleaning products. Add to that
list candles, air fresheners, light bulbs, batteries, laundry products, jewelry
and pet food.
There’s more, but you get the idea. In
2009, Amway had $8.4 billion in income, making it one of the largest privately
owned companies in the United
States. Furthermore, according to Internet
Retailer’s annual Top 500 Guide to the web, Amway in the U.S. is ranked first
in the Health & Beauty category for the seventh consecutive year and 27th
in overall web sales. But those products don’t manufacture themselves, they
don’t sell themselves and the administrative challenges of managing 15,000
employees globally certainly don’t solve themselves.
That’s where learning comes in. Or more
appropriately for Amway’s culture, that’s where talent development starts.
Meet Kee Meng Yeo, director of global
talent development for Amway, a division of Alticor. Kee’s been around the
learning industry for many years now, with previous roles including launching
the first virtual corporate university at Johnson & Johnson.
At Amway, Kee said, training is viewed
from a talent development perspective, part of an all-encompassing strategy
that includes performance management, blended learning, leadership development
and succession management. That fully integrated strategy is part of a
corporate philosophy designed in part to help employees think about their own
careers and make them aware of opportunities to increase and enhance skill
sets.
“We’re very connected directly to the
business,” Kee said. “It’s part of our values around here, recognizing the work
of every individual. We’re very much into this whole partnership and integrity
issue.”
Amway is truly a global organization,
with 92% of its business coming from outside the United
States. That means training and performance management must
reach far corners of the globe, and opportunity must be managed throughout the
enterprise.
Kee and his 12-person core talent
development team have set up several programs to meet those challenges
- A leadership development program
for first-time people managers has been launched in partnership with Davenport University, a technology-enabled
program that blends learning methods as learners take classes with global
cohorts. The end result are six credit hours toward a Davenport MBA.
- The LeAP (Leadership Acceleration
Program) has also been launched, this one in partnership with Thunderbird
School of Global Management. There are no credit hours for this five-month
program, but high-potential learners get the opportunity to work closely with
executive sponsors. At the end of last year’s program, executives choose to
implement all three team recommendations. “It became real,” Kee said. “We
didn’t plan it, we didn’t ask them to do it, we have no expectation they would
do it, but they did it. Now everyone wants to be on that program.”
- Leaders Developing Leaders is
aimed at the core group of professionals who fall between those entry-level
managers and the high-potentials, the group that as Kee said can spell success
or disaster for an organization. A main challenge for this group is making sure
they’re prepared to recognize potential in their team members, and develop them
accordingly.
- Also, there’s Passport to
Success, a 90-day on-boarding program to get new hires up and running quickly.
The program is structured in three 30-day blocks with specific assignments to
complete throughout. The Passport program also has an executive version for new
hires at the VP level and above.
- In addition to all that, there
are general courses available, all linked to a core competency model for global
leadership, and skills-based programs tied closely to the
performance-management process.
“We’re very connected directly with the
business,” Kee said. “The feedback we’ve been getting is great.”
That’s not surprising considering Amway
is built on a philosophy of entrepreneurship, starting more than 50 years ago
when founders Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel launched the company from a garage.
Add to that the company’s model, based on a vast network of distributors, many
of whom are independent business owners.
For Kee, the whole Amway experience has
been “a blast.” Since he joined the company more than two years ago, Kee’s had
the chance to create new strategies, lead growth through innovation and tap
into an organizational energy powered by associates in more than 90 countries.
“It’s been a really fun ride. As an
organizational development, learning & development, talent management type
of person, it’s the ability to run your own starship. Not only do I get to run
my own starship, I get to build it first,” Kee said. “The last couple of years
have been a lot of creation of strategy. I love doing these kinds of things. I
enjoy painting a vision that everybody can get behind.”
