AVON PRODUCTS, INC

Avon Founder David H. McConnell Creating the Company for Women

Avon Founder David H. McConnell offered women a rarity in 19th century America: a chance at financial independence. In 1886, it was practically unheard of for a woman to run her own business. Only about 5 million women in the United States were working outside the home, let alone climbing the ranks of any corporate ladder. That number accounted for just 20% of all women. On the heels of the Industrial Revolution in the United States, women were mainly confined to jobs in agriculture, domestic service and manufacturing, not exactly glamorous lines of work; the manufacturing sector, in particular, was notorious for its dangerous working conditions. On top of that, womens wages across the board were a fraction of mens. For many women, McConnell would radically alter that scenario. The man behind the company for women was the son of Irish immigrants and grew up on a farm. Yet, it was this young man from rural New York, a visionary leader decades ahead of his time, who would become a pioneer in empowering women. McConnell, a bookseller-turned-perfume entrepreneur, would offer women the opportunity to create and manage their own businesses through what later became known as direct selling.

Origins of an Idea
In his travels as a book salesman, McConnell made two important discoveries. First, he quickly noticed that his female customers were far more interested in the free perfume samples he offered than they were in his books. He made these fragrances himself to serve as door

openers when he traveled from home to home. Second, McConnell saw women struggling to make ends meet and recognized in many of them natural salespeople who would easily relate to other women and passionately market the products his new company would first sell -perfumes.

McConnell's First Sales Representative

McConnells first recruit for Avon, then known as the California Perfume Company, was Mrs. P.F.E. Albee of New Hampshire. Not only did he provide Mrs. Albee and other early Representatives with an earnings opportunity when employment options for women were extremely limited, he fostered a supportive environment with a familial feel. (The company newsletter was even called the Family Album.) In one of his regular letters to Representatives, he wrote: All success lies in ones self and not in external conditions. Misfortunes are only a discipline, and there are possibilities which often are awakened by them which suggest to us the power and strength we possess, that perhaps otherwise would never have been recognized. No wonder the Representative ranks rose to 5,000 in just 13 short years.

Power of the Product and the People

To McConnell, the product and the people were everything to the company, and he dedicated himself to ensuring that both would be successful. In addition to inspiring the Representatives, McConnell also wanted to encourage the company's employees with the same positive spirit. A century before it would become de rigueur for companies to institute employee incentive programs and hire hordes of consultants to make sure employees were happy, motivated and productive, McConnell knew just how to rally the troops. The motivational leader created a set of guiding principles that are still the heart and spirit of Avon today. They include:

Providing an earnings opportunity so individuals can achieve financial independence and enjoy all that comes with such an accomplishment. Recognizing everyone's unique contributions. Giving back to the communities Avon serves. Offering the highest-quality products with a guarantee of satisfaction.

Maintaining and cherishing the "friendly spirit of Avon."

McConnell believed strongly in the potential of people, and that in that potential lay the power of possibility and, eventually, success:
If we stop and look over the past and then into the future, we can see that the possibilities are growing greater and greater every day; that we have scarcely begun to reach the proper results from the field we have before us. - David H. McConnell, Avon's Founder
Avon, the company for women, is a leading global beauty company, with over $11 billion in annual revenue. As the world's largest direct seller, Avon markets to women in more than 100 countries through approximately 6.4 million active independent Avon Sales Representatives. Avon's product line includes beauty products, as well as fashion and home products, and features such well-recognized brand names as Avon Color, Anew, Skin-So-Soft, Advance Techniques, Avon Naturals, and mark.

AMWAY GLOBAL
Amway Global (formerly known as Quixtar North America) is a multi-level marketing (MLM) or network marketing company, founded 1959 in Ada, Michigan, United States. It is privately owned by the families of Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel through Alticor which is the holding company for businesses including Amway, Amway Global, Fulton Innovation, Amway Hotel Corporation, Gurwitch Products, Hatteras Yachts and manufacturing and logistics companyAccess Business Group.[1] After the launch of Amway Global originally operating under the name Quixtar, it replaced the Amway business in United States, Canada and the Caribbean, with the Amway business continuing to operate in other countries around the world. Company officials confirmed in June 2007 that, over the subsequent 18 to 24 months, Quixtar will merge with its sister companies of Amway organizations around the globe to form under one new name Amway Global.

History
Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel initially founded the Ja-Ri Corporation, a multi-level marketing distributorship for Nutrilite products, in 1949. Ja-Ri was incorporated in 1959, and changed its name to "Amway" in 1963. As of 2007, Amway operates in more than 80 countries around the world. In 1999, the founders of the Amway corporation launched a sister Internet-based company named Quixtar. The Alticor corporation owns both Amway and Quixtar, plus several other concerns. Quixtar replaced the North American business of

Amway in 2001 after the majority of the distributors moved to Quixtar, with Amway operating in the rest of the world. On June 13, 2007, the Associated Press confirmed that over the next 18 to 24 months, the Quixtar business would be phased out in favor of a unified Amway Global brand in North America. According to Chairman Steve Van Andel and President Doug DeVos, "We are going through a global transformation of our business; this includes rethinking our global approach to products, training, brands, and how we operate in all the countries in which Alticor operates. As part of that, in 18 to 24 months, we're planning to begin using the Amway name in North America to unite our business opportunity under a single global brand.

Vorwerk & Co KG
Vorwerk is an international diversified corporate group headquartered in Wuppertal, Germany. The main business is the direct distribution of various products like household appliances (e.g.vacuum cleaners), fitted kitchens or cosmetics. Vorwerk was founded in 1883. Including sales representatives, the family enterprise, which is operated as a limited partnership, employs almost half a million people in over 60 countries worldwide, (as of 2005). For the year 2005, the company posted revenues of 1.772 billion euros; together with the associated akf group, business volume totalled 2.181 billion euros

The beginnings Barmer Teppichfabrik Vorwerk & Co

In 1883, the Barmer Teppichfabrik Vorwerk & Co was founded by the brothers Carl (1847 1907) and Adolf Vorwerk. That very same year, the brothers parted ways again and Carl Vorwerk continued to run the company. The firm initially manufactured high-quality carpets and upholstery fabrics, and later also the looms used to make them first under an English patent, and then under an improved proprietary patent. Carl Vorwerks son, Carl jr. (18781904), was to be his successor as company director, but he died just a few months after taking the helm in 1903. Thus, upon the death of the company founder in 1907, his son-in-law, August Mittelsten Scheid (18711955), became sole managing partner. Under his leadership, the company diversified following the First World War, taking up the production of gear units and electric motors for gramophones as its military research efforts halted.

Corporate management

Achim Schwanitz (managing partner)

Markus von Blomberg (managing partner) Peter Oberegger (managing partner) Wolfgang Bahlmann Eberhard Pothmann

Advisory board for the managing partners:

Dr. Jrg Mittelsten Scheid (chairman) Prof. Dr. Pius Baschera Rainer Christian Genes Dr. Axel Epe Verena Klser Jens Mittelsten Scheid Karen Schmidt-Paas