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CSR An Amway Case Study
CSR An Amway Case Study
The company
Amway is one of the world's largest direct sales organisations with over 3 million
Independent Business Owners (IBOs) in over 80 markets and territories
worldwide. It is a family-owned business with a strong emphasis on family values.
Its IBOs are often couples. Many of these are raising families. They therefore have
a strong bond with children. These families are more than happy to partner with
Amway, who, as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility strategy, works with
UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund.
Amway programmes
In order to give many of the world's children a chance to live a better life, Amway
launched the global One by One campaign for children in 2003. Amway
encourages staff and IBOs to support its One by One campaign for children. The
One by One programme:
helps Amway to bring its vision to life
declares what the company stands for
builds trust and respect in Amway brands
Since 2001, Amway and its IBOs across Europe have been supporting UNICEF's
child survival programme. The need is great. One out of ten children in Kenya
does not live to see its fifth birthday, largely through preventable diseases. Malaria
is the biggest killer with 93 deaths per day. Only 58% of children under two are
fully immunised.
The work of the One by One programme is illustrated by a field trip undertaken by
Amway IBOs to Kenya. The IBOs travelled to Kilifi in 2006 to meet children and
to find out what the problems are in various communities. They act as champions
spreading the message throughout their groups.
In Kilifi, the focus is on trying to reach the most vulnerable children and pregnant
mothers. The aim is to increase immunisation from 40% to 70%. Other elements of
the programme involve seeking to prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS to
infants.
As the Amway organisation grows and prospers, it is able through CSR actions to
help communities to grow and prosper too.
Developing a strategy
Amway's Global Cause strategy involves creating responsible plans that make a
difference. However, the strategy is flexible. In shaping the strategy, research was
carried out to find out which global causes IBOs support. The results showed that
many favored a cause that helped children. There was a clear fit between Amway's
aims to help children and UNICEF's 'Immunisation Plus' programme for children.
Objectives
From the outset, Amway set out some clear objectives for its strategy. These were
to:
build loyalty and pride among IBOs and employees
enhance Amway's reputation as a caring organisation
make a real difference to human lives.
Child mortality is particularly high in developing countries because of infectious
diseases. Many children could still be alive if they had been vaccinated.
For under 12 a child can be vaccinated against these diseases and has a fighting
chance to reach adulthood. UNICEF's world child 'Immunisation Plus' programme
is a fitting focus for the activities of Amway UK and its IBOs.
Identifying stakeholders
Amway's Corporate Social Responsibility strategy has been developed with the
interests of all its stakeholders in mind:
Fundraising
Amway Europe provides support for fundraising to the extent of 500,000 euros
(about 350,000) per year through selling items such as:
greetings cards
However, Amway UK's support goes well beyond these activities. In addition, it
involves staff fundraising events and raffles organised by the IBOs.
UNICEF attends IBO major events (usually supported by 1,000 or more IBOs)
where requested. A UNICEF stand outlines the work with speakers, literature and
merchandise.
Conclusion
Amway is a family business with family values. Its IBOs are people who want to
make a difference to the communities in which they operate and to the wider world
community. This is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in action.
The clue to Amway's success is the careful planning of its strategy and its
involvement with many stakeholders in getting the strategy right. Of course, it is
early days in the latest chapter of a strong relationship between Amway and
UNICEF.
Evaluation is taking place to measure the success of the initiative in terms of
meeting fundraising goals. Customer research is carried out to test customers'
views on the relationship and to find out how aware the general public is about
what Amway is doing in the field of CSR.