Amway pledges to double revenues in next 5 years
Amway (Thailand) plans to celebrate its 25th anniversary in the multilevel-marketing/direct-sales business in Thailand five years from now by doubling revenues from last year's Bt9.71 billion.
Preecha Prakobkit, managing director of the local subsidiary of American Amway, yesterday said the company was keenly aware of how difficult it would be to achieve that goal, especially when the country's economy and politics were not so healthy. The company this year expects to experience flat growth, or even a drop of a few per cent in sales like in 2005. However, it needs to set a target to give direction to its work and strategy for its third decade of doing business here. The company is committed to a customer-focused, performance-driven and innovative strategy. Being customer-focused means studying each customer's needs, so that all activities and business plans focus on the result and efficiency of operations. Being performance-driven involves encouraging interested individuals to be able to access Amway's business opportunities and products easily and encourage existing Amway business-owners to develop themselves. And innovation comes from creating an environment in which staff are encouraged to be creative and innovative in their work. Building a strong Amway brand continues to be the firm's main agenda. This year, the company is allocating Bt80 million to Bt90 million for its advertising budget, up from Bt60 million last year. By nurturing a good reputation over the past 20 years, the company has no internal obstacles to driving its growth, instead worrying about negative external factors. But the company will have to be able to adapt itself to the current unfavourable environment. People tend to find ways of securing their financial status during troubled times like these, and becoming an independent sales representative of a direct-sales company like Amway is an alternative. Also, the number of people joining the business is still quite low compared with many Asian countries, such as Taiwan and South Korea. One of every 20 Thais is an independent sales representative of a direct-sales company, while the number is one in six for Taiwan and South Korea. Thais have a very strong entrepreneurial spirit, so finding more independent sales representatives should not be difficult. Also, the whole direct-sales market still has tremendous room to grow no matter the economic situation.
Nitida Asawanipont The Nation
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