アルティコア社 ダグ・デボス社長インタビュー
栄養補給食品や化粧品を既存の流通チャネルを介さず、ディストリビューターが直接顧客に届けるダイレクト・セリング方式で知られるアムウェイ･コーポレーション。1959年に設立され、現在では、日本を始め世界57カ国で事業展開しており、売上も62億ドルにまで成長。その親会社であるアルティコア社のダグラス・L・デヴォス社長が、米国ミシガン州エイダの本社でジャパンタイムズの取材に応じてくれた。北米市場におけるネットを介したE・コマースの進展、日本、韓国を超え、同社最大の海外マーケットに成長した中国のビジネス展開、日本市場への取り組みなどを率直に語ってくれた。
Direct selling alive and well: Alticor president DeVos
By KEISUKE OKADA
Staff writer
Doug DeVos, president of Alticor Inc., or better known as the parent company of global direct-selling giant Amway Corp., is overseeing daily operations of the $6.4 billion company and its subsidiaries in nearly 80 countries at his office in Ada, Mich. In a recent interview with The Japan Times, the youngest son of Amway co-founder Rich DeVos spoke about the company's Web-based business model in North America and the prospects for Amway's operations in China and Japan. Excerpts follow:
Japan Times: In your home market in the U.S., you have shifted your operation to a Web-based one. Is this a departure from Amway's conventional business model?
DeVos: It's a bit of a mix because the principles of direct selling, of people having their own business, are still alive and well. But we have made so many changes as the industry of e-commerce is developing so rapidly and so differently (in the U.S.). It's one thing to apply (Internet) technology to the business and it's another thing to be an e-commerce marketer. We haven't left Amway's direct-selling values, but we are, through Quixtar, competing in an e-commerce marketing world. So it's a bit of a mix because we haven't gone totally there. We still have our sales force. We still are offering a business opportunity. We still want people to have their own business, powered by Quixtar. But they're competing in a marketplace that is very different. So, it's a bit of a mix.
We want to bring e-commerce to individuals. We want to bring all that technology has to offer and all that is happening in the e-commerce world to each and every individual business owner or distributor, so they have an e-commerce business. They don't have to have a huge investment in IT infrastructure or the latest technology; we can do that. But they have the ability to use it to build their business. So that's why it's a unique model in the U.S. and we still sell very clearly as a direct selling organization.
JT: China is now the biggest market for Amway, bigger than Japan and the U.S., with annual revenues exceeding the $2 billion mark.
DeVos: In China, direct selling as an industry is very young and the regulations there have changed a lot in the 10 years since we've been there. They now for the first time have a law, but it's a very restrictive law. It's very different from laws that we have in Japan or in the U.S. or elsewhere around the world. That's going to make it particularly challenging for us to be a direct selling company. Yet, you have a vast population in China who is and will continue to be familiar and comfortable with the direct selling model. And over time, we believe the laws will change to be more of an international standard. And so we still think we have a very good future for the Amway business in China.
JT: How about the prospects for the Japanese market?
DeVos: Japan is the largest market for direct selling business, and it's a fabulous market. We've had tremendous success, but we've had some challenges. Therefore, we had to rededicate ourselves to consumer protection and making sure we changed our infrastructure, to prevent any bad practices or to prevent anyone form ever getting hurt because they were in the Amway business. I think we've been successful at implementing that. We have addressed the mistakes of the past and rededicated ourselves to building the business. We'd like to have a nice growth rate, but we want it to be solid. We want to keep building the foundation and build it a little stronger and a little bigger every year. The only way to do that is to build the business with integrity. (We must ensure) that the products have the quality; that we have the consumer protection built in; and that, on top of it all, we're enforcing our rules (for business practice).
