Crazy World

DMCA Copyright Takedown Notice #2

2009-04-21T21:10:00.000-07:00

I've now received a DMCA takedown notice for Randy Haugen's explanation of how Amway went down the tubes. I'm beginning to wonder if Amway is sending me these to try to scrub the internet. Anyway, here is the text of the DMCA takedown notice:

Hello,

Blogger has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that content in your blog:

http://crazyfunwildworld.blogspot.com

allegedly infringes upon the copyrights of others. The content in question
is located in the following posts:

http://crazyfunwildworld.blogspot.com/2007/09/team-resigned-double-diamond-randy.html

The notice that we received, with any personally identifying
information removed, will be posted online by a service called Chilling
Effects at http://www.chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi?sID=10753. We do
this in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Please note that it may take Chilling Effects up to several weeks to post
the notice online at the link provided.

The DMCA is a United States copyright law that provides guidelines for
online service provider liability in case of copyright infringement.
Please see http://www.educause.edu/Browse/645?PARENT_ID=254 for more
information about the DMCA, and see
http://www.google.com/blogger_dmca.html for the process that Blogger
requires in order to make a DMCA complaint.

We are asking that you please remove the allegedly infringing content in
your blog. If you do not do this within the next 3 days (by 4/24/09), we
will be forced to remove the posts in question. If we did not do so, we
would be subject to a claim of copyright infringement, regardless of its
merits.

We can reinstate this content into your blog upon receipt of a counter
notification pursuant to sections 512(g)(2) and (3) of
the DMCA. For more information about the requirements of a counter
notification and a link to a sample counter notification, see
http://www.google.com/blogger_dmca.html#counter.

Please note that repeated violations to our Terms of Service may result in
further remedial action taken against your Blogger account.

If you have legal questions about this notification, you should retain
your own legal counsel. If you have any other questions about this
notification, please let us know.

Thank you for your understanding.

Sincerely,
The Blogger Team

DMCA Copyright Takedown Notice

2009-03-25T20:16:00.000-07:00

I just received a DMCA takedown notice for several posts either by Ron Simmons, on Ron Simmons site, or in one case just about Ron Simmons. Apparently Mr. Simmons is trying to clean up what he has said.

Blogger has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that certain content in your blog infringes upon the copyrights of others. The URL(s) of the allegedly infringing post(s) may be found at the end of this message.

The notice that we received, with any personally identifying
information removed, will be posted online by a service called Chilling
Effects at http://www.chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi?sID=10292. We do this in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Please note that it may take Chilling Effects up to several weeks to post the notice online at the link provided.

The DMCA is a United States copyright law that provides guidelines for
online service provider liability in case of copyright infringement.
Please see http://www.educause.edu/Browse/645?PARENT_ID=254 for more information about the DMCA, and see http://www.google.com/blogger_dmca.html for the process that Blogger requires in order to make a DMCA complaint.

We are asking that you please remove the allegedly infringing content in
your blog. If you do not do this within the next 3 days (by 3/28/09), we will be forced to remove the posts in question. If we did not do so, we would be subject to a claim of copyright infringement, regardless of its merits.

Blogger can reinstate these posts upon receipt of a counter notification pursuant to sections 512(g)(2) and 3) of the DMCA. For more information about the requirements of a counter notification and a link to a sample counter notification, see http://www.google.com/dmca.html#counter.
I just received the following takedown notice for several post either by Ron Simmons, or on Ron Simmons site, or in one case just mentioning Ron Simmons. Apparently Ron Simmons is trying to clean up his name online.

Here is the notice:

Please note that repeated violations to our Terms of Service may result in further remedial action taken against your Blogger account. If you have legal questions about this notification, you should retain your own legal counsel. If you have any other questions about this notification, please let us know.

Sincerely,

The Blogger Team

Affected URLs:

http://crazyfunwildworld.blogspot.com/2007/12/team-ron-simmons-overall-update.html
http://crazyfunwildworld.blogspot.com/2007/10/team-ron-simmons-legal-update-october.html
http://crazyfunwildworld.blogspot.com/2008/02/team-ron-simmons-february-2008-update.html
http://crazyfunwildworld.blogspot.com/2008/01/team-ron-simmons.html
http://crazyfunwildworld.blogspot.com/2007/11/team-rules-rules-rules.html
http://crazyfunwildworld.blogspot.com/2007/09/team-randy-and-don-respond-to-lawsuit.html
http://crazyfunwildworld.blogspot.com/2007/09/team-ron-simmons-sets-record-straight.html
http://crazyfunwildworld.blogspot.com/2007/08/team-setting-record-straight.html

Interesting what's going on

2009-01-07T21:31:00.001-08:00

While this blog references Quixtar and Amway quite a bit, it turns out that people who find this site are searching for the following:

1.	randy haugen	66
2.	team monavie	30
3.	bill newton	19
4.	brig hart	16
5.	fred harteis	15
6.	brig hart lawsuit	9
7.	george guzzardo	9
8.	don wilson amway	8
9.	monavie team	8
10.	randy haugen quixtar	8

The majority of the people who found this site were looking for information on Randy Haugen. My guess is he is showing a lot of MonaVie™ plans (as well as his team). Next up is Team MonaVie™ (which is how it is referenced in the opens now). Followed by other big leaders. Other leaders that lead to this site with a google search are (in order of searches): Billy Florence, Kirk Birtles, Tim and Amy Marks, Don and Ruth Storms, Brig Hart, Mark and Tammy Crawford, Bill and Jackie Lewis, Fred Harteis, Aaron Radosa, Bill Hawkings, Matt Abraham and Robert Dickie.

There are a lot of variations on Randy Haugen also.

Even though I have not been adding content for at least half a year, December had 846 people visit the site, mostly from the United States, but a good chunk from Canada and the UK. The top-ten states visited from are: California, Michigan, Florida, Illinois, Texas, Pennsylvania, New York, Utah, Georgia and Ohio (with California and Michigan each being twice as much as any others). California is mainly the Bay Area, LA Area, San Diego and Hisperia (of all places). Michigan is mainly Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids (wonder who that could be). Florida is mainly Jacksonville, Ft. Myers and all along the south-east coast. Illinois is basically Chicago. Texas is Dallas, Houston and Austin.

I think this gives us an idea as to where Randy Haugen is growing his business.

Of the people who have visited since April, about a quarter of them visited the site more than 10 times.

The website that has referred the most people to this site (besides google) has been theiborebellion.blogspot.com followed closely by freetheiboblog.typepad.com.

Anyway, I hadn't been here in a while and thought I'd see who was visiting. Have a great day. Have Fun, Make Money, Make a Difference and Drink It, Feel It and Share It.

Free At Last, Free At Last, Thank The Almighty, I'm Free At Last

2008-03-18T17:44:00.000-07:00

Today is my last day of the 6-month rule. While I am still under the 2-year rule, it appears that I am free to do whatever I want, just not with whoever I want. That's fine. With counsel from my mentor, and my lawyer, I believe that I am finally out from under Quixtar.

I hope you have enjoyed this blog. Today also marks my last day of following any news about Quixtar, Amway, Alticore, etc. I am closing that chapter in my life. This blog is part of that chapter. I have tried to leave some balanced information about the struggle Team has faced. I cannot say it was not a biased documentary, but I hope that the information here shows the public dialog that surrounded the whole incident.

I hold no malice towards Quixtar, Amway, Alticore or anyone associated with them (including their Amway Business Operators). I have come to a place of peace with the situation. I know there are others who still struggle (legally and otherwise) with "The Corporation," and I wish them good luck.

I leave this site as an internet memorial to what has happened. I hope it helps someone find truth in their life. I hope it serves as a thorn (albeit small) in Alticore that serves as a mechanism for improvement for them. If they do not improve, then I fear that one of the great American Success stories dies in the second generation (as we see in "The Millionaire Next Door").

I do hope Amway can be a success, although I will not be a part of it. When I learned of the origin of the name (shortened from The American Way), I became rather proud of its heritage. I'm sure Jody Victor, as a son of founders of "The Corporation," feels that pride. I hope this whole issue can help strengthen them.

For me, I have other roads that diverge from theirs. With what I have learned from Team, I am starting a new venture that I have wanted to start since before I had children. I am also moving forward with Mona Vie, and my relationship with my mentor.

I wish you all well. I hope you learn from your struggles (and not just the obvious ones we've discussed here), grow and become better, no matter which company you have decided to invest your future in.

Good luck and farewell.

- Thomas Evan Anthony Morris

TEAM: Quixtar Legal Defense Update

2008-03-16T10:57:00.000-07:00

Original Source

Quixtar Legal Defense Update

by Orrin Woodward on Sun 16 Mar 2008 10:57 AM EDT
I posted an update on the Quixtar Legal Defense Fund article. I do not receive a penny of support from the Legal Defense Fund and instead have attempted to give liberally to support others under attack. I support the fund to help anyone who is being threatened with litigation by Amway/Quixtar. I can and will support my own legal battles, but believe Quixtar should not threaten others that do not have the means to defend themselves. The Quixtar Legal Defense Fund supports all the people that Quixtar may choose to legally threaten and intimidate. I strongly believe right makes might and it would be a shame to have people back down from the truth because they do not have the means to defend themselves. This is why I posted the original article and am very proud of the response by so many people! Many people have sat out there six months and can now turn a new page in their life. If they are threatened by Amway/Quixtar they will have the security of knowing the Legal Defense Fund will be there for them! I never dreamed by signing people up as "independent" business people that they were placed in harms way and feel I am bound to help in anyway I can. I hope this helps in clarifying the purpose for my post on the Legal Defense Fund. God Bless, Orrin Woodward

TEAM: Fixing Quixtar - Amway in North America

2008-03-13T01:00:00.000-07:00

Original Source

Fixing Quixtar - Amway in North America

Critics often get criticized for being negative or not offering solutions so I thought I would take some time to offer a (partial) solution for Amway/Quixtar in North America.

Here are what I see as the biggest issues with Quixtar/Amway in North America (not in any order):

1. Outdated Compensation
2. Poor Reputation
3. Lack of Product Focus
4. High Prices

Now for my solution:

1. Break up Amway - Quixtar (North America) into four new Network Marketing companies:

XS Energy
Artistry
Nutrilite
Amway
This actually helps solve three of the four major issues, lack of product focus, reputation and compensation. Each product focused company could come out with an updated compensation plan with a focus on balance and the best reward strategy for the product line.

It is should be no secret that the fastest growing companies in Network Marketing over the last five years have been single product or narrow product line focused (such as weight loss). Narrowing the product focus strips away confusion and allows the unique products to shine.

The reputation will be helped by the renewed focus on products and less focus on the "2-5 year plan".

2. Reduce prices and get PV/BV back to a reasonable level ($3 to 1PV is not reasonable). The PV/BV situation overlaps with compensation but it is also needs to be mentioned with pricing. You can't drop the prices by 30% and then drop the PV/BV associates with the products by 50% and claim to now magically have competitive pricing.

Just get reasonable here. Mercedes has proven that you don't have to be the cheapest to be successful, but there is a line where the average consumer will say: "I don't care how good you say (the product) is, I'm not paying that much for (fill in the blank - Amway Product).

3. Update the compensation plan for the 21st century. Adding $60 million in new bonuses and then making them twice as hard to achieve is not updating the plan. Add some money for the newest growing associate. The IBOAI propaganda is suggesting that Quixtar/Amway now has the best compensation plan in the industry.

Uh, yeah. If I was driving a car from 1959 and claimed that it got better gas mileage than a 2008 hybrid, you would laugh at me. In the same manner, people that understand compensation plans within the industry are laughing at the IBOAI.

Lastly, this breakup would help address the core of the reputation problem by nullifying the power of the IBOAI, who haven't really represented the newest IBO in decades.

March 13, 2008

TEAM: CALL TO ACTION IN MISSOURI

2008-03-12T01:00:00.000-07:00

Original Source

CALL TO ACTION IN MISSOURI
Wednesday, March 12, 2008

The IBO Rebellion has received a great deal of e-mail regarding Quixtar's latest game of non-fee renewals in order to further trap IBOs. This is obviously yet another ploy to extend their shameful contract provisions. I received the following email which calls for the beginning of a letter writing campaign. It was suggested that the most effective way to have your voice heard was to both e-mail and snail mail your letter to the representative and follow that up with a telephone call. If you feel compelled to stand up and be counted please do so. Here is the letter I received which was written to all of you.

It’s time to let your voice be heard. Contrary to what Quixtar’s blogger thinks, this is not about spinning stories or spreading rumors. This is now about corporate bullying and an out of control company who is intent on destroying anyone who disagrees with them. They have everyone bound in an arbitration agreement that several Judge’s have declared unconscionable. Yet they continue to use this unfair arbitration agreement to harass, bully and intimidate anyone who tries to voice an opinion.

It’s time for criminal investigations now. There are many elected officials around the country who are aware of some of the unethical actions of Quixtar/Amway. But most of these officials have no idea how many people are being affected by these actions. It’s time to start a letter-writing campaign to make sure elected officials know we are counting on them to take action.

A few places to write are to your personal state legislators, the FTC, the Better Business Bureau and your state’s Attorney General. However, there is now quite a bit of interest in this case moving to a higher level in the state of Missouri. Every letter you write helps to urge officials to move these investigations along at a faster pace.

Make sure you point out that Quixtar claims you would not be allowed to contact your own personal family and friends for any new business venture because Quixtar claims them as their “property” for 2 years after you resign. Point out that it was your connection that led them to Quixtar, not Quixtar that led them to you. Therefore, this restriction of free enterprise should be declared illegal. Make sure you tell them Quixtar's non-compete clause would require you to leave the continent in order to compete. It's shockingly broad language must end.

Make sure you point out if you have had any bonuses withheld, had your resignation delayed (in an attempt to delay the 6 month inactivity clause). Make sure you point out that Quixtar needs to be investigated for knowingly promoting an overpriced illegal pyramid. Make sure you point out the unconscionable arbitration clause which you are currently bound to. Make sure you mention about Quixtar abusing their arbitration agreement to violate our first amendment right to freedom of speech.

To start things off, the first letter needs to be written immediately to:

The Honorable Jim Lembke
MO House of Representatives
201 West Capitol Ave
Room 303A
Jefferson City, MO 65101

Phone: 573-751-2315

Email: Jim.Lembke@house.mo.gov
Anyone in the state of Missouri is urged to write to Mr. Lembke and urge him to help speed up investigations into Quixtar/Amway. If you are in his District, that’s a huge plus. However, as a state representative he represents everyone in the state of Missouri.

All that needs to happen for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. Don’t sit on the sidelines. Make your voice be heard. Start writing those letters today and tell anyone you know to start writing letters. I will provide you with the next address on Friday.

There you have it folks. The message is clear. Email, snail mail, and follow up telephone call. I will keep you posted with any developments.

QUIXTAR: Rumor re IBO Renewals Without Permission

2008-03-10T16:55:00.000-07:00

Original Source

Rumor re IBO Renewals Without Permission
March 10, 2008

Frequent blogger Utah shared a rumor apparently appearing on some blogs to the effect that some IBO's businesses were being renewed without their permission.

Utah, we don't know where you are getting your information, but like much of what is currently circulating on certain blogs, this is more fiction than fact. The IBOAI Board (which at the time included some of those now affiliated with TEAM), and the Corporation partnered several years ago to make sure that an IBOs' business was protected against all possible negative actions (accidental or planned). Automatically renewing all Silver Producers and above was the jointly agreed upon solution. There is nothing unusual going on, Utah - sorry you spent time on this one.

Posted at 04:55 PM

QUIXTAR: Orrin Woodward is a "Mis-leader"

2008-03-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

Original Source

Mis-leader
March 10th, 2008 @ 1:00 pm ET…

Terminated IBO Orrin Woodward’s recent decision to ask for contributions to his “legal defense fund” was such a low point that we cannot let it pass without comment.

Since his termination for unacceptable business practices last August, Mr. Woodward has done nothing but confirm, repeatedly, our decision to let him go.

We think that any objective person viewing the record would agree that:

He has abused the legal system by filing multiple, frivolous lawsuits that have been dismissed with prejudice.
He has abused business relationships of people he partnered with for more than a decade by repeatedly violating his contract commitments to respect the Line of Sponsorship of others.
He has abused his fiduciary responsibilities to his trade association by inducing others to disgorge confidential information and violate court orders.
Now, true enough: in response to those abuses, we threw him out of the company, the IBOAI threw him out of their boardroom, and judges threw his cases out of court.

So why drag our dispute back out into the light?

Because we believe that Mr. Woodward now is using distortions and untruths to justify bad ethical decisions he made – and attempting to get others to pay for his own ill-conceived lawsuits and mistakes. He is putting his downlines at legal risk without telling them. And he is attempting to raid Quixtar organizations, in further violation of his contract.

We can’t tell people how to react to these behaviors, other than to advise our business owners to contact Rules or Sales immediately if there are approaches made to your groups.

But in the face of a new round of misrepresentations from Mr. Woodward, we can – yet again –set the record straight.

So we will.

Mis-leader, in court

The original dispute: We terminated Mr. Woodward in August 2007 after he repeatedly refused to clean up his abusive business practices. Well before his disciplinary meeting approached, Mr. Woodward had hired a big-ticket law firm and ordered them to draft a federal lawsuit. He then filed that lawsuit within hours of his termination.

Mr. Woodward claims filing a lawsuit accusing us of operating an illegal pyramid was a negotiating tactic, part of a spiritually motivated attempt to reconcile our differences. It would be more accurate to say it was a premeditated attack on our business model, designed to drive every IBO in the US out of business and into the arms of a new venture he was planning.

Mr. Woodward and his legal team then coordinated an astonishing blitz of more than one dozen lawsuits against our company filed across the country. The timing and language of the suits were nearly identical, Mr. Woodward’s associates seemed to know instantly about all of them, and the same attorneys seemed to showed up in case after case.

Mr. Woodward claims the blitz was a spontaneous, grass-roots uprising. How he can say that in the face of all evidence to the contrary is beyond belief. We’re sure his behind-the-scenes communications tell a very different story.

And Mr. Woodward fueled his litigation attack with confidential documents belonging to the IBOAI, a trade association where Mr. Woodward had been a board member. Mr. Woodward’s associates stonewalled court orders to return the documents, which did not belong to them, and which they had sworn – twice! – to keep confidential.

Mr. Woodward claims he had nothing to do with the documents. The fact is, it seems obvious his lawyers used those purloined documents to write their lawsuits. In fact, a judge has now held Woodward associate Billy Florence in contempt of court for violating a court order related to those documents.

The result: Mr. Woodward’s federal lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice. Most of the spam lawsuits have been dismissed or evaporated. (And a recent Georgia legal document circulating online was never entered. Therefore it does not carry legal force – a fact Mr. Woodward’s associates, unsurprisingly, failed to point out.) Instead, courts have ordered Mr. Woodward and his associates to abide by their contacts and arbitrate. Mr. Florence has defied a court of law. Mr. Woodward’s strategy of legal harassment and attack is failing, miserably and utterly.

Mr. Woodward is a businessman. He knows what contracts mean and why he signs them. He could have honored his contract, followed the rules that govern moving to a competitive business. But he chose not to play by the rules, chose to initiate this massive legal fight, chose to jeopardize the businesses of thousands of IBOs.

Mr. Woodward could still choose to pay for the fights he picked. To watch him leave his money in the bank – and ask others with less to foot the bill for his poor decisions – well, call it what you want, but just don’t call it “leadership.”

Mis-leader, in the field

And a final thought: When we choose to fight, we choose to fight to protect the businesses that Quixtar and our IBOs have built.

But when Mr. Woodward and his associates encouraged mass resignations from our company, they did so knowing they would devastate the businesses of a number of Quixtar business owners who refused to be bullied into following him.

When Mr. Woodward encouraged those resignations, he knew some those who did follow him would lose income when they left Quixtar, and that he had no way to replace that income for them. But that did not stop him from encouraging those same people to spend hundreds of dollars replacing his lost income at rallies in Louisville and St. Louis.

When Mr. Woodward encouraged people to follow him to a business with “Wal-Mart pricing”… and then instead abruptly threw in his lot with a company that offers only a handful of ultra-premium priced products… he knew he would lose more of the people who followed him once and for all.

And when Mr. Woodward permits forays into our sales groups, seeking to split more people away, he knows that he is encouraging people to break rules and court orders and put themselves at risk. Worse yet, he does so knowing he’s leading people down a path of promises that lead to disappointment.

Mr. Woodward would no doubt find some historical figure to justify his actions.

But we cannot.

Because when we look at Mr. Woodward’s actions over the past six months, all we see is a manipulative person, abusing the principles of values-driven leadership that our business tries to teach. Put plainly, his recent actions are enough to make all of us who care about helping people build businesses more committed than ever to protecting IBOs from this kind of malicious manipulation.

TEAM: POSSIBLE INVESTIGATION OF QUIXTAR UNDERWAY IN MISSOURI???

2008-03-10T03:25:00.000-07:00

Original Source

POSSIBLE INVESTIGATION OF QUIXTAR UNDERWAY IN MISSOURI???
Monday, March 10, 2008

The IBO Rebellion has just learned that some high-level elected officials in the state of Missouri have become extremely interested in the actions of the Quixtar Legal Department, the selective enforcement of rules, the validity of the arbitration process and the business practices of one former particular long-time IBO Board member.

This could get interesting. Ironically, these issues caught the attention of the state of Missouri before the TEAM situation ever came about. Imagine the impact if the state of Missouri was made aware of just how many people have been affected by the unethical practices of Quixtar?

It’s time for citizens of Missouri to rise up and make your thoughts known to your elected officials. Later this week, the Rebellion will begin posting names and addresses of elected officials in Missouri for your convenience. Elected officials are there to represent the people of their state and actually enjoy getting feedback from citizens. The only way they know there is a problem is for people to write them and let them know. This is your country.
Posted by The IBO Rebellion at 3:25 AM

TEAM: DECEIT AND TREACHERY

2008-03-07T01:01:00.000-08:00

Original Source

DECEIT AND TREACHERY
Friday, March 7, 2008

The Rebellion has recently obtained a copy of an actual letter written this week by a former Silver who was recently renewed without their consent or permission. Not only that, but they weren’t even notified about this renewal. They happened to randomly attempt to log in to the Quixtar website the other day and much to their surprise, they found out they had been renewed. Then when they called to complain, they were hassled by Ron Mitchell who refused to send them a written letter confirming that they were in fact no longer IBO’s as of their original date of Dec. 31.

Is this the new level Quixtar is stooping too? Are they attempting to delay the 6 month inactivity period for IBO’s? Who ever heard of someone being renewed without their permission with a special ‘non-fee renewal’.

Even more interesting is that this particular couple had made the decision to non-renew with Quixtar without ever having been a part of the Team organization, ever attending a meeting of the Team organization and no one in their downline had ever had any contact with Team in any form whatsoever, or attended any form of a Team meeting.

Copies of this letter have been mailed off to the FTC, the Better Business Bureau of Michigan, the Attorney General for the State of Missouri. Sources also tell me some high-level elected officials in the State of Missouri are now taking an interest in all the activities of the Quixtar Legal Department and their application and unfair enforcement of the Rules of Conduct. More on this later.

Looks like there may also be more to follow on this upline who was given access to names, addresses, and phone numbers in possible violation of a protective court order. Could Quixtar have possibly violated a court order by giving this access? Could this person possibly be opening up a new can of worms for Quixtar in the state of Missouri by making these phone calls? There will definitely be more on this later too.

For now, here’s the letter….

Mr. Steve Lieberman,

It has come to our attention that on 2/29/08 our Quixtar business was renewed without our consent or knowledge. We did not renew nor did we ever have any intention of renewing. Along with the fact that we did not renew, we also sent a registered letter dated 1/18/08 to Quixtar to confirm this fact. In that letter we requested a confirmation that we did not renew and did not want to be associated with Quixtar. Instead of a letter of confirmation, we received an e-mail on 2/4/08 stating because we were silvers you would renew us and "charge our monthly summary" and if we did not respond to this e-mail within 15 days Quixtar would take this to mean we did not wish to renew. Since that was our desire from the beginning, we did not respond. That, however, is not what happened. We were renewed as a "no charge renewal" under restricted status. Exactly who is to benefit from that type of renewal? This is just one example of the lack of business integrity that has been a part of our decision not to renew in the first place.

In an attempt to resolve this matter, we talked with two members of the Quixtar associate staff on 3/3/08 to inquire as to who renewed us without our permission and why, expressly against our wishes. Neither of these associates had the answers to our questions. However, we were informed we would be receiving a call from Ron Mitchell who would have these answers.

On 3/4/08, we received that phone call. It was indeed a very informative phone call. We were told that we were not singled out in any way and that all silvers from this organization were renewed. Mr. Mitchell was either woefully uninformed or intentionally inaccurate with this information. An upline silver is a very close family member of mine and as of 8:00 PM the previous night had not been renewed nor informed of the intention of being renewed. We were also informed that I "caught this before Quixtar had the opportunity to notify" us. We wonder why Quixtar chose to wait until after the event to inform us as opposed to doing so prior to this event. We were also told that "it was Quixtar that renewed" us and no single individual was involved. Ironically, before we were even aware of our renewal, we began receiving phone calls at the rate of one per day starting the day after our forced renewal from an upline whom we have never had any contact with whatsoever. Apparently he was also very "quick to catch". We assure you that given the content of the first phone call, he was not calling to inform us of our newly renewed status. Incidentally, this person had a court order preventing him from contacting us.

Regardless of what the company's intent is or was, it still should have never happened. It was our understanding when we started we were Independent Business Owners. Independent meaning that what we do with our business, at least in part, was our decision not Quixtar's. In our opinion we should have at the very least been contacted before you made the decision to renew us. The decision and responsibility for that decision rests solely with Quixtar and the individual or individuals who initiated it. This is not the type of business mentality or ethics we wish to be associated with. After not renewing, sending a registered letter, and not responding to Quixtar's e-mail there should have been no doubt that we had no intention of renewing our business. We have also demanded a written letter stating our resignation started as of 12/31/07, not just an e-mail. The e-mail we did receive was vague on that point. We want absolutely no doubt that as of 12/31/07 we were no longer a part of the Quixtar organization. We continue to await the written notification delivered by standard mail.

For your information, this letter has been forwarded, by registered mail, in its entirety to the Attorney General of the state of Missouri, the FTC, and the Better Business Bureau of Michigan. I reserve the right to forward this letter to others that may not be named here. We feel it is in our best interest to inform these agencies of how Quixtar had made decisions for us without our consent or knowledge.

Sincerely,

IBOs S & M

Posted by The IBO Rebellion at 1:01 AM

TEAM: THINGS PEACHY FOR IBOs IN GEORGIA

2008-03-05T20:44:00.000-08:00

Original Source

THINGS PEACHY FOR IBOs IN GEORGIA
Wednesday, March 5, 2008

BREAKING NEWS OUT OF GEORGIA

Quixtar was dealt another blow in Georgia. In the Superior Court of White County, the Honorable Chief Judge David E. Barrett ruled that the non-competition clause of Quixtar's contract was "invalid" and will not be subject to any arbitration.

Quixtar's non-compete agreement is ridiculously broad. Here is how it reads:

6.5.4. Every IBO agrees not to Compete, directly
or indirectly, with the business of the Corporation
in the U.S., Canada, and all offshore markets
operating under the Quixtar Independent Business
Owner Compensation Plan during the six-month
period following (a) the voluntary or involuntary
resignation, non-renewal, or termination of that
IBO’s independent business, or (b) any violation by
the IBO of this Subsection 6.5.4., whichever is later.

In response to this IBOs Todd Campbell and Dwayne Turner both sued Quixtar for relief from this slavish clause. In Judge Barrett's opinion signed March 2nd, 2008 he stated:

The scope of geographic coverage of the Rules takes one's breath away.

This is yet another blow to Quixtar and their desire to hide in arbitration. Judge Barrett's remarks were a direct criticism concerning the absurdity of the geographic boundaries of the clause itself. One would need to move to Europe or some a remote island in the Caribbean to escape this globe covering clause. Effectively this clause was considered so unfair that the court decided that it was unenforceable and refused to let it even enter the arena of arbitration. This decision comes on the heals of the Morrison v. Amway case in which a judge overturned an arbitrators award of $6 million dollars on the grounds that the arbitration process was so unfair it was unenforceable. I am not completely clear as to the next step in this process as this ruling is a Interlocutory Injunction. Still, each and every one of these decisions further erodes Quixtar's legal position.

Click here to read the Courts Decision

Posted by The IBO Rebellion at 8:44 PM

Comparing Traffic: Quixtar vs. Mona Vie™

2008-03-04T14:17:00.001-08:00

Here is a live updating graph of Mona Vie™'s website versus Quixtar. The graph shows how much traffic has risen (or fallen) in the last 6 months. This will be an interesting graph to watch over the next few months.

Here is a static image at the time of the post:

TEAM: Andy Andrews of Team In Focus

2008-02-29T10:46:00.000-08:00

Original Source

QUIXTAR: DESPERATION VIA EMAIL

2008-02-28T03:23:00.000-08:00

Original Source

QUIXTAR: DESPERATION VIA EMAIL
Thursday, February 28, 2008

As if it wasn't enough to threaten all the diamonds at Diamond Cluster 08, now Amway has sent the email below. We at TEAM are all to familiar with Quackstar's prolific ability to send nasty emails. Talk about not letting go, I am convinced these folks will be talking about TEAM for years to come. I am reminded of a young boy I knew in my childhood. He would say, "When I was big," and then go on about how he used to work or drive a car. He was 6 years old. I can imagine Amway sending out emails titled, "When I was big!"

I won't waste time debunking all the lies in their latest publication. Their track record has always been the same. I remember other organizations going through issues with Quixtar. Every time this happened, TEAM would get information from Quixtar just like this. This always made people believe that the organization was at fault. We now know better. Much has changed now that things are not all hidden in arbitration like they prefer. The internet has done wonders to shed light on the conspiring evil that ferments in Ada.

One thing stood out to me. This email is from Steve Lieberman. He joined Quixtar in August 2007, yet is confident enough in the story tellers around him to make the following statement.

The "non-compete" clause was added to Quixtar’s Rules in 2004 with IBOAI input and recommendations. It was communicated broadly to all IBOs through various vehicles.
How can Steve be so sure? How can he say TEAM were a bunch of ongoing rules violators? He obviously can't be but no matter it appears he will fit right in with the rest of the folks and their revisionist history.

This email highlights Quixtar's scarcity mentality. If there is one thing I have learned as part of TEAM, it is not to have a scarcity mentality. Quixtar appears to think TEAM is just lurking, waiting for a chance to pounce on IBOs still afflicted or affiliated with Quixtar. While I must admit people wanting to be a part of TEAM is nothing new. The merging of the other groups into TEAM has been nearly painless. We appreciate our new friends. However, if I have heard it once I have heard it a thousand times, 300 million people minus the entire TEAM still equals 300 million people. In other words we operate with an abundance mentality. Because of this, it won't be long and we will be saying, 300 million minus the TEAM equals 299 million!

Click here to read the email sent by Quixtar.
Posted by The IBO Rebellion at 3:23 AM

QUIXTAR: Email on 2007 sales, protecting the LOS, building for the future

2008-02-28T01:00:00.000-08:00

Original Source

Important news from Steve Lieberman – 2007 sales, protecting the LOS, building for the future
To qualified Platinums, Sapphires, and Emeralds

Dear Leader:

Thank you for your ongoing commitment to the QUIXTAR® business opportunity. 2007 was a year of great change as well as great success for the QUIXTAR business, and 2008 promises to be no less exciting.

As you know, we took steps in 2007 to protect the integrity of the QUIXTAR business for all IBOs by terminating the businesses of 15 Independent Business Owners who refused to change unacceptable practices and/or blatantly violated our rules. The businesses affected were part of the Team training organization or other training organizations using Team’s training materials.

Certain leaders of these organizations recently announced their intent to align themselves with a competitive direct selling business. It’s important to remember that they remain subject to significant restrictions related to their termination from Quixtar and remain exposed to potentially significant sanctions should they violate them.

It’s critical that all QUIXTAR IBOs and former IBOs understand the importance of protecting the foundation of the QUIXTAR IBO Compensation Plan – the Line of Sponsorship (LOS). We have rules in place to protect the use of the LOS within your business, which provides significant value to the IBOs who are committed to the QUIXTAR business and the time and effort of IBOs in building the LOS. Quixtar’s Rules of Conduct require IBOs to wait six months after leaving Quixtar to join or start another direct selling business and prevents them for two years from soliciting other IBOs to compete with Quixtar.

The "non-compete" clause was added to Quixtar’s Rules in 2004 with IBOAI input and recommendations. It was communicated broadly to all IBOs through various vehicles.

We take LOS issues very seriously because the LOS is the root structure of the QUIXTAR business. If you or anyone in your group is approached by any former QUIXTAR IBO regarding another direct selling opportunity, please take the time to make Quixtar aware of this contact. You may email the details of any such solicitation to HYPERLINK "mailto:qbcr.department@quixtar.com" qbcr.department@quixtar.com

Your assistance in this matter serves to protect the integrity of the QUIXTAR business for all IBOs and helps ensure the long-term success of your independent business. The hard work and dedication of hard-working IBOs like you would be in vain if we did not make every effort to protect the LOS. We appreciate your partnership in preserving the LOS, just as we value all that you do for the QUIXTAR business.

The efforts of hard-working Independent Business Owners like you propelled Quixtar’s 2007 sales to more than $1 billion for the fifth straight year. Thanks to the sales you generated, Quixtar was the #1 online retailer in Health & Beauty for the fourth consecutive year, according to Internet Retailer magazine’s 2007 guide to the Top 500 on the web.

2008 is now in full swing and so is our business transformation, leading to unprecedented improvements in all aspects of this business opportunity. A major part of that transformation is rebranding our North American business to better leverage the awareness and power of the nearly $7 billion AMWAY® global business.

The rebranding is much more than just a name change. We’re looking at how we can improve every aspect of our business, including products, compensation, training, and reputation.

We’re creating more products that customers want to buy and that IBOs want to sell. We’re supporting these brands – and the business opportunity – by investing in a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign, and through high-profile sponsorships, podcasts, web ads, and other multimedia vehicles.

To help you make the most of the increased awareness of the QUIXTAR business opportunity and our product brands, we’re offering more training than ever before. QUIXTAR University offers both instructor-led and online training, along with our training, selling, and presentation kits, all designed to help your retailing efforts.

To better reward you for your efforts and incentivize you to take your business to greater heights, we’ve invested an additional $60 million in the QUIXTAR Business Incentives Program.

We’re committed to telling our story and sharing why this business should be the business opportunity of choice in North America. We’re proud of our global One by One Campaign for Children, through which more than $52 million and more than 800,000 volunteer hours have been donated to over 5.5 million children since the campaign’s launch in 2003. We’re proud to be a member of both the Direct Selling Association and the Better Business Bureau. And we’re especially proud of the 49 years of history behind our company and our proven sales plan. For all of these reasons and more, we’re creating a new Amway – one that you will continue to be proud to be associated with and eager to share with others.

Please look for more exciting news in the coming days and weeks about all the innovative ways we’re transforming this business, supporting you, and making this opportunity stronger and more profitable for all IBOs.

Thank you for your dedication. We look forward to working together to preserve and strengthen your business for years to come.

Steve Lieberman
Managing Director
Quixtar Inc.

QUIXTAR: Quixtar sues ... Mona Vie™

2008-02-27T14:56:00.000-08:00

Original Source

Quixtar - The ex-girlfriend that won't die
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2008

OK. Now quixsand is just plain embarrassing itself. This has gotten WAY out of hand.

First they sue the leaders of Team. Then the bloggers... and anonymous commenters. Then the Team office. Then when Orrin's 6 months are up, they petition the judge for 45 more days trying one last time to stop the inevitable. And now... they sue Monavie!

Quixsand is the ex-girlfriend that just won't die!

You know the story. You have a relationship with a nice girl, things don't work out, so you break it off. There are some tears, some angry words exchanged, some heated arguments and accusations. But with every passing week, things seem to settle down. Eventually, you both find that special someone , and life goes on.

Of course, thats not how it goes when you dated a raving psycho rabbit killing butchers knife wielding stalker.

First, its a few notes left under the windshield wiper of your car in the middle of the night. The notes gets more venomous as the days pass, usually ending up at "I never loved you anyway! - Just go (TEAM)."

Then the phone calls at all hours of the night. Threatening emails blast across the internet. Then she informs you she is keeping all the stuff that you left at her apartment (bonus checks, earned trips).

You do the right thing and don't date anyone else for six months hoping to just move on to a new chapter in your life. All seams well, until the raving lunatic keys your new girlfriends car. Next thing you know shes attacking her in line at the grocery store, "He's mine I tell you! Mine forever! We're meant to be together! If I can't have him, no one will!"

Quixsand. Go away. Please. You look like a desperate small time company trying to dive on a grenade that already went off. Its over. We're gone. We're not coming back. You can't stop us from pursuing another business. You can't stop Orrin from doing the same. We'll conform to your Nazi-like 6 month non compete that you slid under the door while no one was looking. But we will move on. The walls of your once great business are crumbling on your head - stop worrying about the people that left your business - It's time for you to get some "me" time.

Maybe take a few weeks off, to find yourself - your inner person. Maybe take a girls vacation to somewhere warm. Who knows, maybe you'll find some nice island boy to take your mind off your troubles for a while. Remember - what happens in Jamaica, stays in Jamaica.

But whatever you do, take our picture off the wall. Delete our number from your cell phone. And for goodness sake, please stop hiding in the bushes spying on us - its kind of annoying and VERY sad. (can you say "restraining order")

I just think if quixsand doesn't stop this foolishness now - when will it end?

Whats next - suing Berean Baptist Church for being a competing business?

Mohr: "Its is our intention to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Brean Baptist Church is in fact another competing business that Orrin and Chirs have joined. Fact: Our spies have seen Orrin and Chris dinking some sort of grape juice from some small plastic cup during church service (they used these small cups hoping our spies wouldn't notice.) They went as far as to make thier "pastor" act as if it was some "communion" nonsense."

"Orrin and Chris are well aware that quixtar has this very same product - a 3.5 oz juicy juice box - complete with bendy straw."

"Subsequently, our spies then noticed Orrin and Chris paying "Jesus" via some plate that got passed around. Another not so subtle attempt to disguise their intentions. Just how deep this massive conspiracy goes, we don't know, but we are willing to sue anyone and everyone to find out."

"Your honor, we rest our case. (We rest our case.. in this case.. but we have more cases your honor, lots more cases...so we'll see you next week.)"
POSTED BY DRINKXS.BIZ AT 2:56 PM

QUIXTAR: Quixtar Sues MonaVie and Brig Hart

2008-02-27T01:00:00.000-08:00

Original Source

Quixtar Sues MonaVie and Brig Hart

Details are sketchy but it looks like Quixtar is suing MonaVie and Brig Hart, possibly related to the Team (Orrin Woodward & CO) leaders announcement of using MonaVie as a supplier.

Here is a link...

Quixtar v. MonaVie

Another poster at Get The Facts - The Truth About Amway and Quixtar added information found on the PACER web site:

January 29, 2008
Quixtar Inc. v. Hart et al FL Middle Adams Other
Petitioner: Quixtar Inc. Respondent: John Hart, Lita Hart

My question is...

How long can Quixtar attorney's force people to stay with a company that is in such chaos?

February 27, 2008

TEAM: BEHIND THE WALLS OF QUIXTAR PART 6

2008-02-26T13:51:00.000-08:00

Original Source

BEHIND THE WALLS OF QUIXTAR PART 6
Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Hey folks, I am just back from yet another blog filling lunch with two of my CWPF's (Close Warm Personal Friends) from Alticor / Amway / Quixtar. I must say I was very happy my friends wanted to eat for a change. The coffee routine was getting old. Even as good as the food was at filing my stomach it was nothing compared to the "MEATY" information my friends provided today.

There are two big stories to discuss in today's installment of Behind the Walls of Quixtar. The first story is straight out of Hawaii and the latest Diamond Club. The second is some big news on possible employee unrest within Alticor. Employees are keenly aware of the entire TEAM fallout and are starting to fear the ripple effect.

The biggest story is certainly out of Hawaii and Diamond Club. I am thinking they should really rename the entire event Diamond Cluster. It more appropriately describes it and the situation. In case you hadn't heard there was a mere 65 diamonds at this years Diamond Cluster. I am sure our friends in Ada will somehow find the silver lining in this. But really, is that all they could muster is 65 diamonds after 50 years of business? Quixtar reportedly went all out and hired the music group the Motels in recognition of their incredible shrinking company. Click here to hear the Motels performing at Diamond Cluster 2008.

With all that extra elbow room at the Grand Wailea I am sure it felt much more exclusive this year. How much extra elbow room you ask? Well in recent years there have been somewhere in the neighborhood of 260 diamonds or so. On the Alticor blog Ada-tudes there was a lot of conversation about the 160 or so diamonds for 2007. So as you can see Quixtar is now minus another hundred diamonds for 2008. At this rate of demise, well, you can do the math. Quixtar is involved in a complete free fall.

Another big story from Diamond Cluster 2008 was that Mike "MonaVie" Mohr addressed the diamonds in attendence. During his speech Mr. Mohr took the time to engage in MonaVie bashing from stage. Yes this is the same Mike Mohr who considers price comparisons to be disparagment. But somehow his conduct is just fine. Mr. Mohr, after trashing MonaVie, told the diamonds that if anyone approached their cattle with MonaVie, that they would have the full weight of the company behind them. This of course was code for, don't get any ideas or we will sue you! Mike Mohr is really Quixtar's version of Kathy Bates / Annie Wilkes from the movie Misery. Encouraging folks to succeed or, as in the movie get the book written, all the while waiting to break your legs so you can NEVER leave. In case you were wondering what it all looked like, here are some pictures for your enjoyment.

Picture 1, Picture 2, Picture 3.

Well enough of Diamond Cluster 08. The other big story from my CWPF's is quit alarming. Alticor has long been known as a great place to work with good pay. Well it seems that employees are trying to prepare for the worse. It was hinted to me that since the North American business continues to shrink that some employees are considering a union organizing effort in order to protect their jobs. I was almost shocked to hear such a thing. It wasn't clear in what part of the company these rumblings were coming from but I am sure it will be met with stern resistance.

Well that is it for this installment of Behind the Walls of Quixtar. Information continues to pour from inside the company so I will have more when the information merits your attention.

Posted by The IBO Rebellion at 1:51 PM

TEAM: QUIXTAR & THE IBO REBELLION WORKING ON POSSIBLE PEACE ACCORD???

2008-02-25T20:39:00.000-08:00

Original Source

QUIXTAR & THE IBO REBELLION WORKING ON POSSIBLE PEACE ACCORD???
Monday, February 25, 2008

After a flurry of posts and related comments in the last few weeks The IBO Rebellion received this comment that I have reprinted and placed at the bottom of this post. Being optimistic, as I am, I am hoping this could possibly be an attempt by Quixtar at ending this madness. Could this be an olive branch extended to TEAM and The IBO Rebellion? In the hopes that this is in fact Quixtar's way of asking for a truce then I will make the following pledge.

I, THE IBO REBELLION, pledge to completely remove this site under the following conditions.
Alticor and its related companies cease all legal action against the TEAM.
Alticor and its related companies cease all legal action against all former IBOs affiliated with TEAM, including all anonymous bloggers.
I can only hope that Quixtar and friends really do want peace. If not, this blog will continue. Though it may be difficult to maintain an effective blog while also building an exponentially expanding MonaVie buisness, I will do my best. Oh, and by the way Quixtar.... I never signed a contract with a non-compete agreement. As you very well know this was inserted without my knowledge. So what do you find most unfair this blog or what I just described?

Anonymous said...

Dear TEAM,

THANK YOU for leaving. We would like to be quiet but apparently YOU folks never wanted to leave quietly.

Since you continue to maintain sites where you bash the corporation because they forced you to adhere to the rules of conduct you signed, well, you must then realize that there are folks who view that as unfair, and will not just leave you alone.

Why should we - and allow you to continue a one sided debate?

February 25, 2008 7:13 PM

Posted by The IBO Rebellion at 8:39 PM

TEAM: MONAVIE: THE RIGHT CHOICE

2008-02-21T06:11:00.000-08:00

Original Source

MONAVIE: THE RIGHT CHOICE
Thursday, February 21, 2008

We have all had a bit of time to sleep on the revelation that those associated with TEAM will be pursuing a business relationship with MonaVie. Maybe you couldn’t sleep thinking about the possibilities? Maybe you couldn’t sleep because you were expecting something a bit different? The current situation begs for the proper perspective and reframing. Here are my two cents.

After reviewing some comments online I would caution you not to be led by emotion but instead by your intelligence. Those expecting the Walmart of the internet should not be disappointed. It is clear that remains the vision. Current circumstances dictate a plan B approach. It is times such as this we need to remember all we have learned in regards to leadership. As you hopefully recall GOALS are written in stone but the GAME PLAN is written in sand.

As Major League Baseball’s spring training has begun I can’t help but draw a parallel to baseball. It’s as if Orrin was batting in the bottom of the ninth of a World Series game. Orrin, known to all as a power hitter who loves fast balls steps into the batter’s box with a full count, and two outs already on the board. The winning run is on third base. What is Orrin to expect, a fastball, a curve, a slider, who knows? This situation would not be a time to try and be the super star. To swing away would be selfish. The advice given most often in this situation is “choke up” and “hit’em where they ain’t.” That is exactly what Orrin and the TEAM leadership did. As much as some of you might have been confused by the decision to align with MonaVie, I am sure Quixtar and their cattle counting legal department were more confused. I could almost picture Amway preparing to attack our fledgling company with their mouths watering. Instead, they find themselves peering across the foggy terrain at yet another billion dollar company. So if MonaVie wasn’t what you expected, remember it wasn’t what the enemy expected either.

As I read comment after comment on the blogs, I couldn’t help but be compelled back to the foundation of TEAM and the Launching the Leadership Revolution book. I thumbed back and forth examining and reexamining the trilateral leadership ledger. I was trying to locate what I felt many people were lacking in their comments. Certainly Quixtar’s fingerprints (attempting to create doubt) could be seen among the many posts but I felt there was a degree of shock among the troops. What was lacking was what I call moxie or grit. Some people call this kahones! I have no intention of offending anyone I am just being strait with you. We have come too far to get weak in the knees my friends. I know the kahone-less is a very small group but it is the leader's job to bolster this group. Our eyes remain on an incredible future and I have full confidence MonaVie can and will be a large part of that.

The ability to launch immediately into a Walmart model would have been great. I am sure Orrin feels the same. But the alliance with MonaVie provides TEAM with a great product and a great compensation plan as well safe harbor while the war with Q-star continues. MonaVie is directly in line with the health and wellness trends the TEAM has taken advantage of in recent years. The health benefits of the acai berry are as well documented as the outrageous prices at Quixtar. I don’t have exact pricing on MonaVie as if yet, but would say that it falls into what Quixtar would call a “premium” product. Though MonaVie doesn’t meet the Walmart pricing expectations it does provide a retailable product. You won’t find a MonaVie like product at Walmart but will find everything from Quixtar at Walmart for pennies on the dollar.

One of the most important aspects of the TEAM / MonaVie alliance is that business owners will have an excellent compensation program. The monthly expense for a MonaVie distributor is far less than doing the suggested volume at Quixtar prices. MonaVie distributors also recognize true savings for case quantities, something that was not possible with XS Energy. The most important thing is that new distributors can make money early on. There is full disclosure of the incomes attainable and what it takes to reach those incomes. If anything is somewhat imposing it is being new all over again. Taking the time to learn all the fine details of the MonaVie compensation plan will take a bit of time but will be worth it. In the end it comes down to return on investment. MonaVie is far superior to what we have all endured for years. Here is a link to the MonaVie income disclosure statement.

As Orrin stated in one of his writings, “We will build the perfect business one brick at a time.” MonaVie is a logical choice on that pathway. We could easily maintain a relationship with MonaVie all the while beginning a new venture that embraces the Walmart pricing the market craves.I was excited to see Chris Brady expound upon the ultimate vision of the TEAM in discussing Community Building, Always Competitive Pricing, and Field Profit Only on our way to creating the #1 Business in North America. This would place the product side of the business in line with what has already been created in the remarkable Leadership Service Provider portion of TEAM.

This brings me to a point that demands to be made. For sometime I have wanted to further clarify the facts surrounding profit sharing on the TEAM. Without getting into specific formulas and or levels I want to just look at the big picture and for yet another reason the TEAM departed Quixtar. Critics attempt to claim the high ground by making the claim, “They make more from tools than products.” While I acknowledge that TEAM profits sharers made more from TEAM than from Quixtar, this is not an indictment of TEAM. The indictment lay squarely on Amway / Quixtar for there anemic returns to IBOs.

The graph above attempts to illustrate the size of each pot of money in terms of ratio. Here is how I determined my results. A TEAM member, involving themselves in the TEAM training system, would invest approximately $75 per month for the basic system. If he or she brought their spouse to seminar their investment would rise to $100 per month. This person or couple would then spend $300-$500 dollars to reach the suggested volume of 150 pv. In this example the IBO would spend three to five times as much money on product as they would the training system. TEAM should make no apology for having a generous profit sharing plan. After all, books and compact discs are also products. Incidentally, the books are sold at cover price or less and cd's are a mere $6. Could you imagine Border's apologizing for selling books? Quixtar is clearly guilty of hoarding the profits. This example also does not account for the economies of scale Quixtar enjoys in providing their overpriced goods. TEAM profit sharing is currently running in line with the Field Profit Only model. All profit sharers are paid for current performance. There are no special deals, not even for the founders of the TEAM. Quixtar on the other hand continues to utilize the eye dropper approach to compensate IBOs. Quixtar should be embarrassed. They probably are and this is why they have repeatedly attempted to hide tool income from IBOs or have encouraged sharing only for the largest pins. This is their track record.

Lastly, it really gets down to common sense. In any business what are your expenses and what are your potential profits. MonaVie offers improvements in both catagories. The ability to make more income from products has arrived. The critics will simply find another red herring to point to. We on the TEAM have prided ourselves on our ability to build market share through our communities. We will continue our dominance in this arena. We will continue to move toward the vision of the Walmart of the internet. In this time of transition you should demand your best. If not for you and your family then for the leaders who so willingly continue to plot the course towards our goal regardless of what's in the bottle.

Posted by The IBO Rebellion at 6:11 AM

Mona-Vie™

2008-02-19T05:01:00.000-08:00

So with all the talk of Mona-Vie™, I wanted to get some more info. Here are some helpful links I found:

TV News article on Mona-Vie™ Active

Mona-Vie™ Income Disclosure Statement

Main Mona-Vie™ website

Mona-Vie™ Compensation plan

TEAM: Mona Vie Update

2008-02-16T07:45:00.000-08:00

Original Source

Taken from: A History Lesson - Winston Churchill
by Orrin Woodward on Sat 16 Feb 2008 07:45 AM EST

Content omitted

Update: In just over three years MonaVie has nearly matched what Quixtar/Amway has accomplished in almost 50 years in North America. There is a reason for this and when I can share the benchmarking study you will know why. I am not a gambling man and prefer safer incremental improvements - with an eye to the future, than a "Swing for the Fences" gamble that puts the vision at risk. We ALL want to be the "Walmart of the Internet" except a dozen lawyers at a competing company. Michael Dell said, "The community is the key to the internet." Therefore; a leaders number one job is to keep his community alive so we can fight another day - this we have done! I have learned in leadership to play the hand you are dealt. Like the old saying goes, "If you knew what I knew, you would do what I do." I believe in the product and leadership team at MonaVie and know they play a part in our long-term vision. I have put all on the line for this vision: my life, my fortune, and my sacred honor. You choose what you will put on the line for this vision. Thanks, Orrin

TEAM: Mona Vie - The Beginning of Making the Vision a Reality

2008-02-15T22:12:00.000-08:00

Original Source
Mona-Vie Website

Mona Vie - The Beginning of Making the Vision a Reality
by Orrin Woodward on Fri 15 Feb 2008 10:12 PM EST

Here is the long awaited announcement from Chris and Terri and Laurie and I. Thank you to Chris Brady for his incredible servant leadership in writing the final article! This is the first step on our journey to our destiny! God Bless, Orrin Woodward

A Long Term Vision

Here is a bit of a vision for where we think the industry can, should, and must go! This won’t all happen tomorrow, but it is ripe for the picking, and we plan on doing it, when the timing is right!

The Hedgehog Concept of the Future

Author Jim Collins writes about what he calls a “Hedgehog Concept” in his book Good to Great. He represents this as the core competency at which an organization can become the best in the world. He said it would be the intersection of several other competencies. Using Collin’s model, let’s look at what could and should be done in this industry.

Collins asks three questions:

What are you deeply passionate about?
What can you be the best in the world at?
What drives your economic engine?

Let’s dig into these questions.

Community Building

Community building has been our passion; building communities in order to make a difference in people’s lives. A business to us is about people, and it’s the lives of people we want to affect in a positive way. We want to figure out how to serve the most people possible to help them prosper and get what they want. To do this, we’ve had to think systematically. How could we make success more systematic for everyone? Michael Gerber in the book E-Myth wrote, “It is literally impossible to produce a consistent result in a business that depends upon extraordinary people. Develop a system that leverages your ordinary people to the point where they can produce extraordinary results over and over again.” That’s exactly what our community building philosophy is all about. Helping people earn, change, and grow internally is the key to helping them become effective externally.

Field Profit Only

It doesn’t get any better than a company that keeps NO profit for itself and instead puts it ALL back out to the field. Don’t get us wrong. There are many companies that have very fair compensation programs and share liberally with their business owners in the field. But the best, craziest scenario for the future would be to go all the way to the extreme and share ALL the profits with the field. Perhaps the company itself would simply be owned by the field. We’re not sure; it’s never been done. We call the concept “Field Profit Only,” because the field would be the only place where there would be Profits. Others have called this “Open Source,” drawing a parallel to free-access software that is better served by everybody having access and control of it rather than a company at the top. Whatever the name for it, the concept is one that should be attempted. As Sir Edmund Hillary said in response to the question of why he climbed Mount Everest: “Because it was there.”

Always Competitive Prices

A philosophy of competitive pricing means that an organization will be willing to make up in volume what they lack in margin. Instead of small sales with high margins, the model would require large sales with small margins, akin to the Wal-Mart philosophy. This, of course, would be enabled by the Field Profit Only component described above, where all “middle men” have been eliminated and there is more room to push prices lower. Think about it: prices are lowered because everyone wants a successful business and that has to be driven by customer sales. Since everyone is sharing in the profits, anyway, it makes total sense. The more competitive the pricing, the easier it is for the average business owner to make retail sales. The easier the retail sales: the higher the volume. The higher the volume: the higher the rewards to the business owners.
Continual market analysis could be used to keep product pricing on track and in line with market forces. This would eliminate “competitive drift,” where a product that was once competitive gets left behind by price decreases in the market.

We have talked about three possible core competencies. Intersecting these three areas forms a new Venn diagram, as shown below:

Look at where the three competencies overlap. That area is what Collins calls the Hedgehog concept. He writes, “A hedgehog concept is not a goal to be the best, a strategy to be the best, an intention to be the best, a plan to be the best. It is an understanding of what you can be the best at. The distinction is absolutely crucial.”
In this case, where we believe the industry can, should, and must go is to a point where these three core competencies intersect and provide people with their absolute best shot at the life they’ve always wanted. As Victor Hugo said, “An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.”
A Virtuous Cycle: The way this all works together is called a Virtuous Cycle. See the diagram below:

A virtuous cycle is basically a situation where things are done right, in the right way, for the right reasons, and because of this the cycle rotates faster and faster. When Sam Walton was running the Wal-Mart virtuous cycle, his limiting factor was multi-million dollar stores that had to be built. The only limit is one’s vision for a brighter future. Sight is seeing with the eyes, vision is seeing with the mind.

First Things First

Obviously, the question of what to do next in our lives has been a big one! The biggest visions still require a first step. Neither of us wanted to take any steps without careful consideration and considerable research. Our chief goal was to make sure our energies went into an activity that would be rewarding, fun, significant in the lives of others, and glorifying to God. We have been blessed, and it is heavy upon our hearts to use the gifts we have been given to do something worthwhile and positive.

Several possibilities were considered. Some involved creating something brand new, from scratch, and launching it when we were able. However, circumstances being what they are, and considering timing and quality of implementation, allegorically this would be a 100% opportunity with a 50% chance. Obviously, it would be much better to take an initial step with 100% chance as a first step in the direction of the overall vision. In turn, this would be a step upon which to build.

This line of thinking led to the idea of getting involved with something already existing. Orrin Woodward’s benchmarking experience came in handy, as we learned to consider the leadership, focus, timing, product, pay plan, and competitiveness of a wide variety of ventures. We wanted something duplicate-able, built on “b-type” business strategies, and with a heavy focus on people and sharing. We also wanted to take advantage of some of today’s biggest trends, such as the wellness industry.

Our Choice

After considering many, many fields, opportunities, and companies, we finally selected, as our choice for future personal involvement, a company called Mona Vie, (www.monavie.com) which satisfies all the areas we were interested in. We have been very impressed with the company’s founders and leadership, and many other aspects of Mona Vie, including:

their Binary pay plan is easy to understand, teach, duplicate
their Binary pay plan is fair, rewards teamwork and “depth,” and leaves no one behind
the levels of STAR and STARMAKER are extremely duplicate-able and easy to teach for everyone
the compensation plan, including the 8 ways to make money, is the most exciting we could find in the industry
50% of the product revenue is paid back out to the distributors in the field. Not only is this one of the highest totals we could find in the entire industry, but it is an ACTUAL 50%, not a THEORETICAL 50%, this is because:
there is no BREAKAGE in the pay plan (Breakage is where there is earned bonuses that don’t make it into the paychecks of the distributors, this can happen any number of ways, and most MLM pay plans have multiple layers of breakage that benefit the parent company). In part, this is made possible because:
Any left over volume that doesn’t get figured into a distributor’s bonus in the current pay week, automatically gets applied to the next week.
people are experiencing financial success with this pay plan
the product is exactly in line with the wellness trends of today
the product creates excitement of its own in the marketplace and has a tremendous following of individuals who have experienced benefits
the product is being used successfully to contact others about the business itself
the product tastes absolutely great!
harvesting of the product protects trees in the rain forest and preserves the environment
the marketing and integration of Mona Vie as a company are world class
there is a plethora of brochures, magazines, and other such aids provided by the company that do a wonderful job of explaining their product and opportunity
Mona Vie’s website is top notch and specifically designed to help distributors sell its product, including a free “personalized” website interface to be used with customers.
there has been a lot of press about the product from famous business figures to professional, championship level professional athletes
their policies and procedures are fair, honest, and understandable
when sharing the business opportunity, Mona Vie mandates the display of their Income Disclosure Statement. This statement not only shows average incomes, but it shows them clearly at each level in their business. Further, it shows highs and lows at each level. And finally, it shows exactly how many individuals are currently qualified at each of those income levels. This amount of clarity and disclosure, as well as the success that it represents, is extremely exciting.
their pay plan pays its distributors WEEKLY. We love this idea and think the average distributor can benefit a lot from an idea like this.
weekly payment is credited to a ready-to-use Mastercard.
qualification periods are either weekly or, for larger levels, monthly. This is nice for anyone setting goals to be able to reach them in a short, reasonable time-frame.
there are incentive trips, lease luxury cars, jet travel time, diamond rings and pendants, money toward motor coaches, and conferences for achievers
the product volume (PV) is easily calculated (100PV represents one case of four bottles) which makes the entire pay plan extremely easy to understand and teach
there are bulk order discounts which allow for increased profits on retail sales
there is an excellent Preferred Customer program
the business can be built in many countries without any complicated procedures. In essence, volume is volume, no matter which participant country it is generated in
the company founded and supports the MORE project dedicated to helping the orphaned children of South America.

Because of these reasons and many more, we have decided to become involved in the Mona Vie business, once we are free to do so. (A court injunction was recently extended 45 days which, to the best we can interpret, precludes our taking such a step at this time, and obviously, we disagree with this extension and our lawyers are filing paperwork to that effect).

We are extremely excited about our upcoming participation in the Mona Vie business. We can’t wait to build Mona Vie businesses that span the continent, and beyond. Our goal is to impress the excellent leaders at Mona Vie with our efforts, results, and contribution to their vision. And at the same time, we are keeping our eyes on a vision of the future that just might get a little crazy!

Update: I will give an analogy for all the people desiring to know the method to our madness. When Winston Churchill was in a battle with Nazi Germany, he did not bother to build new cities. One, it takes capital that was needed in the war effort. Two, why bother building something that will be blown apart by the enemy. Winston knew the logical thing to do was to feed the troops and defeat the enemy. When this is done, there will be plenty of time to build the dream city. Thanks, Orrin

TEAM: Tim & Amy Marks: 2008 Will Be GREAT!!!!!!

2008-02-15T19:04:00.000-08:00

Orignal Source

2008 Will Be GREAT!!!!!!
Friday, February 15, 2008

The question of what to do next in our lives has been a big one for Amy and me, and it required careful consideration and considerable research. Our chief goal was to make sure our energies went into an activity that would be rewarding, fun, significant in the lives of others, and glorifying to God. We have been blessed, and we want to use the gifts we have been given to do something worthwhile and positive.

We also have a long term view for the future, which involves pioneering some concepts on Internet business that could and should become something that would resemble a “Wal-Mart of the Internet.” Events and conditions, however, dictate that this step cannot be taken immediately. A more immediate solution was needed first, upon which we could build up to the bigger vision.

After considering many, many fields, opportunities, and companies, Amy and I finally selected, as our choice of personal involvement, a company called Mona Vie, (http://www.monavie.com/) which satisfies all the areas we were interested in. Here is a brief list of reasons why we have selected Mona Vie:

1. their Binary pay plan is easy to understand, teach, duplicate
2. their Binary pay plan is fair, rewards teamwork and “depth”, and leaves no one behind
3. the levels of STAR and STARMAKER are extremely duplicate-able and easy to teach for everyone
4. the compensation plan, including the 8 ways to make money, is the most exciting we could find in the industry
5. 50% of the product revenue is paid back out to the distributors in the field. Not only is this one of the highest totals we could find in the entire industry, but it is an ACTUAL 50%, not a THEORETICAL 50%, this is because:
6. there is no BREAKAGE in the pay plan (Breakage is where there is earned bonuses that don’t make it into the paychecks of distributors, this can happen any number of ways, and most MLM pay plans have multiple layers of breakage that benefit the parent company). In part, this is made possible because:
7. any left over volume that doesn’t get figured into a distributor’s bonus in the current pay week, automatically gets applied to the next week
8. people are experiencing financial success with this pay plan
9. the product is exactly in line with the wellness trends of today
10. the product creates excitement of its own in the marketplace and has a tremendous following of individuals who have experienced benefits
11. the product is being used successfully to contact others about the business itself
12. the product tastes absolutely great!
13. harvesting of the product protects trees in the rain forest and preserves the environment
14. the marketing and integration of Mona Vie as a company are world class
15. there is a plethora of brochures, magazines, and other such aids provided by the company that do a wonderful job of explaining their product and opportunity
16. Mona Vie’s website is top notch and specifically designed to help distributors sell its product, including a free “personalized” website interface to be used with customers
17. there has been a lot of press about the product from famous business figures to professional, championship level professional athletes
18. their policies and procedures are fair, honest, and understandable
19. when sharing the business opportunity, Mona Vie mandates the display of their Income Disclosure Statement. This statement not only shows average incomes, but it shows them clearly at each level in their business. Further, it shows highs and lows at each level. And finally, it shows exactly how many individuals are currently qualified at each of those income levels. This amount of clarity and disclosure, as well as the success that it represents, is extremely exciting.
20. their pay plan pays its distributors WEEKLY. We love this idea and think the average distributor can benefit a lot from an idea like this.
21. weekly payment is credited to a ready-to-use Mastercard.
22. qualification periods are either weekly or, for larger levels, monthly. This is nice for anyone setting goals to be able to reach in a short, reasonable time-frame.
23. there are incentive trips, lease luxury cars, jet travel time, diamond rings and pendants, money toward motor coaches, and conferences for achievers.
24. the product volume (PV) is easily calculated (100PV represents one case of four bottles) which makes the entire pay plan extremely easy to understand and teach
25. there are bulk order discounts which allow for increased profits on retail sales
26. there is an excellent Preferred Customer program
27. the business can be built in many countries without any complicated procedures. In essence, volume is volume, no matter which participant country it is generated in
28. the company founded and supports the MORE project dedicated to helping orphaned children in South America.

Tim & Amy

Posted by Tim Marks at 7:04 PM

TEAM: Historical Reminiscences & A Vision for the Future - Part IV

2008-02-15T15:47:00.000-08:00

Original Source

Historical Reminiscences & A Vision for the Future - Part IV
by Orrin Woodward on Fri 15 Feb 2008 03:47 PM EST

The following post is my toughest to write. I am not a victim and do not wish the Team nor I to be portrayed as such. As an unofficial historian of these times, I am only attempting to state the truth as I saw it first hand. I did and still do respect all of the Quixtar representatives mentioned. I do not believe in disparagement and all of my statements are intended to be my opinion only when I am addressing my feelings.

The first time I sat down with Jim Payne was shortly after writing the letter to Doug Devos about my concerns about the business. A little background on the letter is necessary. I did not just out of the blue write a letter. Joe Markeiwicz group and the Team were the two fastest growing businesses since Quixtar formed. Steve VanAndel and Doug Devos requested a special meeting where Board members and non-Board members met to discuss a study performed on the state of the Quixtar business. I won’t go into details about the meeting, but at the end both Doug and Steve asked us for any additional input to help get the business moving again. I didn’t need a second invitation to move on this. I took me a couple of days to write that letter. I wanted to be firm in my convictions, but also encouraging and confident that we could make Quixtar work the way everyone dreamed it should. I asked Pastor Dickie to read and re-read it so that I would speak the truth in love. I hoped we could do a lunch together and share with Doug some ideas I had to improve the business. Much to my surprise, I received a curt reply that stated Jim Payne the new Quixtar managing director would handle the matter. In Doug’s defense, I know he is a very busy man with a global business, so I looked forward to my first meeting with Jim.

Chris Brady and I met with Jim in his office a month later. We felt we would have a great discussion on how to improve the Quixtar business, but instead we spent almost three hours defending the very existence of Team Approach. We were told Quixtar had reviewed the data and had determined that Team Approach was a poor method to build the business. The showed reams of data that “proved” Team Approach produced less profitability. I was shocked as saddened that instead of addressing the issues admitted by the founders on the lack of growth, we spent all of our time trying to keep Quixtar from forbidding the use of Team Approach. Jim also said that our organization was the lowest PV/IBO. I tried to explain to him that I stopped promoting the products personally after I did my own cost comparison and realized I was teaching people to buy products they could buy much cheaper at the store in my opinion. I had told Ken McDonald that I could not in good conscience promote commodity products at a higher price than they can buy at the store. Ken said he was working on 15 to 20 products for us and I told him when that happened we would explode! Jim took my lack of promotion as a weakness of Team Approach. This is simply not true and building depth actually increases purchases because people that see progress tend to buy more. I told Jim and the rest of the Quixtar representatives that although profitability is less in the short term, people accomplish the levels twice as fast. For example, if it takes the width model 5 years to go platinum and someone with Team approach can do it in 2 to 3 years, and then comparing avg. platinum income is not an accurate test. In five years with Team Approach the platinum may be a Sapphire or an Emerald. Someone like Tim Marks went Diamond in 31 months. None of this seemed to have an impact and when I left that meeting in late 2005, I realized that the political environment had changed. I was impressed by Jim Payne personally though. He has a very quick mind and grasped concepts quickly. I assumed he had a job to do and was focused on making changes and reducing the Board’s influence.

Jim Payne had led changes in other countries with great success from what I hear. I believe the difference in North America was the Board. In no other country did Amway have a Board that had to be consulted in order to implement changes. I don’t think Jim was comfortable with this process and did not follow the protocol of Maxwell’s Law of Buy In the best. I knew in late 2005 that Team Approach was not looked upon favorably at Quixtar even thought the field began using Team Approach in increasing numbers. Results cannot be hidden and the Team had well over 80% of the (English Speaking as a first language) Founders Emeralds and above that had only been in Quixtar. Despite these results, the new QBI program that the company rolled out was heavily stacked against Team Approach. There were requirement on side volumes that had never been in place before. This would affect the income of thousand of people in and out of my organization. I felt a fiduciary responsibility to speak up on this matter and lost more ground with the Quixtar representatives. I never had a personal issue with any of the Quixtar managers and felt on a personal level there was respect on both sides. I did discuss openly and freely on my concerns on favoring width building methods (that were not working) over depth building methods (that were working). I was not asking for favoritism for the depth builders, but asking for an achievement based system that would let the best system win. I did not win this discussion and all organizations who built with Team Approach suffered the consequences.

The beginning of my second year on the board began with a major push by Greg Duncan and the company to sell more products. Greg traveled around the country teaching of the explosive growth of everyone doing the Incredible Edibles program. I heard about people going ruby all on retail sales. I love a good story as much as the next guy but still like the old saying, “In God we trust, and all others must have data.” So many people in our business are phenomenal story tellers and I love a good story too, but the story needs to be backed up with hard evidence. Otherwise, it turns into hype and is not conducive to long term results in this business or any other. I wrote my letter to all the Board members after being told that we would be an email based culture and if we had any questions or comments to share them. Again, I did not write this letter to attack anyone, but merely to bring out another vision of how to move more products. I am all for sales, but to ask six figure income producers on their job to learn all the details of a water treatment system or the air filtration units in order to sell them is simply not worth the effort. I feel if someone could sell those products and make money, then they could make a fortune selling products with higher commission margins and easier stories to tell. My letter was rebutted by Rob Davidson and never brought up again. In my opinion, I felt Quixtar had decided not to follow through with the 15 to 20 competitively priced products. Over two years of my life and no closer to our dream business than the day we started.

The next big debacle with Quixtar came after the Team’s major in Grand Rapids at the VanAndel arena. We had just launched the Team website operated and controlled internally. It had more content on the non-password protected side to be more open and transparent with visitors. A Quixtar lawyer in their rules department just happened to be walking downtown in Grand Rapids and asked one of the many white shirted guys what they were doing. Someone gave them a card with the Team website on it. I received an email from Gary Vanderven stating I had 72 hours (It might have been 48 hours) to password protect the whole site or my IBO number would be suspended for having a prospecting site. I ignored this for the first couple of days thinking that Gary was having a bad day. I remember the call I received from Gary the last day and told me if the Team site was not taken off the internet until it was fully password protected that I would be suspended. I was shocked and hurt. I told Gary that I was on the road and that everyone was gone from the office. I literally had to beg for another 24 hours to not be suspended. I knew Gary must have been given orders to do this, because he is one of the nicest Christians I know. I told Gary that I know there must be more to the story and that I would comply even though I was very disappointed that no one would call and talk to me about this outside of the rules department. Billy Florence and Rick Abraham both looked at the website and stated they saw no prospecting materials or even an email to be contacted. Plain and simple, it wasn’t a prospecting site.

Jim Payne, John Stecco and Gary Vanderven called me with one hour to go before the suspension started and asked me if I was taking down the site. I was glad that someone at least called before I was suspended. I asked them what suspended actually meant, thinking that maybe I should get suspended and appeal to the board. Jim Payne said I would lose all of the QBI bonus, all the trips and monthly incomes. I was thinking about refusing to take down the site and appealing until Jim said the next statement. Chris Brady will also be suspended. I told them that Chris knew nothing about this, but their reply was that it says he is the co-founder. Jim asked again what my answer was. This was the most frustrating time in my entire life. I no longer felt I owned my own business and felt worse than an at will employee in my opinion. I bowed down to their authority again, but vowed to fix this ultra controlling attitude! I began to think that maybe discussing openly about change in this culture might not be the best thing for a person’s longevity in the new Quixtar.

The next crisis in my relationship with Quixtar came over full disclosure of the tool incomes. One of the major criticisms online and in the Dateline documentary is the lack of full disclosure on the tool incomes. Chris Brady and I decided to place the four ways to make income directly in our first night book. Quixtar forbid us to state our average incomes per level of achievement, but Quixtar was driving for full transparency in the tools business. I felt this was one of Team’s competitive advantages. We are proud of our compensation plans and anyone can become the top money earner. Why not disclose this in the first night book and if someone does not like it then they don’t have to join? This allows for complete transparency and no one can say they were not told upfront of all the various ways to make income. Tools, Tickets, Speaking and Quixtar were the four ways. Instead of being elated by our willingness to be transparent, Chris and I were threatened with a loss of the Hawaii Diamond Club unless we took the entire chapter out of the book. No discussion, just do it or else. I prayed about this one long and hard, but in the end decided to go to Hawaii because we had just broken 3 new diamonds and one was a personal (George and Jill) to us. We did not want to ruin their first Diamond Club and still believed that the attitude of Quixtar would change when they saw all the new growth we were experiencing!

The last major crisis while in the Quixtar business was the name change back to Amway. No discussion, no pros and cons, just do it. I feel no move on Quixtar’s part hurt the trust with the field as much as the unilateral name-change back to Amway. I built this business to have more control over my time and choices in life. The last two years had been a personal nightmare for me and my family. No one in our group outside of Chris and Tim knew anything. I did not and would not slander or libel someone. I do feel I have a right to share the truth from my perspective and this is the truth as I know it. I am sure I have made mistakes and am sure I could have addressed issues in a better way. All of us can get better. But as God as my witness, I never tried to belittle anyone personally and focused on the issues that I thought would improve the business for all of us. That is what I am called to do as a leader. I know people have bad days, but I was beginning to see a pattern in Quixtar’s behavior towards me and the Team. Even with all of this, I still had faith against all the facts that Quixtar/Amway leaders would come to their senses when they saw the backlash on the Amway name change. Every LOA/LOS leaders that I talked to was very disappointed by the recent move leading up to the name-change. There may have been some that were excited, but I didn’t talk to them and I tried to gather data from as many as possible to see if we could unite and convince Quixtar to change their minds. The beginning of the end of my Amway/Quixtar career was near.

TEAM: Historical Reminscences & A Vision for the Future - Part II

2008-02-15T10:21:00.000-08:00

Original Source

Historical Reminscences & A Vision for the Future - Part II
by Orrin Woodward on Fri 15 Feb 2008 10:21 AM EST

Here is Part II of my mini-book. I apologize for this history first before the announcement, but I feel people need to know the history to understand the constraints and criteria for the decisions leading to the Future of the Internet. I appreciate your patience and I will get back to writing after I post this. This could be four of five parts by the time it is done! God Bless, Orrin Woodward

Laurie and I went direct in the Amway model in March of 1995 and plateaued for the next four years. Chris and Terri joined our business a little over a year after we started and they went direct and leveled off also. We literally worked 6 to 7 days a week night after night. We may not have been the best or most talented, but we were not going to let anyone outwork us. The definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing while expecting a different result. We were taught in our training systems to duplicate not innovate—I agree with this statement when what you are duplicating is working. When it is not working, then duplicating failure is insanity. We saw many of our heroes fall on hard times. In North America, the Amway business peaked in 1995 and then started a free fall backwards. From somewhere around $1.6 billion in the US in 1995 it fell to just over a billion dollars in the US market by 1999. Something was drastically wrong! The multi-cultural market building in the US was exploding, so the actual fall back of the (English speaking as a first language) was worse than the numbers explain. Many big leaders lost fifty to seventy-five percent of their groups attending functions. In late 1998, Chris and I decided we would quit the Amway business and start an internet company. This was during the internet bubble craze and start-ups companies were selling for millions of dollars.

There were two things that held us in the business during these frustrating times. First, we still believed in our small group and the cause to change our country. We believed the training systems were an incredible educational tool to bring personal responsibility and free enterprise principles back to the American people. Second, our upline came back from a diamond club all excited that Amway was going away and an entirely new business was forming. They had not announced the name, but it would be an internet model that would revolutionize the how business was done on the web! Chris and I looked at this as a Providential move as Amway was moving into the internet age and we got excited to help in the transition to the new business. They announced the name of the new company (Quixtar) and we put off our plans to build our own internet company. Perhaps Chris and I were not ready to start our own company yet and I have no complaints with the education I have received since 1999 in building the Quixtar business.

Our attitude during the formation of the new Quixtar business was to innovate and see what needed changes we could bring to the MLM/Networking Industry. We had watched so many groups go backward and were so close to quitting personally that we felt no risk in innovating. We were only platinum’s at the time and began to develop a building methodology called Team Approach. Both Chris and I were over 20 wide at one point in our businesses. We had watched the majority of our personals quit after a year or two due to lack of results. Team Approach was an answer to the lack of results by leaving no one behind. When a person starts 10 to 15 people personally in width—they have no way of helping all of them. A person does not have enough time in the day to serve 15 new people and help them achieve success. Chris and I discovered the new people go through three steps on their way to developing into interdependent teammates. Information, Progress and Profit are the three steps in that order. A new person first learns about the products and interpersonal skills first. Secondly, they review monthly to see if any progress is being made in their business. Lastly, they ask, “Am I making any money?” If they are only learning with no progress or profit, they might make it 30 to 60 days. If they are learning and making progress—they will last 6 month to a year in the business model. But if they have all three, they will stay in and become a loyal part of the community.

Team Approach allowed us to help the new person make progress and nearly doubled our retention rate of the new people. I am in business to help people win first. I only desire to benefit from any business if it is win-win. If there is no benefit for the new person, they will quit. If there is no benefit for the leader, they will not serve. The proper business marries the interest of both the new people and the leaders to generate massive success. Our business rocketed to the fastest growing business in the entire Quixtar world. We went from platinum to diamond in 17 months. Laurie and I went on to EDC in 2003. We had growth rates of over 100% in several of those years. Ken McDonald, the Quixtar Managing Director and I developed a close relationship. He helped me immensely and taught me how to navigate through the usual politics associated with any success. When you succeed you have three types of responses:

1. People who are happy for you and desire to learn.
2. People who are indifferent and continue to do what they have always done.
3. People who are envious and wish to stop the new techniques.

Ken McDonald warned me of the people against the new methods and helped Chris and I develop processes to ensure Team Approach was above reproach. I am very thankful for Ken taking me under his wing and encouraging me to develop the Team Approach methodology. Ken asked if we would share Team Approach with other organizations and we said yes. Laurie and I were also asked to speak at the prestigious Quixtar Live event in 2003. We shared a vision of Quixtar becoming the Wal-mart of the internet. I believe anytime you learn something of value that we should share the blessings with others. Many groups were taught the new methods and started achieving more success. Jim and Nancy Dornan are excellent examples of the first group of people. They have achieved phenomenal success in life and business, but are still hungry to learn and grow. Jim and I sat down at Achiever’s and he implemented the Power Player program and Team Approach. Jim told me at a later Diamond Club that his business was growing and he had achieved the incredible level of Founders Crown Ambassador. This couple deserved their success as they continually focus on serving others.

As a leader of a growing Team, I was invited to participate in meeting to help solve why the overall business in North America was not performing to expectations. I volunteered without pay to do this throughout 2003 and 2004. My goal was to improve the opportunity for all organizations and leaders in Quixtar. In late 2004, I was exposed to the first hard data on the lack of results from the new Quixtar model. Leaders do not get depressed when they confront reality, but do get depressed if they are not allowed to fix the reality. I agreed to go on the board and dedicate three years of my life with this specific intent: To fix the Quixtar business and make it the opportunity we all believe it could and should be. I still believed we were sitting on the potential best opportunity in America. I told my mentor and Pastor that I would openly share any ideas to improve the business and pray that Quixtar management would openly confront reality for the good of all. They had developed the Quixtar model to improve on the lackluster results of the previous five years, but the results were even worse in the next five years in my opinion. I didn’t go on the IBOAI board to punch the clock, make money, or politic with the company and other leaders. My goal was to improve the business and give the new person an even better opportunity to win than the one given to Laurie and me. I still believe in my heart that most of the other leaders on the IBOAI feel the same way. All of us wanted to improve the business for the new people.

TEAM: Historical Reminscences & A Vision for the Future - Part I

2008-02-15T08:46:00.000-08:00

Original Source

Historical Reminscences & A Vision for the Future - Part I
by Orrin Woodward on Fri 15 Feb 2008 08:46 AM EST

In order to do this announcement of my future intentions, I must give you the background history of my experiences in the MLM/Networking industry. I share the history portion to inform the incredible readers of the critical choices that need to be made to take the MLM/Networking industry to the next level. Please bear with me as I provide the perspective lens that I view the MLM/Networking world through in multiple posts. No portion of this history is meant to be critical of any specific company or individuals. I have nothing but thankfulness in my heart that God led me to this marketing field. The relationships I have been blessed with have been worth any struggles or setbacks endured. My life’s mission is to “Lead myself and others to truth.” The only way I can do this is to be associated with people and companies who are constantly learning, growing and changing. I respect everyone’s right to not grow, but I believe they miss out on some of the greatest joys of life by not living a journey of self-discovery. The Japanese call it Kaizen (Continuous Improvement) and I experience the most frustration in life when I am involved with companies or individuals who do not wish to grow and change.

Charlie “Tremendous” Jones states, “You are a product of the books you read and the people you associate with.” My life significantly changed when I was introduced to the Yager Internet training organization back in mid-1993. I had met a window salesman named Dave who attempted to sell Laurie and me new windows for our 1958 house with the original Andersen windows still in place. The lowest cost windows were way over our budget so I was walking him to the door. He kept saying, “No problem, I have other businesses I am involved with.” At the time, I was half way through the University of Michigan MBA program and a full time 7th level engineer. I had recently turned 26 and we were broke with our first child on the way. I asked him what the businesses were and he told me he sold sports cards. I was excited because I had over 50,000 baseball and football cards in my basement. I told him to stay and brought up the cards. After reviewing the cards he agreed to help me sell them for a commission. The first night I met the guy he walked out of my house with over 5,000 cards valued at over $10,000! I was excited until my buddy Gary told me that Dave would probably never return my phone calls. Gary said I was silly for giving someone I did not know that many cards.

Needless to say, when he contacted me for his third business I was all ears. It was the only way to ensure I got my cards back! Dave told me he was involved in Interactive Television and in the future we would all be buying from our TV sets. Laurie and I were both serious TV watchers at the time and we thought making money while watching TV was the perfect business for us! When I found out that it was Amway, I was not too happy since I had seen the Amway plan a couple of years earlier. What made me keep listening though; was a fear that if I rejected the business opportunity, I would lose my baseball cards. Laurie was not excited at all, but I agreed to sign up if he would give me back all of my sports cards. When Dave brought over the Amway kit, I did not have the cash to sign up. He had to use our credit card and order another kit to his house for us to get started. Dave brought back all the cards and I thought this was the end of the story. Only one thin thread changed our destiny and brought me to where I am today—writing on this blog for tens of thousands of people.

Dave had suggested that I meet with a couple named Larry and Marsie VanBuskirk. Dave told me that he ran a couple of by referral financial planning offices and was involved in multiple other business ventures. My personal desire has always been to run my own company someday and Larry’s background intrigued me. I agreed to have them come over the house, but forgot to tell Laurie they were coming. Laurie and I were finishing supper one night when I received a phone call from Larry stating he was minutes away. Laurie was not too happy with me to say the least! Laurie was looking for her car keys to leave the house vowing not to return until after those “Amway people” were gone! Luckily for me, she could not find her keys. Larry and Marsie changed our lives that night. They did not talk about Amway or products, but they did talk about self-improvement, leadership, seminars, and tapes. Larry told me that the greatest business owners were the best at self-improvement. If you wanted to succeed in life that you needed many experiences and you could not possibly live long enough to have all the experiences necessary. The only way to close the gap was through reading and listening. To say that I was blown away would be an understatement!

Dave had left a shoe box full of tapes when he had signed us up, but it had been over a month and I had listened to none of them. The problem was—I did not have a tape player in my truck. I couldn’t afford one and only had an AM radio. Providentially, GM had offered to give me access to their company cars to drive to Ann Arbor for school at night. As I was shaving one morning, I remembered the company cars had tape players. I went to the shoe box and searched for the two selections, since I knew it was over an hour to Ann Arbor for school. I can see God’s hand all over the two tapes that I picked that morning. I searched for two tapes that would interest me and came up with two: Tim Foley, a former all pro football player and Paul Pilzer, an adjunct professor and economist. There were over 100 tapes in that box and there is no way I could have picked the perfect two except by God’s plan. I carried those two Internet Services tapes in my front shirt pocket all day long. Typically, I would listen to Nirvana or some other hard rock band on the way to Ann Arbor. But on this night, I popped out Nirvana and put in Economic Paradigms by Paul Pilzer. I had watched the video by Joel Barker on Paradigms so the title had aroused my curiosity.

Within ten minutes, I was hooked! I was stunned by the level of information being provided in the tape. I had been looking for an opportunity to provide for my family and Paul Pilzer had stated that Amway was cutting edge and reaching critical mass! I was not interested in a door to door business, but if Amway was expanding into interactive TV, had leadership training like I was listening to, and reaching critical mass—I was in for the long haul! I can not remember anything that happened in class that night and couldn’t wait to get in the car and listen to the next tape. Tim Foley delivered an inspiring talk about taking charge of your finances and being the leader you were called to be. I am so thankful to the Internet Training tapes that I listened to the first 5 years in my own business. They absolutely changed my life forever. Dexter Yager and Bill Britt are two under-appreciated business men who revolutionized an industry. In my opinion, these two men played a major role in the Amway phenomenon and I must give credit where credit is due. I listened to literally hundreds of tapes from both of these leaders and learned incredible nuggets of courage and convictions. I wanted to follow in their footstep and help change the country like they were focused on doing.

Notice a key point—I did not buy in because I believed the Amway products were the absolute best on the market. I wasn’t against the products, but they were not the main focus. Many of the tapes stated, “People move products, products do not move people.” I bought in to changing the country and helping others do something meaningful with their life! The training systems created the most loyal and disciplined group of people that I was proud to be associated with. If buying products from Amway was necessary to be associated with this group of world changers, then so be it. I shut off my rational critical thinking when it came to the product side, because I knew it was bigger than just products. I read Rich Devos’s and Jay VanAndel’s books and believed 100% in their vision of free enterprise and personal responsibility. Both of these great men have made a huge difference in my life. Even with all the current challenges, I am still thankful for the teaching and entrepreneurial spirit that Rich and Jay taught me. Rich, Jay, Dexter, and Bill were all ahead of their time. Rich and Jay focused on earth friendly products at a time when practically no one else did. Dexter and Bill were created the model for today’s learning organizations and revolutionized the entire MLM/Networking field. To have cut my teeth under such incredible visionaries was and still is a blessing for Laurie and me.

I will end here for Part I and will continue in another post later today. God Bless, Orrin Woodward

QUIXTAR: Another Year, Another Billion Dollars+

2008-02-15T01:00:00.001-08:00

Original Source

Another Year, Another Billion Dollars+
Friday, February 15, 2008

Today Quixtar announced 2007 sales of $1.07 billion, down a tad from the previous year's sales of $1.12 billion. Given the amount of change and turmoil experienced, I was encouraged by these results! I've already seen some of the initial reactions that this somehow reflects a fiscal year that ended Aug. 31, 2007. As people will recall, we changed our fiscal year last year to match the calendar year, so the fiscal 2007 results are for the calendar year, and are compared to calendar 2006.

The pace here at Quixtar only increases from month to month as we work hard on initiatives that support IBOs' business growth. From consumer campaigns to products to compensation, no stone is being left unturned. I've never been busier in my 16 years here, and I've never been more excited about the direction we're headed in. I hope you are too!

A few weeks ago we celebrated a year in the Opportunity Zone. I have asked before and am asking again for any of your candid feedback about what we blog about here in the Zone, the different approaches by different blogs, the usability of the Zone ... no comments are bad comments. Let us know what works for you and what doesn't. This is feedback we want to share with the bloggers so that they can make this space even more productive for you!

QUIXTAR: Quixtar Announces Fifth Consecutive Year of Billion-Dollar Sales

2008-02-15T01:00:00.000-08:00

Original Source

Quixtar Announces Fifth Consecutive Year of Billion-Dollar Sales

Independent Business Owners earned $363 million in bonuses and incentives

ADA, Mich., Feb. 15, 2008 - Quixtar Inc. today announced fiscal 2007 sales of $1.072 billion, the fifth consecutive year in which the company surpassed the billion-dollar mark. The results represented a slight decline from the previous year's sales of $1.12 billion, which were the best in Quixtar's nine-year history.

Results were affected minimally by actions the company took to terminate the business of a few Independent Business Owners in August of 2007 after they refused to change unacceptable practices.

Quixtar Independent Business Owners (IBOs) earned $363 million in bonuses and other incentives for their business efforts in 2007, which also included $70.1 million in sales at Quixtar's Partner Stores.

In 2007, Quixtar launched a new line of nutritional snacks, juices and supplements for busy families under the Simply Nutrilite™ brand, as well as the new Artistry® essentials line of skin care and cosmetics products. Quixtar.com was redesigned to improve usability and to better support IBO sales efforts, and Quixtar University was launched to provide online and aided sales and brand training to help IBOs build profitable businesses.

Since 1999, IBOs have earned nearly $2.6 billion based on total Quixtar sales of more than $7.86 billion and Partner Store sales of more than $577 million. Driven by its strong Health and Beauty brands, Quixtar again was ranked #1 in online Health and Beauty sales by Internet Retailer's "Top 500 Guide" in 2007, and 22nd overall in e-commerce.

"Our business is on the right path at the right time," said Jim Payne, Executive Vice President - Amway & Quixtar. "New leadership was brought in this year with Steve Lieberman, the new Managing Director for Quixtar who joined us in August. We also recently hired a new VP of Sales, Sandy Spielmaker, who will have a tremendous impact on our sales team."

Plans were announced in 2007 to change the business opportunity brand in North America to better leverage and align with Amway's $7 billion global business.

"We're working with IBOs to properly position our North American business within the context of the larger Amway global brand," said Lieberman. "To better support IBO efforts, we are focusing in particular on how consumers interact with our products and our brands."

"Our goal is to provide the best business opportunity in North America," said Lieberman. "From products and IBO compensation to sales training and marketing programs, everything we do in support of our IBOs is being examined to ensure we achieve that goal."

ABOUT QUIXTAR
Based in Ada, Mich., Quixtar Inc. is part of the Alticor group of companies, founded by the DeVos and Van Andel families. Alticor is led by Steve Van Andel, Chairman, and Doug DeVos, President. Global sales for the Alticor group of companies, which include Amway, Access Business Group, Alticor Corporate Enterprises (ACE), and Quixtar, exceeded $7.1 billion in fiscal 2007.

Quixtar currently supports independent businesses in the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, and various trust territories and independent island nations in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and Caribbean Sea. Quixtar Canada Corp. headquarters are located in London, Ont., Canada.

TEAM: cal Reminscences & A Vision for the Future - Part III

2008-02-15T00:31:00.000-08:00

Original Source

Historical Reminscences & A Vision for the Future - Part III
by Orrin Woodward on Fri 15 Feb 2008 12:31 PM EST

Let me step back to late 2003 and share with you my experiences with the Amway/Quixtar criticisms on the web. All of the major organizations were taught to avoid the negative associated with the name Amway by what is called the curiosity approach. This is an approach to people without referring specifically to the Amway or Quixtar name. For example instead of saying, “I would like to come over and show you the Amway plan”, people would say, “I am building a business in your area and would like to come over and share the details.” The goal was to get the meeting and explain all the details there. With the advent of the internet age, sharing Amway or Quixtar during the plan was a death knell. People would Google the speaker and business during the plan and literally walk out without hearing all the facts. I was so committed to the cause that I never stopped and analyzed the criticisms on the web with an open mind. The CD’s said to avoid negative and taught that everything on the web were lies or just criticisms of non-achievers. I focused on serving people and built our business very fast without much direct criticism through the end of 2003. In late 2003, Laurie and I hit EDC and began receiving criticism personally online. At first I was hurt personally. Some of the things stated and suggest motives for my behavior were simply not true. But I am thankful that it happened to me. It was the first time I read the criticisms online with a spirit of confronting reality. I asked myself, “What parts of the criticisms have an element of truth and what can we do to fix them?” This was a humbling exercise, because I had to admit our business was not perfect and needed to be reformed in several areas. The criticisms online were right in many areas. I told Ken McDonald back in 2004, “It’s not the negative lies online that are killing us, but the negative truths.” He agreed and said we needed to fix them.

The first major criticism that needed to be fixed was the good old boy club surrounding the tool businesses. People were given a discount on tools based on how much the upline liked them and how hard they negotiated. I did not want to be a hard negotiator with Chris Brady and the other leaders one day and then turnaround and be partners the next. The only solution that I could see would be to create a profit sharing plan. The profit sharing plan would take all revenue minus expenses and pay out to the Team based on performance. By having a per group performance, anyone could make the most money and it didn’t matter if you were the first person or the last person in. All that mattered was how big you built your groups. This revolutionized the pay and allowed us to be transparent about the sources of income. In the old school model, people at the top made most of the money and people at the bottom had to break away and run their own systems to be compensated properly. The only problem is they would become the new “Kingpins” and the antiquated system perpetuated hard feelings, lawsuits, and division. There were so many good leaders that have left the business today, not because they are bad people, but because there were systemic issues that caused dissension. The best analogy to use would be the water follows the riverbed every time. Until we deal with the structural issues (riverbed), the problems will continue to occur. We can tell the water to go to the right, but if the riverbed turns to the left the water will follow. We must fix the structures or problems will be endemic. This was a major fix and the reason that no leader has ever left to form another system on the Team. There is no need to unless it was purely ego driven.

Another riverbed issue was the old pins continued to be recognized even after they had fallen out of qualification. What kind of credibility can an organization have if they bring up people and call them “Diamonds” when they are actually Sapphires or lower? In the Team culture all speaking is based on current qualifications based on numbers (influence). It doesn’t matter what they accomplished in the past, the key is what are they doing currently? The goal is to serve the new people and Dexter had a saying, “Get your best in front of the best.” By basing it on numbers we fixed the riverbed and ensured the best were in front of the best. By having a performance based system, this also fixed unqualified pins receiving the majority of the tool profits from the work of others. As you perform, so shall you bonus was our motto. The criticisms on the business not growing did not apply directly to the Team, but I did agree that selling a success system was hypocritical if people were not succeeding. The Team had grown from 200 people attending majors to over 12,000 in six years and with groups merging into the Team over the next year we grew to over 20,000 strong at majors Another factor that improved our unified Team was the system stayed pure. Because we were all on the same page and went to the same conventions, the teaching stayed pure and duplicatable. This was not true in other systems where each diamond ran their own majors and taught different techniques.

By all staying together and running a performance based system, we were able to gain incredible volume discounts and leverage our numbers to the benefit of all. For example, in St. Louis if there are 25k people in attendance that means we have 40k plus seats still available. When we fill those seats everyone benefits. The new person get a phenomenal show at a lower price, every leader receives more in profit sharing and the Team reaches its goal of 1 million people. We went through and researched every piece of the criticisms online and attempted to the best of our ability to fix every area we could. The one we could not fix was the Pyramid issue. The criticisms online amounted to this, “You get people motivated and loyal to your Team’s and then convince them to buy products at a higher price than they can buy at a store.” I was taught that the products were of a much higher quality and the higher quality and value justified the higher prices. It wasn’t until I and other top diamonds paid for our own analysis of the products that we began to doubt if our answer was genuine. The doubts would have started in 2004 and this is why the Board started the 15 to 20 value based products initiative. We didn’t expect all of the products to be priced competitively with the market, but asked for some. I felt confident that we could get there in 2004 and felt all we needed to do was confront the facts and fix the issue. When a leader identifies a problem, they do not run away from it, deny it, or pass the buck. They address and fix. This is what we attempted to do through the IBOAI board.

The confronting of reality that Fred Harteis, Billy Florence, Don Wilson, Randy Haugen, Joe Markiewicz, and others were placing on Quixtar led to promises of better pricing. Many leaders were tired of watching high quality leaders come and go out of there organizations. Many went on to successful careers outside of the business and would praise the training systems for teaching them to think right about business. I have lost count of how many stories I have heard about successful entrepreneurs who learned the principles from the various Amway training organizations. The leaders felt that if the training was that good, how come they could not succeed in this business? Why do we have to cycle through nearly half our group every year and to work incredibly hard just to maintain the same size organization? These were the issues on the table to Ken McDonald and Doug Devos. The answer was to do a regime change and this brought Jim Payne and Rob Davidson into the positions of Quixtar Managing Director and Quixtar Sales Manager. I respected Ken McDonald greatly and was told by him that he had planned to retire and that it was time for him to bow out. I was excited to be working with Jim Payne and Rob Davidson. Ken had led us to Rob Davidson when he was head of the rules department. Rob had graciously dedicated his time and energy to help us with the Team Approach methods. I was only 6 months into my first term on the board and the future looked bright for some much needed (in my opinion) riverbed changes to the structure of the Quixtar business. The IBO Board leaders wanted a business we could be proud of and represent to the people with assurance that the business was the best thing for them. I felt confident that in the next two years we would get there and change America for the better! I wanted to make my three year term on the Board count.

TEAM: More on the Amway Arbitration case

2008-02-11T01:00:00.000-08:00

Original Source

More on the Amway Arbitration case
February 11, 2008

As expected the reversal of the arbitration ruling in the Morrison case has made it's rounds and now the IBOAI, Alticor, and even others are putting their two cents in. Of course most of what is being said I don't think is even addressing the issues. To me it looks like more damage control then anything. At any rate there are apparently some things that the IBOAI want you to know.

1. The decision in this case could be changed in future court proceedings. (Much like how the earlier decision in favor of Amway was later changed in future court proceedings).

2. The Morrison decision was based upon arbitration agreement rules that were in effect in 1998 and have since changed. For instance Amway can no longer make changes to the agreement without the consent of the IBOAI.

3. The dispute arose before January 1, 1998 when the arbitration agreement went into effect and therefore that does not apply to anyone who had a dispute after 1998.

As far as Alticor goes they are trying to say that all Morrison gets is a redo of his arbitration, and that the decision was based off of the fact that the dispute arose prior to 1998. But from the way I read it the court is saying there was no enforceable arbitration agreement because of Amway's unilateral authority to amend.

Other certain Amway supporters have also written on their site that after having time to read the decision "properly" they also see the decision being based off of the fact that there was no arbitration in effect at the time of the dispute. Well apparently time was of no help to read the decision properly.

The way I read it however the final wording in the decision clearly is referring to Amway's unilateral right to amend the agreement. Here is what the final wording is in the decision:

There is nothing in any of the relevant documents which precludes amendment to the arbitration program – made under Amway’s unilateral authority to amend its Rules of Conduct – from eliminating the entire arbitration program or its applicability to certain claims or disputes so that once notice of such an amendment was published mandatory arbitration would no longer be available even as to disputes which had arisen and of which Amway had notice prior to the publication. There are no Halliburton type savings clauses which preclude application of such amendments to disputes which arose (or of which Amway had notice) before the amendment. We accordingly hold that the arbitration agreement was illusory and unenforceable under Davidson as applied to the claims asserted in the instant suit.12 We thus reverse the district court’s October 15, 1998 order staying the case pending arbitration and its September 15, 2005 final judgment denying the Distributors’ motion to vacate the award, granting Amway’s motion to confirm the award, and entering judgment based upon the award; and we remand the case for further proceedings not inconsistent herewith. (emphasis mine)
The reference to Halliburton is addressed earlier in the document where Halliburton's arbitration was ruled not illusory since they could not avoid arbitration by amending or terminating the arbitration provision due to the way it was written. Amway had no such "saving clause".

But as with anything I encourage you to go and read the decision yourself and come to your own conclusion. This case is quite old and many of the rules considering arbitration have changed. But for anyone considering this business I would recommend that you get a good understanding of such processes.

QUIXTAR: The Truth About the Morrison Decision

2008-02-09T15:06:00.000-08:00

Original Source

The Truth About the Morrison Decision
February 09, 2008

There are already false rumors online about an appeals court decision in the Morrison v. Amway Corp. case. The decision, which is not yet final, and could be changed in future court proceedings, does not apply to current arbitration rules, which can't be changed except by mutual agreement of Quixtar and the IBOAI, and it also doesn't apply to disputes that arose after arbitration became part of the IBO contract in 1998. This ruling therefore should not affect any current case (the Morrison case was more than ten years old).

The ruling issued on February 6 by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Morrison v. Amway Corp. specifically states only that it applies "to the claims asserted in the instant suit." The Court's discussion of the claims in Morrison and the arbitration agreement as it existed in 1998 show that the ruling does not apply to the Quixtar-IBOAI arbitration rules as they currently exist, and also does not apply to disputes that arose after the arbitration agreement became part of the IBO contract in 1998.

First, the court (describing the 1998 version of the arbitration rules) stated that "[t]here is no express exemption of the arbitration provisions from Amway's ability to unilaterally modify all rules . . . ." This is certainly not true of the Quixtar-IBOAI arbitration rules as they exist today and have existed for many years. Rule 11.5.1 of the Rules of Conduct specifically provides:

"These Rules shall be amended only by mutual agreement
between the Corporation [Quixtar] and the IBOA International
Board."

This language is clear and unequivocal - Quixtar cannot change the Quixtar-IBOAI arbitration agreement without the agreement of the IBOAI Board. Whatever the court believed about Amway's ability to modify the 1998 rules is not true of the present day rules.

Second, the court stressed that the disputes between the Morrison plaintiffs and Amway arose before the arbitration agreement became part of the Amway contract effective January 1, 1998. This reasoning would not apply to any IBO whose dispute arose after 1998.

Posted at 03:06 PM

QUIXTAR: Nitro: Case dismissed

2008-02-08T23:24:00.000-08:00

Original Source

Nitro: Case dismissed
February 8th, 2008 @ 11:24 pm ET…

Happy to report to you that the Nitro case in Missouri has been dismissed by a federal judge.

The ruling itself is under seal at this point, so we can’t discuss or quote the specific findings and conclusions — at least, not yet.

But the fact that the case has been dismissed is a matter of public record. So we decided to share the news because this was one of those cases where the trial lawyers on the other side made sliming us publicly part of their legal strategy. It’s a terribly cynical approach, designed to intimidate the company and shake the confidence of our business owners.

No surprise that the losing trial lawyers were from Shughart Thomson & Kilroy — the same people who launched last year’s failed TEAM California lawsuit with a barrage of press releases and bluster, and then watched a judge dismiss that case as well. At this point, the firm’s credibility in speaking about our company matches their record of success in court.

We’re angry at the way they attempted to rattle our friends who are out there every night building Quixtar businesses. We’re pleased that the judge saw their case had no merit.

There was also a ruling this week in a separate case, known as Morrison, where an appeals court reversed and remanded an earlier lower court ruling. It’s the latest step in a long, long fight that we remain confident of winning. The ruling does not say that Morrison is right about any of his claims. It only says that he gets a do-over of the arbitration he lost in 2004.

And another important point: Contrary to some of the spinners out there, the ruling hinges on the fact that the dispute is so very old—beginning before 1998, before we even had an arbitration program. Therefore, the effect of this ruling on our current arbitration program and current cases (a shrinking list, given the Nitro dismissal) is virtually zero. If someone’s telling you otherwise, don’t buy the hype.

TEAM: AMWAY ARBITRATION CLAUSE RULED "ILLUSORY" AND "UNENFORCEABLE"

2008-02-08T02:58:00.000-08:00

Original Source
See also The IBO Rebellion

Arbitration agreement ruled:
"illusory and unenforceable"
in Morrison case

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT

Read the court's opinion for yourself. Morrison's arguements Amway's arguements

I'll present an analysis at the end of the weekend.

I would not be surprised if the same arguement could be made for Amway's "non-compete" agreement......

"We accordingly hold that the arbitration agreement was illusory and unenforceable under Davidson as applied to the claims asserted in the instant suit.12 We thus reverse the district court’s October 15, 1998 order staying the case pending arbitration and its September 15, 2005 final judgment denying the Distributors’ motion to vacate the award, granting Amway’s motion to confirm the award, and entering judgment based upon the award; and we remand the case for further proceedings not inconsistent herewith.

REVERSED and REMANDED"

TEAM:RESPONDING TO "WHILE WE WERE OUT"

2008-02-07T01:42:00.000-08:00

Original Source

RESPONDING TO "WHILE WE WERE OUT"
Thursday, February 7, 2008

The latest post on the Alticor Media Blog occurred on Jan. 25th 2008. Alticor has at least learned from its mistakes. After getting pounded in the courts for their troglodytical remarks in the post "Just Go TEAM," they have decided to zip it. I applaud them for their coming to grips with their complete lack of emotional intelligence. Acknowledging your problem is the first step.

There are several parts to their post but lets focus on remarks made in the section titled Nevada. Here is what Alticor posted:

NEVADA: One thing we can mention: As noted in an earlier post, we are pursuing a lawsuit against TEAM in Nevada, the state where the company is incorporated. We think they have a lot to answer for, including their violation of Quixtar’s rights to its LOS. What they are mostly doing in response is trying to wiggle out of answering questions about their plans to harm Quixtar business owners. They can’t wiggle forever.
So lets examine the latest dribble from Alticor. Once again Alticor sounds as arrogant as ever saying TEAM has much answer for. The issue of LOS has already been decided and on Alticor's home turf of Grand Rapids. TEAM has never deprived Quixtar of their rights to the LOS. Their LOS still exists just the people who use to be there have chose to leave. As Judge Bush in Texas stated, "You can't make people be slaves." That means people are free to resign or not renew. So go look at your LOS Quixtar, it is still there. There just aren't any active IBOs in it.

However, the most offensive part of Alticor's post was their suggestion that TEAM plans or planned to "harm Quixtar business owners." Quixtar is attempting to claim that the entire legal attack on TEAM is to somehow to protect remaining IBOs. That is the biggest load of balderdash anyone could muster. The interest Quixtar continues to clamor about, and that has been heard in courtrooms across the country, is Quixtar's belief that they own IBOs.

Let's examine who has harmed whom. TEAM, specifically Woodward and Brady, have been the main breath of fresh air Quixtar's pathetic corporation needed. People don't want stories of success from years gone by. They want recent success stories from people just like them. TEAM provided that to Quixtar and to the industry. The TEAM's growth and success is well documented. TEAM's profit sharing is second to none and was a stark contrast to the stingy payouts Woodward and Brady both endured as IBOs on the way to having their own system. Woodward has been a staunch advocate for lower pricing. How has TEAM and company hurt other IBOs? By reforming tool profits, fighting for lower pricing, or by creating an environment and formula for success? I can think of NOTHING that TEAM has done to harm IBOs.

In contrast lets examine Quixtar's sorry track record. First and foremost their delusional pricing strategy has fleeced all of us. Through the years, their refusal to address their corporate image only made building the business more difficult. Their inability to solve the "first circle" issue for a new IBO to make money creates incredible turnover. The 15-20 competitively priced products remains elusive to this day even after years of promises. The altering of the QBI program to discriminate against TEAM IBOs and other depth focused organizations was a classic "change the deal" maneuver. In addition, Alticor found it necessary to create new avenues for its products that circumvent IBOs and undermine what was an exclusive distributorship.

The two biggest hits IBOs took from Quixtar were the Amway name change and the termination of Woodward and Brady. The name change from Quixtar to Amway was recognized by Alticor as an act that would damage existing IBOs and their businesses. Alticor acknowledged as much but basically said that IBOs would have to cope with the fallout that they believed could last for years. In the case of TEAM, Woodward and Brady's termination damaged every IBO that were a part of TEAM. The welfare of existing IBOs was not on the minds of Quixtar on August 9th. Instead, it was all about the lack of emotional intelligence all over again. Under a scenario where TEAM departed peacefully from Quixtar, damage would have been mitigated. Quixtar made the decision to make it nasty that day and therefore hold the liability for the destruction they and others associated with them have incurred.

Alticor / Amway / Quixtar and their overzealous legal department has been, and continues to be, the epicenter of destruction for current and former IBOs. Alticor's shameful accusation that Woodward and Brady would harm fellow IBOs should be rejected in its entirety. Alticor will continue their spin laden remarks on their blog and in their press releases. They can say all kinds of nice things about how they are doing and where they are going. Bottom line it all reminds me of a line I once heard. "A little bit of powder, a little bit of paint, makes a girl's complexion seem what it ain't." In terms of Quixtar, despite all their flowery remarks about themselves,.... it's real ugly, real ugly indeed.
Posted by The IBO Rebellion at 1:42 AM

QUIXTAR: Rumor Re Confidential Competitive Analysis

2008-02-06T23:19:00.000-08:00

Original Source

Rumor Re Confidential Competitive Analysis
February 06, 2008

There's a rumor out there that in April of 2000, the IBOAI conducted a “Confidential Competitive Analysis” of Quixtar products. FALSE.
There is no record of any such analysis in minutes of Board and Committee meetings. There were, at a couple of different points in time, INFORMAL comparisons of Quixtar products with other commercial products made by a handful of IBO leaders and members of their downline. One such comparison helped Board representatives, on behalf of all IBOS, negotiate favorable pricing for energy bars with Quixtar.
Posted at 11:19 PM

QUIXTAR: Bigger and better

2008-02-06T08:45:00.000-08:00

Original Source

Bigger and better
February 6th, 2008 @ 8:45 am ET…

Our sales figures for 2007 are out. By the numbers:

we posted $7.1 billion in sales—12 percent more than we made in 2006;
39 out of our 55 Amway markets—emerging and established alike—posted sales increases, with impressive results in Asia, Europe and Latin America; and
it was another billion-dollar year for Quixtar in North America.*
Our direct selling license in China certainly bolstered sales, while our largest overall regional gains came from Europe. And in Latin America, we saw a remarkable 30 percent sales increase as a result of our transformation efforts.

Also of interest: a growing list of celebrities and athletes continue to endorse our products. In non-direct selling news, our wireless charging technology called eCoupled was granted 20 new patents in 2007 alone. And, we opened the ultra-luxurious JW Marriott Grand Rapids, one of only 36 in the world.

One final number: 50. Yes, Amway turns 50 in 2009. The next 50 promise to be just as big, and better than ever.

* Quixtar will share sales specifics in the coming days.

TEAM: BLOGGER SUIT UPDATE

2008-02-05T20:26:00.000-08:00

Original Source

BLOGGER SUIT UPDATE:
Tuesday, February 5, 2008

I thought I would take the time to update you on the latest concerning the Quixtar v. John Doe Blogger case. The last court date was 1-25-08 in Ottawa County, MI. At that hearing it was decided that the case would be moved to the 07th Circuit Court of Genesee County, MI. The next court date is set for 2-25-08. I will pass along any other information regarding this case as it becomes available.

Posted by The IBO Rebellion at 8:26 PM

TEAM: MLM/Networking - Benchmarking Study

2008-02-05T12:47:00.000-08:00

Original Post

Multilevel Marketing - MLM/Networking - Benchmarking Study
by Orrin Woodward on Tue 05 Feb 2008 12:47 PM EST

Here are the definitions for the terms MLM, Network Marketing and Benchmarking.

Multilevel Marketing (MLM) - or Network Marketing, is a system for selling goods or services through a network of distributors. The typical Multilevel Marketing program works through recruitment. You are invited to become a distributor, sometimes through another distributor of the Multilevel Marketing Company’s products and sometimes through a generally advertised meeting. If you choose to become a distributor with the Multilevel Marketing Company, you'll earn money both through the sales of the MLM's products and through recruiting other distributors, by receiving a portion of the income these distributors generate. The distributors that you sign up with your Multilevel Marketing plan are called your downline. The distributor that originally recruited you is called your upline. Often he or she will give you some help getting started, including training.

Network Marketing / MLM - is the sale of a consumer product or service, person-to-person, away from a fixed retail location, basically a home based business. These products and services are marketed to customers by independent sales consultants. Depending on the company, the salespeople may be called distributors, consultants or various other titles. Products are sold primarily through personal relationships and one-on-one retailing. Commissions are paid not only to the MLM Consultant that made the sale, but they are also paid to the person who referred that consultant to the Network Marketing Company in the first place.

Benchmarking - A process of searching out and studying the best practices that produce superior performance. Benchmarks may be established within the same organization (internal benchmarking), outside of the organization with another organization that produces the same service or product (external benchmarking), or with reference to a similar function or process in another industry (functional benchmarking).

Benchmarking - The process by which a company compares its own performance, products, and services with those of other organizations that are recognized as the best in a particular category. The product or service that is determined to be the industry standard is known as a benchmark.

Benchmarking - Searching for the best practices or competitive practices that will help define superior performance of a product, service, or support process. Competitive benchmarking allows a company to know precisely where their operation is in relation to a direct competitor, to determine its competitive position, and to identify major performance gaps. Process benchmarking searches out the best practices of a particular industry process and compares the performance of the company to a recognized performance leader. It focuses on the process not who the company is or whether or not they are a competitor.

In an industry much like the old (wild) west, with rogue companies, individuals, inflated myths & visions of grandeur—I have committed to separate the fact from fiction in the MLM industry. As an engineer I was trained by some of the best benchmarking guru’s dating back to Xerox original developments in benchmarking. Rochester Products, a former division of General Motors had studied extensively at Xerox Corporation located in Rochester on the new techniques (at the time-late 80’s to early 90’s) of benchmarking. When Rochester division merged with AC/Delco to form AC Rochester, I was exposed to these techniques. I loved the benchmarking processes developed and devoured all the literature and studies available in the field. I accepted an assignment in the fuel systems area and through hard work, God’s Providence and an excellent team—we won a National Benchmarking Award. Through the benchmarking process, I also created or co-created four U.S. Patents. In my opinion the MLM industry is ripe for an extensive benchmarking study and I have volunteered to do this free of charge. Almost ten years ago, I would charge rates of three to four thousand a day to do the same studies as an engineering consultant. Today the rates would be upwards of five to eight thousand per day.

You may wonder why I have volunteered for this assignment. I feel that someone needs to perform a public service and improve the prospective business owner’s ability to make the proper choices. I feel strongly that the future MLM businesses must quit hiding behind a cloak of secrecy and share openly the positive and negative facts about their business and industry. If something is not positive then fix it! Right? Why call everything confidential and trade secret information if you have a good business? If it is good then the last thing you would want is to keep it a secret! If the facts are negative then no wonder the company would want to keep everything top secret and confidential. It is time to shed some light on the good and bad of this industry and take it out of the old (wild) west stage and into a more civilized mainstream business occupation.

The benchmarking process falls into four systematic steps:

1. Identify –Identify all companies and processes to be studied.
2. Evaluate – Develop the criteria to evaluate from each company.
3. Analyze – Study the data and let the facts speak for themselves.
4. Implement – Announce the best practices and best companies as benchmarks.

This process works in any problem solving endeavor and I count my blessings that I was exposed to this process as a 23 year old engineer. I will share more details on the four step process and MLM specific criteria chosen for the MLM Benchmarking Project. God Bless, Orrin Woodward

Update: I have received some great suggestions for specific MLM criteria to evaluate in the comments. Let's formalize the gathering of process by polling our readers. What factors do you believe are important to evaluate in the MLM industry?

TEAM: California lawsuit, part 4

2008-02-04T08:23:00.000-08:00

Original Post

California lawsuit, part 4
MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 2008

The plainitffs in the class action lawsuit alleged,

At a Diamond Meeting of the Company Internet Services in 1997 or 1998, a price
discussion ensued regarding the price of the Amway dog food. When asked
why the dog food was so expensive, an Amway representative stated that Amway
does not look at the marketplace to determine what a competitive retail price should be. Instead, the Amway representative stated that the products are priced at the IBO cost. Essentially, the Amway representative was suggesting that the IBO cost, considered the “wholesale” cost, is actually the retail price. Thus, IBOs attempting to resell the dog food would have to
sell it at cost, foregoing any profit, in order to be competitive.

In April of 2000, the IBOAI conducted a “Confidential Competitive Analysis” of the
Quixtar products. The IBOAI compared the Quixtar products with three
competitive market leaders in each type of product and a cost per unit of measurement was established to fairly compare the products. In almost every item, the Quixtar products were substantially overpriced in comparison to the three industry leaders. In response, Quixtar promised to “work on it.”

“Amway does not look at the market place to determine what a competitive retail price should be. Instead, the Amway representatives stated that the Amway products were priced at the IBO cost.” To me, this clearly demonstrates that Amway had very little desire to market the products to outside customers; instead they relied on purchases and consumption from their IBO’s. This arrangement worked out well for Amway because there were numerous IBO leaders who got good at recruiting massive amounts of people into the Amway business. Because the tool companies emphasized the opportunity portion of the business, IBO’s were willing to purchase the products for personal use. Although the IBO leaders were good at bringing in massive amounts of people into Quixtar, I’m willing to bet that only a small percentage of the people in the Quixtar/Amway business actually purchased products. In this regard, I would agree 100% with IBOFightback. IBOFightback has argued on this blog, and others as well, that a large percentage of IBO’s never purchase a single product. Why do you suppose that was the case?

QUIXTAR: A new rule to help IBOs sell more products

2008-01-31T08:19:00.000-08:00

Original Source

A new rule to help IBOs sell more products
Thursday, January 31, 2008 by Gary VanderVen

Category: Announcements, Quixtar Strategy, Products, Rules, Innovation
I just want to give IBOs a heads-up about something. As you may know, Quixtar is undertaking an overall business transformation that has as one of its goals, Growth through Innovation. We want to help create awareness of and demand for our products and help more IBOs make more money sooner. One of the first things we are doing is adding a rule to help IBOs sell more products to customers. Detailed information about this new rule will be published and distributed in the February poly-bag (along with the Achieve Magazine).

The change, effective March 1, 2008, will allow IBOs to sell some Quixtar exclusive brands at temporary health or beauty shows or expos and certain kinds of sporting events. Up 'til now, we have approved booths for IBOs who wanted to display and maybe let customers sample some products, but we've never allowed the actual sale of the products. Now, at many events, the display and sale will be allowed. Imagine that! The already existing Booth Rule will stay in effect for other kinds of events where we will continue to allow display-only.

The displays will need to be set up in accordance with Quixtar guidelines and with prior written authorization (we're asking for 30 days' notice) from Quixtar's rules department. We will provide supporting merchandising material on a CD, so IBOs can print off their own, pre-authorized signage or handouts.

What kind of sporting events are we talking about? Marathons, 3-on-3 basketball tournaments, kids soccer tournaments, etc. Events of a limited duration, so it's not like a concession stand at a high-school football field, but, rather, the kind of event where the IBO can get permission from the event organizer/organization to set up a booth and sell some product on the day/days of the event.

This rule change was brought to the IBOAI Board, and they recommended adoption.

We will begin accepting applications for Event Sales March 1. The application form will be available on quixtar.com or by contacting Customer Support or Rules Administration. If you have questions, please contact Rules Administration at 616-787-6712 or by email at qbcr.department@quixtar.com.

The pending Rule: [Rule 4.3.3.]

4.3.3 Event Sales: The display and sale of health, beauty and sports nutrition products by IBOs only at temporary (no more than 10 days) health and beauty shows and certain kinds of sporting events (e.g.: bike race, marathon, 3-on-3 basketball tournament) are permitted. The following information must be received by the Corporation, in writing, 30 days prior to the event, to allow sufficient time to grant approval.
4.3.3.1. A written description of the type of event (including date of event).
4.3.3.2. Name of the specific product(s) to be displayed and sold.
4.3.3.3. A list of specific literature to be used at the booth or for handouts. Any privately produced material for handouts or display must be sent with the booth request for approval.
4.3.3.4. A signed statement from the Platinum or above IBO accepting responsibility for booth activity and include a list of all names of IBOs staffing the booth.
4.3.3.5 A post-event accounting of total volume sold must be provided to the Corporation by the Platinum if the volume sold is part of the qualifying volume for Silver Producer or above for purposes of verifying 70% Rule compliance.

TEAM: Fred Harteis Resigns

2008-01-30T01:00:00.000-08:00

Original Source

Statement From Fred Harteis: 01/30/2008

As an IBO I have entered into many discussions concerning issues I have had with Quixtar i.e.: product pricing, the IBO compensation plan, negative on the web. I have been open about my opinions. When the DTI situation became public, I became very concerned about our future, in the USA based on the DTI complaint. I discussed these issues with several people including my attorneys, my leaders, Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady. However I never talked to D.J. Poyfair or anyone from his firm.

In July of 2007 I along with many others were very concerned about our future in business with Quixtar as was consistent in August of 2007.

Although I agree with the issues I would have hoped Orrin and Chris and the others were not terminated on August 9th of 2007 and the lawsuit would have not been served.

I do not have any question of the character of Orrin Woodward or Chris Brady, or doubt their motive to help people. I see them as leaders with a vision and passion to do great things for America and people on their Team.

I have resigned from Quixtar and I am working with Team Leadership. I would like to see Quixtar and Team resolve their differences soon, so everyone can get on with their lives and focus on the future.

Sincerely,
Fred Harteis

TEAM: UK UPDATE

2008-01-29T02:43:00.000-08:00

Original Source

UK UPDATE
Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Here is the latest information regarding the Amway UK case. Amway clearly believes that they should be rewarded for changes they have made to Amway UK. One of these changes was to significantly reduce prices in the UK. Amway claims they have conducted a "global review" of their operations. Why haven't they lowered prices in the North America? Why are prices only reduced under government pressure? Well rumor has it that March will bring some pricing concessions from Quixtar North America. Apparently, the company and the lame duck IBOAI board have been shamed enough to make some changes. I am sure Amway's lack of sincerity will not go unnoticed here or abroad. I would pay particular attention to XS and tea pricing in particular (another story that needs investigated).
U.K. nears decision on possible Amway expulsion
by Chris Knape | The Grand Rapids Press
Monday January 28, 2008, 3:20 PM
ADA TOWNSHIP -- British officials are expected to rule within the next few weeks -- perhaps within days -- on a case that could result in Amway's expulsion from the United Kingdom.

The U.K. government sued Amway and several large distributor groups there last year, accusing the Ada company of misrepresenting its direct-selling business, downplaying the Amway name and making it sound as though distributors didn't need to sell products to make money.

In the wake of the allegations, the company said it launched a global review of its business practices, suspended registration of new distributors in the United Kingdom and banned the sale of distributor-produced motivational products in that country.

The allegations are similar to those that have been made against the company around the world for many years. But the wholesale expulsion is the most serious regulatory action the company has faced since a landmark set of rules designed to prevent pyramid schemes was issued in the wake of a U.S. Federal Trade Commission case against the firm in 1979.

The U.K. case wrapped up Dec. 8. Officials from Amway and its parent company, Alticor Inc. have declined to comment beyond this prepared statement:

"Out of respect for the court and British legal custom we will not comment on the case until we receive the judge's ruling.

"We have engaged in a global review of our operations to ensure that we are operating to the highest standards in all our markets. In the U.K. over the past year we have moved swiftly and invested significantly to make changes in our business model that address the issues the government raised with us back in April 2007.

"We believe the case is unwarranted and unnecessary and fails to recognize the reforms that we have made. And in no way do we accept that the arguments the U.K. government has put forward should lead to the company being shut down in the U.K.

"We'll have more to say -- when the UK process allows us to speak."

It is unclear what the company would do if the government expels the company, though an appeal of the ruling is likely. Sales in the U.K. were a sliver of the $6.3 billion the company said it had in sales during 2006.

But the country is one of the company's oldest foreign markets and such a drastic move by regulators there could spawn calls for similar actions in other countries.

The privately held company is owned by the families of co-founders Rich DeVos and the late Jay Van Andel. Last year it reported sales of $6.3 billion.
Posted by The IBO Rebellion at 2:43 AM

QUIXTAR: While we were out

2008-01-25T16:00:00.000-08:00

Original Source

While we were out
January 25th, 2008 @ 4:00 pm ET…

It’s been quiet here lately. Not uneventful—just quiet.

And we apologize if seems we stayed quiet too long. It wasn’t intentional.

There were no big breaking news headlines to bring to you. And there was also at least a little fatigue after months of heated—and healthy—debate on this site. Our friend AMBA even ended up with his arm in a sling.

But we are back, and we will be back more often in weeks to come. For now, let’s catch up on a couple of things.

TEAM: Many of the disputes that occupied this space over the past few months are now in arbitration. Good to see our commitment to arbritration supported by so many courts.

NEVADA: One thing we can mention: As noted in an earlier post, we are pursuing a lawsuit against TEAM in Nevada, the state where the company is incorporated. We think they have a lot to answer for, including their violation of Quixtar’s rights to its LOS. What they are mostly doing in response is trying to wiggle out of answering questions about their plans to harm Quixtar business owners. They can’t wiggle forever.

TEXAS: We noted earlier that we cleaned up in most of the (too many) cases in Texas. More recently, a federal magistrate dissolved a preliminary injunction that had been granted to our friend and correspondent Ron Simmons. Seemed right to us. This case will also now go into arbitration.

But the news in North America isn’t all about conflict — not by a long stretch. ELSWEHERE IN NORTH AMERICA, we:

introduced two new products lines—Simply Nutrilite and Artistry essentials—with ad campaigns;
rolled out a historic $60 million in QBI and offered new benefits like free shipping;
unveiled Quixtar University with an ever-expanding roster of online courses;
redesigned the Quixtar website; and
launched a webcast series to update our IBOs on our transition from Quixtar to Amway Global.
The Opportunity Zone, which turns 1 next week, makes for great conversation on the business.

UK: Closing arguments in the UK trial ended December 8. The court may rule anytime. However, out of respect for the court and British legal custom we will not comment on the case until the judge issues his ruling.

ELSEWHERE IN THE WORLD, we are wrapping up a good fiscal year, and looking forward to sharing the news in a few weeks.

We’re sure there’s more. We’ll be in touch.

QUIXTAR: A Message from the Chairman of the IBOAI Board of Directors

2008-01-21T13:22:00.000-08:00

Original Source

A Message from the Chairman of the IBOAI Board of Directors
January 21, 2008

To All IBOs:

The IBOAI was certainly busy last year. 2007 Chairman Jim Janz did an outstanding job negotiating through a myriad of issues and deserves all of our respect. While I don’t feel I can replace Jim, my goal is to maintain the integrity that he brought in 2007. We have a historic opportunity ahead of us, and the "spirit of partnership" between the Field and Quixtar is alive and well.

Last year the Board was able to assist in the creation of the largest compensation increase in the history of this business, and we now have the best compensation plan in this industry. Your 2007 Board worked closely with Quixtar as they introduced Simply Nutrilite (tm) and Artistry® essentials. We established LOS and LOA conference calls to keep the leadership informed on a variety of issues. Last, but certainly not least, your Board began the process of transformation with Quixtar and strives to keep the Field advised of where it stands at all times. None of this would have been possible without the relationship between the Field, the Corporation, and the Founding Families.

As we look to 2008:

Your Board is working with Quixtar to establish a structured communication protocol with the Field to improve understanding on various issues during transformation.
We will work with the Corporation to help insure that accreditation is a win/win for everyone.
Your Board is actively engaged with Quixtar to help all IBOs during their crucial first 90 to 120 days in this business.
Even though the new QBI is only a few months old, we are already examining this program with Quixtar to see if it can be improved. Our goal is that no IBO who is willing to work or is performing will be left behind.
We will continue to provide input on: international businesses; compensation; awards and recognition; products to support your businesses; issues such as back orders; and, most importantly, making the relationship between the company’s owners, North American team, and the Field the best it has ever been.
A quick reminder; the IBOAI Board and staff work for all IBOs in the Field. We will do our very best to make sure you hear from us regularly. We will keep the lines of communication open with the various LOS and LOA leaders. The fantastic IBOAI staff is always available to assist in any way they can.

When Quixtar announced the upcoming name change in June 2007, they titled the announcement: Brand New Day. I believe it accurately describes where we are going. This transformed new business model is not "our Daddy’s Oldsmobile." We are not going back to Amway. We are moving forward to "Amway Global," a business model that will make the world sit up and take notice. Together we will transform this business, partner with the Corporation with even greater enthusiasm, and establish a template for decades to come!

Working together, the best is yet to come,

Bill Hawkins
2008 Chairman
IBOAI Board of Directors

Posted at 01:22 PM

TEAM: Orrin hints at the future

2008-01-15T15:06:00.000-08:00

Original Source

Orrin Woodward Announcements
by Orrin Woodward on Tue 15 Jan 2008 03:06 PM EST

I have a couple of thoughts to share with everyone. It has been an incredible month in many ways.

1. Congratulations to all the Leadership Blog readers! You have doubled the traffic to this site again and our blog is rated the #26 ranked blog on the Ice Rocket Blog Tracker system. The blog is only 3 months old and it is a tribute to the many readers who shared this blog with others. I am very proud of all of you and blessed to serve such an incredible group of leaders! Can we double the traffic again?

2. In a previous career, I won a National Benchmarking Award for technical benchmarking. I was an engineer at the time at GM and enjoyed benchmarking and the learning associated with it. As part of my continuous life learning assignment, I benchmarked many companies in the MLM/Networking field recently. In another month, I will share the results from my benchmarking study. I developed numerous criteria to determine the best and worst in each category. I believe it is my responsibility to ensure people have the facts to choose wisely in all of life’s decisions. Would a benchmarking study of the MLM/Networking industry be of value to you?

3. Chris Brady and I are contemplating writing an autobiographical book of our leadership experiences over the last five years. We have book publishers encouraging us to write another leadership book and maybe this would be a good topic to teach character based leadership? Do the readers think this would be a good subject for a new book?

Let’s continue to do our personal best in everything we do. There is no limit to what can be accomplished if we all do our best and focus on serving others. As Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than receive.” When I started this blog—my goal was to give to others, but I have been more blessed by your thoughts and comments. We have a bright future together by focusing on living honorably and serving others. God Bless, Orrin Woodward

TEAM: Judge Speaks Out Against Amway/Quixtar/Alticor

2008-01-02T07:45:00.000-08:00

Original Source

Judge Speaks Out Against Amway/Quixtar/Alticor
JANUARY 02, 2008

I was surfing through a few web pages this morning and read some interesting information on the IBO Legal Defense Fund website about Judge Keith Anderson who is speaking out against the Amway/Quixtar corporations. The following information appears in the IBO Legal Defense Fund website about Judge Anderson:

JUDGE KEITH ANDERSON
Just a year out of Law School, Mr. Anderson was court-appointed to represent an accused armed robber. He refused to honor the demand of his client to subpoena police records Mr. Anderson knew would support perjured testimony of his client, even though the evidence would probably have won the case. The Kansas Supreme Court later saluted Mr. Anderson as modeling proper ethical behavior for an attorney. That case is still used in Law School ethics classes today.

During his 24 years as a State District Court Judge, Judge Anderson gained a reputation of fairness, unquestionable character, and high ethical conduct. He was considered one of the best trial judges in the State of Kansas.

Judge Anderson says "In my opinion, the treatment by AMWAY/Quixtar of former and current Quixtar IBOs in terminating IBOs without following its own Rules of Conduct or, even, its historic treatment of IBO behavior it regards as inappropriate; threatening suspension or termination of IBOs; and on-going use of the legal system to intimidate and control IBO activities violates principles of basic fairness and reeks of injustice in its simplest terms."

This quote by Judge Anderson is quite interesting indeed. This has to be alarming a number of the IBOs in the field that are associated with Quixtar/Amway. Why would a Judge make this type of statement if it were not true?

Posted at 07:45 AM

TEAM: TO FANISTA OR NOT FANISTA?

2007-12-29T02:35:00.000-08:00

Original Source

TO FANISTA OR NOT FANISTA?
Saturday, December 29, 2007

Alticor has hastily announced the sale of its interest in Fanista.com. Alticor claims it has sold its investment in Fanista to Power of Entertainment. Alticor claims that Power of Entertainment is the company that built and continues to run Fanista. A Google search of Power of Entertainment does not turn up any results as it is apparently too early for even Alticor's media department to have released their onslaught of press releases. Some obvious questions come to mind. Who owns Power of Entertainment? Why was Power of Entertainment never mentioned in any of the earlier press releases? What prompted this sale? If this was Alticor's intentions all along, why all the heavy press releases boasting the Amway name? I could go on and on.

A Quixtar email claims that "Alticor's involvement in Fanista was designed to bring us insights into the social networking phenomenon and how to marry e-commerce with online communities." How much could they have possibly learned in the approximately 30 days since Fanista launched? One conclusion could be that Fanista is a total flop. This would seem the likeliest conclusion. Earlier Quixtar claimed that they allowed IBOs to belong to both Quixtar and Fanista. This was an obvious violation of their non-compete clause. If their position was somehow that it was okay since Alticor owned both companies how can that continue after the reported sale of Fanista?

The Fanista unloading shows that Alticor is a company without direction. Alticor's claim that this was done to bring innovation to the Quixtar business is laughable. Money spent supposedly learning about Fanista would have been better spent addressing the ridiculous pricing current IBOs continue to endure. Alticor continues to fail to raise itself to "what's important next" thinking. If the Fanista experience was designed to enhance Quixtar why would Quixtar hide it from the IBOAI board? This is yet that latest example why AAQ's institutionalized dishonesty will be it's undoing.

December 28, 2007

FANISTA EXIT MESSAGE TO IBO LEADERS

To FC, IBOAI Board, Qualified Diamonds and above, and Qualified Platinums and above

Dear IBO Leader:

Last month we informed you of the launch of a company supported by Alticor Corporate Enterprises called Fanista. Today, we are sharing with you the news that Alticor is no longer an investor in Fanista, as its interest has been purchased by Power of Entertainment, the company that built and is running the Fanista website.

Alticor’s involvement in Fanista was designed to bring us insights into the social networking phenomenon and how to marry e-commerce with online communities. Our experience with Fanista is just one example of our commitment to bringing innovation to our business. We are pleased that we were able to exit this investment opportunity this early, and we are excited about Fanista’s future.

Innovation remains our goal, and we'll continue to explore opportunities to gain insights that will make the AMWAY®/QUIXTAR® business stronger, and in particular, bring consumer learnings from other channels in the marketplace into our core direct selling businesses.

Sincerely,

Jim Payne
Executive Vice President
Amway/Quixtar

Bill Payne
Chief of Staff
Alticor

Posted by The IBO Rebellion at 2:35 AM

TEAM: Quixtar Website Visits Down

2007-12-26T07:14:00.000-08:00

Original Source
Reference to Original Source

Here is a snapshot of the Daily Unique Visitors to Quixtar.com from June through November of 2007 as reported by QuantCast.com (thanks to q-less for pointing this out).

I couldn't find similar data for the 2006, so I don't know if this is seasonally normal for Quixtar. I know in the group I was in, they did a big push in October, November and December for Christmas shopping from Quixtar.

q-less notes that the pattern changes pretty dramatically in October and November. No more end of month spikes. To misquote the poem: This is how the month ends. This is how the month ends. This is how the month ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper. It looks like Quixtar is dealing with "Hollow Months."

Notice that September still has a spike at the end. I don't know about other teams, but my mentor was telling me to keep going and was still encouraging me with Quixtar. It wasn't until after I noticed several big Team leaders were resigning Quixtar and I approached him and talked about me possibly leaving Quixtar that he told me he had resigned Quixtar. As far as my leaders, they didn't push me to leave Quixtar. In fact, they never even brought it up.

Below is a live updating version of the same graph (as the months go by, it will automatically be updated with the latest information. It will be interesting to watch over the coming months.

QUIXTAR: Peak Web Traffic, Mixed Blessings

2007-12-26T01:00:00.000-08:00

Original Source

Peak Web Traffic, Mixed Blessings
Posted by Steve Cole on Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Christmas is a great time of year. Although for some IT departments on the web, it can certainly come with mixed feelings....

For any parents with little kids, you would most likely know about Webkinz. Cute little stuffed animals that you can also register on www.webkinz.com in a virtual world and play games. Well, all 3 of my kids love these stuffed animals. They are always really excited to register them on the website. Once they are registered, they receive all the virtual frills and features that go along with owning a Webkinz.

Unfortunately for my kids, the Webkinz website seems to have fallen victim to the mad rush. Multitudes of kids trying to register and play with their new Christmas presents. For the last 2 days, we have had a hard time getting into the website without an error (usually 500 error) . I assume most of the problems were a result of the higher traffic volumes they are experiencing. It was apparent that the IT staff was trying hard to figure out where all the bugs were occurring. At times I could see debug tracing (used for troubleshooting) turned on, in what was likely an attempt to try and understand the problems. I felt bad for the IT staff members who were clearly working during the holiday trying to fix the website. I could certainly relate.

It looks like Webkinz ran into a problem we had to solve years ago. For Quixtar, we have 12 days out of the year, end of month, where the traffic volume on the Internet surges to peaks 3-4 times higher than any other day of the month. In the early years after 1999, end of month was very painful, both for IBOs and Quixtar IT staff. That was a tough lesson to learn. However as a result of the early years, we have stepped up to the challenge and we are doing rather well these days. We have spent a lot of time and money building a robust website that could manage those couple of high volume days every year. The Webkinz website likely also only has a couple days out of the year (Dec 25, 26, 27... :) ...where demand is at its all time high. I wish them luck as they tackle their current issues. I suspect that next Christmas the experience on www.webkinz.com will improve over this year's Christmas holiday as they ferret out their problems.

A number of Quixtar IT staff will be working through the evening and until the early morning hours this Monday, December 31 to do what we can to make sure your website experience is a good one at end of month. Even though, December is rarely one of our largest end of months...too much competition for New Years parties...we'll still be there to monitor the site. So thanks to those in Quixtar IT who will be working at the office into the New Year to support the business!

This will likely be my last post for 2007, so I would also like to wish you all a Happy New Year!

NEWS: Amway admits that the FTC is soft on multi-level marketing ethics

2007-12-01T15:40:00.000-08:00

Original Source

Amway admits that the FTC is soft on multi-level marketing ethics
Posted Dec 1st 2007 3:40PM by Zac Bissonnette

Back in July, I wrote about network marketing giant Amway/Quixtar's self-imposed 120-day moratorium on recruiting in the United Kingdom, a response to a Department of Trade and Industry complaint against the company. Many critics charge that Amway is operating a thinly-veiled pyramid scheme, based on the same principles as the chain letter.

Well earlier in November, Amway blogged about its plans to return to the region, posting a memo that had been sent to directors and employees, and also forwarded to many of the company's United Kingdom distributors.

Here's where it gets interesting. Many people, myself included, have charged that the FTC is not doing enough to crack down on multi-level marketing companies using false and misleading recruiting tactics. based on the text of the memo, Amway seems to agree:

"The fact is, in the wake of this sobering experience, every one of us -- employees, IBOs, and others -- should renew our commitment to hold ourselves to the highest standards of behavior. The marketplace -- and in the UK, the government -- has made it clear that they expect no less. And when falling short of those standards exposes our company to such grave risk, there can no longer be any such thing as 'business as usual.'" (emphasis added)

In other words, the government of United Kingdom has made it clear that it will hold Amway to the highest standards of behavior -- but the United States has not followed the lead.

Perhaps Amway's massive political contributions have had something to do with that. it's a shame that our elected officials are putting the interests of special interest groups ahead of those of consumers. That's just business as usual in the land of the free, home of the brave.

So they can't lower their prices, huh

2007-11-27T09:28:00.000-08:00

Amway UK has lowered their prices. I already knew that. I thought it was maybe a 10% drop in the price. The prices of the following items are now 22% to 45% (average of 31%) of their previous price in the UK. (source)

BODY SERIES™ Concentrated Liquid Hand Soap 250 ml
BODY SERIES™ Fresh Scent Deodorant and Anti-Perspirant Spray 200ml/130 g
BODY SERIES™ 3-in-1 Bar Soap 6 bars - 150 g
SA8 SOLUTIONS™ Pre-Wash Spray 400ml
L.O.C. ™ Mini Wipes 4 travel packs each with 24 wipes
GREEN MEADOWS™ Air Freshener 150 ml
PURSUE™ Toilet Bowl Cleaner 750ml
L.O.C. ™ Plus SEE SPRAY Glass Cleaner 500 ml
L.O.C. ™ Plus Soft Cleanser 500 ml
AMWAY™ Wax Furniture Polish 400 ml
BODY SERIES™ Concentrated Liquid Hand Soap Refill 1 Litre

That is a significant drop in price. Why couldn't they have done that sometime in the last decade in the US?

TEAM: Who damaged whom? (Chuck Goetschel's perspective on Fanista)

2007-11-27T08:40:00.000-08:00

Original Source

Who damaged whom?
by Admin on Tue 27 Nov 2007 08:40 AM PST

I was on the plane flying home Tuesday, November 20, 2007 from mediation meeting with Quixtar attorneys, the person sitting in front of me was reading the New York Times and I found myself in shock by what I was seeing on the front page of the business section.. “No way!” I kept thinking once I was able to read the entire article. “Developed in secrecy over the last two years” the article explained, the new web business was finally launching. “Think of it as part Amazon (online retail), part My-Space (social network) and part Amway (direct pitch from somebody you know).” The products: “DVDs and CDs…and in the coming months it plans to add video games, digital downloads and books.” “More consumers shop online for books, DVDs and music than any other product, according to iCrossing.” The bottom line: Alticor (parent company of Amway/Quixtar) has decided to launch a competing multilevel business named Fanista. They are even attempting to promote a new coin name to the industry, “common interest commerce” to replace multi-level marketing. The big question is why wasn’t Fanista added to Amway/Quixtar rather than launched as a competitor? Once you answer that question, you will understand why I, along with five other IBOAI board members, said without change we could no longer support the Company. In my opinion, and supported by the Fanista launch, they are not leading with the best intentions of the independent business owners (IBOs) in mind.

In my previous paper, “The truth they don’t want you to know”, I talked about how it appeared to me that the Company was going to sell around the IBOs. Several web sites have been set up where the general public can purchase directly. New rules were being passed allowing products to be sold to the public through certain venues. And, great success has occurred in China where products are sold in stores yielding rumors that the “China model” will be seen elsewhere starting in India. However, I honestly never believed that the Company would go so far as to launch a competing multi-level business to Amway/Quixtar. Given Fanista is a direct competitor, it makes one wonder if Amway/Quixtar IBOs register, refer people and earn a profit from Fanista, are they in violation of the non-compete clause of their contract.? If they refer people to their Fanista community from their own or other lines of sponsorship of the Amway/Quixtar business, are they in violation of the non-solicitation clause of their contract? If IBOs can do these things, how is it not in violation of their contract? Is that part of the contract void only if the competing business is also owned by Alticor? And, if IBOs cannot participate, how is it ethically acceptable for the rest of the world to profit with Fanista while the IBOs that created Alticor’s wealth are left out?

Currently, I, along with Randy Haugen, Don Wilson, Orrin Woodward, Chris Brady and Billy Florence, am being sued for damages by the IBOAI board for breaking their confidentiality agreement. In the oath we agreed to “keep all things confidential.” However, we also agreed to “serve and protect” the IBOs. When the IBOAI board UNANIMOUSLY agreed and informed the Company that the “Amway Transformation” was going to be harmful to the IBOs but no change occurred to the direction being taken, then the only way to serve and protect the IBOs was to tell them the truth. I took that responsibility seriously to the point of loosing my business, my income and everything I had worked years to create. Everyone also agreed that we believed in the promise of Rich DeVos that the board gave people security. That is, he “guaranteed” the business owners that the Company would never make a change without the support of the board—our security was that nobody would ever “change the deal.” We all bought into his promise, promoted it, and it was never discounted by any leader or Corporate representative.

Specifically, Rich DeVos said, “…There is no other company in the world that ever set up an association like this one… Everything we do is done in consultation with your representatives who meet with us four times per year…We did that so you would feel secure when somebody like Jay or myself got fat and happy or something and tried to change the deal. And so we said before we even got it going, we set up a guarantee that we can’t change the deal. Because if we know we can’t, we won’t even think about trying…You have that assurance and that protection for your plan because a lot of you have been without it and they changed the deal just about the time you were to make it live for you! We wanted to make sure that didn’t happen to you.” (For the actual recording of Rich DeVos, either click on the following link or copy and paste it into your browser: http://www.musicwebtown.com/theiborebellion/playlists/114468/884361.mp3).

I know we on the board all believed in this promise. From my understanding, the June 2007 board meeting was the first time in board history that a unanimous vote was taken against the direction of the Company. I also believe that the August 2007 emergency board meeting was the first time in board history such a meeting was called. However, in the end, no promise was upheld as the Company marched forward unaffected. At the August board meeting, I believe when the pressure was put on each of us to individually state to Doug DeVos, Steve VanAndel and Jim Payne where we stood with everything, had we all maintained a firm posture that was in alignment with our unanimous negative vote against their agenda, we may have had a chance to stop it. It was sad to me to see the flip-flop personas of the remaining board members. I truly don’t mean to be critical of those remaining board members but our only chance was to stay strong and unified. How can they sign a document to the Company vehemently opposed to an Amway transformation one day and sign a document to IBOs thoroughly excited about it the next day? I am not one to say anything of negative nature of others, particularly people I would consider friends and business leaders, however, now that they chose to sue me and the other five for damages, it motivates me to open up. Whose business is damaged by whom? In my opinion, hundreds of thousands of IBOs will have a significantly worse business opportunity than they could have had because the remaining board members didn’t stand firm.

This situation reminds me of the story of when Henry David Thoreau was put in jail for not paying his taxes. He refused to pay his poll tax to a government that supported slavery. He said, "I cannot for an instant recognize . . . as my government [that] which is the slave's government also." While in jail (the non-documented story says), he was paid a visit by Ralph Waldo Emerson who asked Thoreau, “Why are you on that side of these bars?” To which Thoreau responded, “Why are you on THAT side?” The other board members want to sue us and silence us in jail and I question them why they are on that side?

As a final note for thought, if one isn’t convinced that firm pressure from the right source can’t evoke change, then take a look at some of the price reductions Amway of UK has made due to the pressure from the DTI. Although Alticor has expressed the DTI investigation as a training systems--business support materials (BSM) problem, the main root issue all along has been the lack of income people can make due to the pricing of products being too high (See London Times article regarding the current court case). Do you think this couldn’t happen in North America and elsewhere too?

BODY SERIES™ Concentrated Liquid Hand Soap 250 ml
UK price: £1.75 was Retail £7.95

BODY SERIES™ Fresh Scent Deodorant and Anti-Perspirant Spray 200ml/130 g
UK price: £2.95 was Retail £6.50

BODY SERIES™ 3-in-1 Bar Soap 6 bars - 150 g
UK price: £4.50 was Retail £12.25

SA8 SOLUTIONS™ Pre-Wash Spray 400ml
UK price: £1.65 was Retail £5.90

L.O.C. ™ Mini Wipes 4 travel packs each with 24 wipes
UK price: £4.25 was Retail £10.90

GREEN MEADOWS™ Air Freshener 150 ml
UK price: £1.25 was Retail £4.30

PURSUE™ Toilet Bowl Cleaner 750ml
UK price: £2.45 was Retail £5.50

L.O.C. ™ Plus SEE SPRAY Glass Cleaner 500 ml
UK price: £1.45 was Retail £5.85

L.O.C. ™ Plus Soft Cleanser 500 ml
UK price: £1.35 was Retail £5.80

AMWAY™ Wax Furniture Polish 400 ml
UK price: £1.45 was Retail £6.65

BODY SERIES™ Concentrated Liquid Hand Soap Refill 1 Litre
UK price: £5.95 was Retail £26.40

We stood up to the Company to evoke change in the interest of all IBOs. We felt it was essential that the Company lower the prices as now has happened in the UK. We were concerned about the concept of the Company selling around the IBOs as it would be devastating to the individual business owner. Fanista is beyond what anyone ever imagined. We felt the Amway Transformation was going to take a very difficult business and make it a next to impossible business. That transformation is underway. The board, according to Rich DeVos, was the people’s security. It was designed such that the elected representatives would stand firm in their beliefs to the Company and the Company would listen. The board had a united opinion. After an emergency board meeting no change was happening. It was the final hour. We stayed firm with our convictions while the others claimed, “There is nothing we can do” and flipped over. I so wish they would have stood with us. Instead, their current lawsuit for damages against us is now in process. Who damaged whom? I hope all can be resolved soon.

TEAM: Fanista Analysis

2007-11-25T03:43:00.000-08:00

Original Source

TRAITOROUS ACTIONS ACCUMULATE @ ALTICOR
Sunday, November 25, 2007

As many of you already know Alticor unveiled its latest business, www.Fanista.com, last Tuesday. Certainly Alticor is free to start and invest their money where they chose. However, I would purpose that Fanista is yet the latest assault on IBOs across the globe. Despite Alticor's company line of how they are making Amway / Quixtar the best opportunity ever for IBOs, evidence suggests otherwise. In my view Quixtar is leaving IBO's in the dust, but intend on milking them for all they are worth on the way out.

The last year Alticor has clearly undermined the IBO distributor and his / her exclusive product pipeline. Nutrilite and Artistry products can now be had at various sites on the web. A company so concerned about contracts appear to breach the IBO agreement of exclusivity. Alticor defends this by passing on volume to an IBO near to the purchaser. How do you know this is happening? How long will this continue? This practice appears to be at the discretion of the purchaser. I say this is about as solid as the whole Quixtar isn't Amway story. That is this is what we do until it isn't convenient anymore. The resurrection of the Amway name in North America is certainly the largest kick in the teeth to IBOs and needs no further explanation as to the damages it will cause.

So what is Fanista? Fanista is an online business that sells CDs, DVDs, and books. Fanista is free to join and relies on it's members to rate various media and refer their friends. Members are paid when their referrals purchase items. Fanista calls this CIC or Common Interest Commerce. Whatever they want to call it, there is not really any money to be made. By all accounts Daniel Adler, the lead person at Fanista, is a talented and well connected Hollywood insider. Does he know that he has possibly committed career suicide by aligning himself with Amway? This guy may have went from the hippest guy at the party to the pariah. Let's think about it.... if Amway ain't cool in Grand Rapids it certainly ain't cool in Hollywood.

Fanista's sole financial backer is Alticor. Alticor calls Fanista an investment I say they own it. Here are the things I find most interesting about Fanista. First of all this Fanista idea was planned in secret for at least the last two years. According the article link below, authored by Chris Knape of the Grand Rapids Press, Alticor's vice president of corporate enterprises Jim Weaver said they first invested in Fanista in April 2006. It would seem rather unethical to plan an entirely new enterprise which directly competes with existing Quixtar partners stores and IBOs. The article also stated the following:

A spokeswoman for Quixtar said the company's distributors have been notified about Fanista and are free to join, but the company is not doing anything special to get Amway distributors involved in Fanista yet.

If there was any bombshell to the Fanista reveal it was Alticor's allowance of simultaneous duel membership at Fanista and Amway / Quixtar. Fanista is without question a multi-level marketing plan with what they call uplinks and downlinks. Fansita is also clearly in direct competition with Quixtar by selling exact and overlapping merchandise. So why would it be acceptable for distributors to be a part of Fanista? Wasn't Alticor / Amway / Quixtar just doing their best to put a halt to the TEAM's information and events under the premise that TEAM was a competing business? Alticor's hypocrisy and apparent selective enforcement of non-competition elements will come back to bite them. Is this yet the latest blunder committed by the arrogant Alticor?

Many of you were wondering if Alticor had learned its lesson on pricing and fixed things with Fanista. The short answer to this question is no. However, even though pricing isn't optimal at Fanista it is nothing like the outright swindling at Quixtar. Here are three additional excerpts from the Grand Rapids Press article.

A scan Tuesday of the site, which is still in a beta-testing phase, showed prices of seven of eight featured CDs on Fanista ranged from 1 cent to $4 higher than the same items on Amazon.com.
Five of eight Fanista featured DVDs were less expensive at Amazon. two were cheaper by a penny at Fanista. One featured DVD,
The Rocketeer," was 51 cents cheaper at Fanista.
Adler said Fanista will constantly assess pricing, but it believes the price issue will become less important if Fanista provides a compelling place for people to connect.

The last bullet point would indicate Adler is spending a little too much time with the Ada brain trust if he believes price doesn't matter.

Alticor's actions toward IBOs is undermining and traitorous. I find it impossible to believe Alticor is conducting business in the interest of IBOs. Every new idea, and step they have taken has resulted in a less stable and less sustainable business for IBOs. Whether it is the Amway name change, the fierce refusal to have competitive prices, undermining the exclusive product pipelines, or creating whole new companies, make no mistake these are all attacks on the IBOs existence. Fanista members will never create any sort of wealth nor will there be any of those expensive bonus payments, or Peter Island, Diamond Club and Achiever trips. There also won't be IBOs asking for competitive pricing. Let's face it, life for Alticor will be much simpler without all of you IBOs. If that is their business decision it is too bad they aren't men enough to come clean and negotiate a payout. Instead they will milk you for all your worth, methodically destroy your businesses, and then without warning pull the plug. If you think this sounds crazy, just say these two words to yourself a few times.... Woodward..... Brady...... Woodward..... Brady..... If these guys were disposable you all are.
Article by Chris Knape cited above

Posted by The IBO Rebellion at 3:43 AM

TEAM: QUIXTAR, THE GRINCH THAT STOLE BLACK FRIDAY

2007-11-22T04:07:00.000-08:00

Original Source

QUIXTAR, THE GRINCH THAT STOLE BLACK FRIDAY
Thursday, November 22, 2007

Yet another example of the pathetic quagmire Alticor / Amway / Quixtar finds itself in. What am I talking about? Tomorrow, November 23rd 2007, marks the day commonly referred to as "Black Friday" or the biggest day in retail. In 2006 retail sales for "Black Friday" exceeded 8.9 billion dollars. A simple Google search for "Black Friday" will reveal websites dedicated to this retailing phenomenon. Sites such as www.blackfriday.info, compile sale papers from major players in retail including those exclusive to the internet marketplace. There are certainly bargains to be had not only on Friday but the remainder of the weekend. So big is this event that many analysts are examining how the "Black Friday" effect is creeping into Thanksgiving Day itself. Last year over 8 billion retailing website hits were totaled not on Friday but actually on Thanksgiving.

Next Monday, folks will head back to work to catch up on what they weren't able to do on Thursday and Friday right? Actually no. Monday is when people go back to work to SHOP! Next Monday is referred to as "Cyber Monday." Monday is another huge day in retailing, specifically internet retailing. Last year "Cyber Monday" sales were estimated at a record setting 608 million dollars.

So what am I fussing about? What did Quixtar ever do to take advantage of these repeated and predictable explosions in the marketplace? It is just another example of their detachment from reality and their disregard for the Walmartization of the North American marketplace. I mean really how much smarts does it take? Is the answer that they really don't care? Quixtar sitting the bench on these dates is another example of Quixtar not holding up their end of the deal. This goes hand in hand with products being over priced. They don't play on these dates because they refuse to compete. How much does this cost IBO's year after year? I have never seen a company so afraid of common four letter words. You know like the words "sale" or "good" or "deal." If Q ever does lower the price on something the pv/bv always drops much faster than the price. This being true goes to prove what TEAM is saying. It is about internal consumption not customer sales. If there is no volume what is the point in promoting something if your cut is .7 pv?

So while the rest of the retail marketplace is setting sales records this weekend, Quixtar and their lonely website will be just that.... lonely. I picture Quixtar as the online version of a shuttered auto factory. They don't get it and they didn't change until it was too late. Over the years Quixtar has heralded some of their sales records and I am sure I repeated them myself. Maybe that is what ticks me off. I remember their first 1 million dollar day and then their first 12 million dollar day. When was Quixtar setting these records? Not on "Black Friday," or "Cyber Monday," or the day after Christmas. This should have been and should be a red flag! No their records were set on March 31st and August 31st, you know when people stretched and reached for goals. In other words it was fake volume. Fake volume inspired by a fake company with fake retail sales and fake principles. IBO's were forced to play the game to meet Quixtar's criteria. This is why Quixtar is the Grinch that stole "Black Friday."

In closing I would like to thank all you for making this blog the success it has been. I would also like to wish you all an incredible Thanksgiving Day. We all have so much to be thankful for. Thanksgiving Day 2007 will forever have significance as the first Thanksgiving that we can thank God for our opportunity to move on with TEAM and for our permanent separation from the world according to Quixtar. God Bless you all and enjoy all those high quality products on sale this weekend.

Posted by The IBO Rebellion at 4:07 AM

NEWS: Amway tunes in, invests in media sales site

2007-11-21T01:00:00.000-08:00

Original Source

Amway tunes in, invests in media sales site
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
By Chris Knape
The Grand Rapids Press

ADA TOWNSHIP -- Alticor is going to the movies.

The Amway parent company is the lead investor in Fanista.com, a new social networking and media sales company that launched Tuesday.

Fanista uses an incentive system to reward buyers of music, DVDs and, soon, books and videogames, that will be familiar to those involved with Amway and its Quixtar online store.

While using the site is free, users can sign up for a free membership that provides them a 5 percent cash or store credit bonus from purchases made by friends they signed up.

The Beverly Hills, Calif.-based company is led by Dan Adler, whose career includes stints with Walt Disney Imagineering and the Creative Artists Agency.

"The more we built the business model, the more and more I saw Alticor as the perfect business partner," he said. "We welcome who they are and what they are and what they can add in terms of value."

Jim Weaver, vice president of corporate enterprises at Alticor, said the company first invested in Fanista in April 2006.

"We got into the business because it was a natural fit," he said. "For us, if you think of Amway and what Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel started, it was a social network of friends selling products to people they knew."

Fanista takes that idea into the 21st century and focuses on a younger demographic with its entertainment-focused product line.

Alticor has no day-to-day role in Fanista's operations, nor does Fanista have any West Michigan presence. Fanista's distribution system for media it sells is handled by a third party.

Members who sign up friends become "uplinks" while those friends they sign up are "downlinks," a hierarchical system similar to Amway's "upline" and "downline" distributors.

Uplinks also get a 5 percent discount on merchandise and a chance to earn a 5 percent commission on purchases made by friends their downlinks sign up if their downlinks buy at least $100 in merchandise each year.

Fanista omits the use of the term "multilevel marketing" in explaining its system. The site calls its system "common interest commerce," or CIC.

A spokeswoman for Quixtar said the company's distributors have been notified about Fanista and are free to join, but the company is not doing anything special to get Amway distributors involved in Fanista yet.

The site addresses concerns commonly associated with Amway in direct, sometimes humorous ways.

A list of frequently asked questions includes: "So if I sign up for CIC, does that mean I'll be able to afford a diamond-encrusted iPhone?"

The answer: "In a word, no. Don't quit your day job. You'll make some decent change on CIC, but it's not going to pay the rent."

There's also: "This isn't one of those illegal pyramid schemes, is it?"

The answer: "Not even close. A pyramid scheme promises to pay for the act of recruiting others, who in turn recruit others, and so on, like a chain letter. While we would be delighted if you personally sign up thousands of people, just signing them up won't earn you a penny. It won't earn us much either, since no one pays to register."

There is no mention of Amway or Alticor's involvement in funding the site, although a New York Times story Tuesday heavily played up the Amway tie.

A scan Tuesday of the site, which is still in a beta-testing phase, showed prices of seven of eight featured CDs on Fanista ranged from 1 cent to $4 higher than the same items on Amazon.com.

"Curtis," by the artist 50 Cent, was $9.98 on Fanista and $13.98 on Amazon.

Five of eight Fanista-featured DVDs were less expensive at Amazon. Two were cheaper by a penny at Fanista. One featured DVD, "The Rocketeer," was 51 cents cheaper at Fanista.

Adler said Fanista will constantly assess pricing, but it believes the price issue will become less important if Fanista provides a compelling place for people to connect.

The company also hopes to attract users by offering exclusive content. The first such product is a videogame for PCs and Macs slated to be released next week.

Fanista is working on partnerships with artists, who could create downlinks filled with fans. Fan purchases could generate bonuses to support a celebrity's favorite charity, Weaver said.

Digital downloads also are in the works with music downloads slated to be added by the end of the year.

Fanista is independent of Spout.com, a movie-based social networking and DVD sales site launched in 2006 by Rick DeVos.

Rick DeVos is the eldest grandson of Amway co-founder Rich DeVos.

Spout does not offer a sales incentive program like Amway's.

Rick DeVos and other Spout executives were not available for comment.

Adler said he has spoken to DeVos about the Fanista and sees some overlap in the concepts, but there is no relationship between the two companies.

Fanista is one of several efforts Alticor, which said it had sales of $6 billion last year, has undertaken to diversify its international multilevel sales business.

Alticor also owns Fulton Innovation, which is developing wireless electric charging systems for phones and other gadgets.

In 2006, the firm paid $40.8 million for Gurwitch Products, a luxury cosmetics company marketing the Laura Mercier line.

Send e-mail to the author: cknape@grpress.com

The Decline of Lifestyle in the United States

2007-11-17T17:05:00.000-08:00

I made a comment that has been brought into question:

The percentage of people who fall into the market segment they are targeting is shrinking.

I'm a melancholy-choleric, the wrong kind of person to question the facts on, you're about to get unloaded on.

First, let's start with some common knowledge. Credit Card debt is at an all time high. Personal Savings is at an all time low. While these are not proof positive that people with money are becoming a smaller percentage of the population, it is an indicator of the financial sickness in our society.

The rest of the information, the real meat, is taken from three tables found at Historical Income Tables - Households from the US Census Bureau and Historical Income Tables - People from the US Census Bureau.

NOTE: The charts shown below start with 2006 or 2005 on the left and go further back in time towards the right. That is different than most charts and may take a little getting used to. It puts the most recent information closest to the values on the left, making it easier to evaluate the most recent data (most important in my opinion).

I couldn't quickly find the study done on inflation that stated that when the government reported inflation at 3% it was really 8%, so all the following will use the inflation number reported by the government, which paints a grim enough picture.

UPDATE: Someone pointed me to a website that had the following chart showing the differences in inflation numbers from www.shadowstats.com. The rest of this post has not been updated, so keep in mind that the rest of the inflation numbers may be about 2.5 points lower than they really are.

And with that, let's start with inflation. Below is a chart of the inflation reported by the federal government from 1968 to 2005.

What I find funny is the last six years. Anyone who has paid for medical insurance or had any medical expenses knows that their overall expenses have increased a lot more than 3% or 4% per year. Also, if you live in a "hot" housing market (like Southern California) you know that your overall expenses have gone up more than 3% or 4% per year. So let's stick with these inflation numbers and call them conservative numbers.

Now lets look at how income is distributed among our population. Here is a chart of the population divided into 5ths. There is an even number of people represented by each 5th. This chart is the income of each 5th, adjusted for inflation.

Notice how the highest 5th pulls away so quickly from the rest. I've included the top 5% also, notice it pulls away even faster. The other incomes are basically flat (relative to the explosive income growth of the top 5th). Basically this chart states that the rich get richer and the poor at least stay the same. It's that 5% that is pulling up the top 5th. It looks like if you pulled the top 5% out of the top 5th, it would be flat too.

UPDATE: I've remembered my algebra, and have updated the graph to show the Highest Fifth, without the top 5%:

This chart alone shows that there is a widening gap between the 5% and the 95%. It also shows that if you are looking for a very large market, target those whose incomes are $50,000 and under, which is 60% of the population. If you want to bump that to 80% target $75,000 and under. 60% of the people probably couldn't afford to spend $800 to $1,200 per month (300 PV in Quixtar), not to mention tools, conferences, seminars, etc.

Now you may argue that with Quixtar, you would quickly be able to become self-sustaining. If that were the case, 60% of the people would not quit after 3 years. The reason they are not in a higher fifth is their thinking. It is going to take more system to help get their thinking to the point that their business will pay for itself, especially in 6/4/2 or 9/4/2 business building. That was the beauty of Team Approach. You could start getting up to 25% back on the products pretty quickly (making the pricing more in line) and have time to get your thinking in line to produce more income. Imagine if the products were a great deal to begin with. It would be a no-brainer for anyone to be a customer, better prices and personalized service. Then you could actually have people getting to break even within a month of getting started. But I digress.

Now let's look at how fast incomes rose for each 5th. The chart below shows what the average yearly increase (after inflation) in income was per year for each 5th. The 2000's should probably be ignored, since we only have the first half of that story (which starts out pretty sad).

Notice that again, the top 5th far exceeds everyone else in growth. The top 5th, on average, got just over 2% raise every year during the 90's. However, the top 5% was pulling that up, since they were getting almost 3% raise every year. Everyone else is sitting there on the low end of 1% (actually, the three lowest got 0.93%, 0.78% and 0.85%, and the 4th Fifth got 1.13%). Now these are the increases in income after inflation, which is probably a little on the low side, so these are actually more likely to be negative growths. Of course if you look at the 2000's, its just not a pretty picture so far.

UPDATE: Again, due to my remembering algebra, I'm able to bring you this updated chart, with the 5% taken out of the Highest Fifth:

Now there are a few reasons I think many people may not have felt this as much. One of which is that we have gone from a single earner per household society to a two earner per household society. The chart below shows the average Household Income and the Income Per Capita (all income in all households divided by the number of people).

The Per Capita number is a bit misleading. Family sizes have been shrinking over the years. That means that a typical family in 1970 might have had a father (the bread winner), a wife and three children. This means his income was divided by 5. Today it may be more like a father (one bread winner), a wife (another bread winner) and two children. This is the combined income of two divided by 4, or each bread winner's income divided by 2.

Notice how the Household income still pulls away faster, even given the information above. There are more two income-earner families, which has taken the brunt of the economic force. But what will the average family do to keep up? Dad works two jobs? Multiple nuclear families living together? What will be the social trend to help bear the brunt of the increasing expense of getting by?

So back to the questioned statement:

The percentage of people who fall into the market segment they are targeting is shrinking.

If you focus on people who make $75,000 and less, you get 80% of the market. Of course, there are people in the Highest Fifth that shop at Walmart, because everyone would rather spend their money on fun stuff, and save money on the everyday stuff to do it. Even Emeralds and Diamonds shop at Walmart (as seen in a few of the Affidavits).

However, if you price yourself so that only the upper end of the 4th Fifth and the Highest Fifth could afford it, that is a 30% market share. While they have more money, I'd rather have 1% of 100 men than 100% of 1 man.

If you would like the full spreadsheet, PDF and images used for this posting, email me at ThomasEvanAnthonyMorris (at) gmail (dot) com, and I will email you everything I used (1.3 MB zip file).

Thoughts on Wealth

2007-11-15T21:17:00.000-08:00

In the book The Millionaire Next Door it states that most millionaires are first generation. It talks about how the second generation has the wealth given to them too easily, and they do not learn the principles that generated the wealth, thus with each generation more principles of wealth are lost. I think we are in a similar situation here.

Rich DeVos, Jay VanAndel, Helyne and Joe Victor were all there when the American Way Association was formed (the predecessor to Amway and Quixtar). Jody, Helyne and Joe's son, is very proud of the fact that he was there when it all started. Rich, Jay, Helyne, Joe and a handful of others started the American Way Association because Nutrilite was not treating them fairly, in their estimation. Because of the injustices they suffered, they built, almost from scratch, an extremely successful business. Each has passed their legacy on to the next generation. Wealth was not a problem (or at least up until this point). However, it appears that the principles that founded the American Way Association have been lost by the second generation.

I respect Jody a lot. Looking at it from his viewpoint, I can understand why he stays. It is his family legacy. If he even entertains leaving, it would literally destroy his family legacy. So he stays, hoping, as the IBOAI (and the ADA board before it) will be able to guide Amway to a successful future. According to Randy Haugen's statement, the board had been asking for certain changes since the mid 90's. I think Quixtar ended up being a distraction, a stall. A lot changed with Quixtar. A lot didn't change.

Originally, Amway appears to have been a great value at any income level. If you washed your clothes, or cleaned your own house, you wold be financially better off buying Amway products. But then the internet came and brought immense price pressures to the market. From what I can figure, before the mid 90's just about anyone could make it to 25% (Platinum, Direct), but you needed the system (books, tapes, seminars) to stay focused enough to make it much further. Now the money at 25% is bigger (with system income included), but the trek appears to have become more difficult.

I am amazed at how Orrin and Chris engineered a system to turn it around. The took the lemons and made lemonade, and not just for the "kingpins" as they are called. They were truly focused on the first circle, the new guy. When August 9th came this year, I heard that Quixtar was going to be upping the amount they give out. They did, but only for certain levels, and it was not the first circle that benefitted. It appears their strategy is, if we given enough of an incentive to the "kingpins" and even mini-"kingpins", they will figure out how to replace the people who have quit, and maybe add a few more.

I heard a guy by the name of Dexter Yager once say, "Sell to the classes, live with the masses. Sell to the masses, live with the classes." In other words, if you try to sell high priced products to a few people, you will never do as well as trying to sell a lot of low priced goods to the lower incomes. The Walton family (of Walmart fame) became the richest family in the world based on that principle, and Walmart became the first "largest company" that didn't actually make anything. Quixtar seems to be targeting middle-middle class (maybe upper-middle class) and higher. While I am somewhere in the middle class with my "95% income" I live in a lower-middle class (or maybe lower) side of town. Understanding that the difference between 95% and 5% is thinking has made me reconsider where I live, but when I first got started, it was frustrating to me and my group when they would start looking the prices.

I stated in an earlier posting the we do want to compete with Walmart. Here is why I think we do. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. But the percentage of people who are rich is shrinking quickly and the percentage of people who are poor is swelling quickly. Then there is the middle class, which is slipping more towards the poor than towards the rich. There was a study done in which they noted that when the government reported its inflation numbers at 3%, the real inflation felt by the average American was around 8%. The government did not include things like medical costs, insurance costs, etc. in their numbers, and this was before the double digit growth in medical costs we've seen lately. At 8%, the cost of living doubles every 10 years. I know my salary has not doubled in the last 10 years.

I think that is why our society has gone from single-income households to two-income households. As more people shift down in the income levels, they become more desperate. If a majority of the people are having a hard time getting by, history teaches us that they will be more easily swayed, with their votes, to vote for principles they would not have voted for two decades earlier. Universal Health Care, Guaranteed Housing, No Child Left Behind. You've probably heard of these things. They are nothing knew. Communist Russia promised all this to their people. A guarantee that you would not fall below a fairly high minimum standard of living, but where there is a floor, there is also a ceiling. The higher the floor, the lower the ceiling. If people from fifty years ago would look at the political agenda items today, they would claim the communist party is taking over.

There are two issues at heart here. The first is a shrinking market demographic, the one Quixtar is targeting. The percentage of people who fall into the market segment they are targeting is shrinking. The percentage of people who fall into the market segment that Walmart is targeting is growing. I would rather be in a growing market than a shrinking market. The growing market also has more incentive to build a business to get out. Not only are you statistically more likely to find a "hungry" guy in this larger market, but he is less likely to be "doin' good." I think that is why Quixtar is a revolving door of about 3 years. The really hungry get in but can't afford to stick to it much longer than that if they don't happen to register enough people who can afford to move volume.

The second issue is one of "make a difference." I am very concerned where this country is headed. I think it is the freest, greatest country in the world, but I think if we do not help rebalance the rich and poor in this country, it will be rebalanced by the government by popular vote, and the only way we can rebalance it is to teach the principles of wealth. Isn't that what Team has transformed itself into? (No, really, that is a serious question. I'm still trying to figure out what Team is transforming into, but it is looking much better than the Amway route at this point).

I believe in the free enterprise system. I believe in compensation relative to how much you excel beyond average. I don't want to see either eroded away any more than it has. I think that will only come with those who know educating the masses (not just the middle class) and giving them a reason (they own a successful business) to fight for those values.

I have no problem with Access Business Group (Amway) products as far as quality. Price is an issue for me, but I was buying 300 points per month for at least half a decade. I was buying hope because people I knew had become successful (before 1995). Since reading Randy Haugen's description of what happened in the mid 90's, I regret spending so much money when even the "kingpins" knew it wasn't working. I don't blame them, they were trying to course correct Amway/Quixtar. I don't blame Jody Victor for standing behind the IBOAI and Quixtar. They say the captain goes down with the ship. I just hope they don't take too many passengers with them. MLM has a bad enough name is as.

QUIXTAR: Joint memo from Quixtar and Network 21

2007-11-15T01:00:00.000-08:00

Original Source

Joint memo from Quixtar and Network 21 to
all IBOs affiliated with Network 21

As part of our ongoing efforts to assure that Independent Business Owners affiliated with Network 21 are aligned with Quixtar's Best Practices, we again are communicating our desire to encourage balance and responsibility in building our businesses and training our downline IBOs.

We know there is much excitement concerning the benefits of focused activities in certain active teams through coordinated depth- and relationship-building. However, we must always remember to “begin with the end in mind.” Ultimately, a successful business will require balance between width and depth, a proper emphasis on the sale and use of product, and the commitment to help people become profitable.

The leadership at Network 21 continues to work with Quixtar to assure proper principles are followed when building our businesses. With the recent buzz over the term “stacking,” as opposed to proper depth-building, we felt it wise to again provide clarification on the differences between the two as well as some basic guidelines to follow as you build your business. Below is the latest position from Quixtar, and we believe you will find that what you have been taught, if followed, will lead to acceptable practices and a sound, profitable business.

Guidelines for acceptable business-building using a team/depth approach

“Stacking” is an unacceptable business-building practice. It is defined as the strategic and artificial structuring of an organization by an upline IBO who places new IBOs in depth, regardless of whether there are relationships between those who are sponsored and those who sponsor. It is a method of doing business that creates an imbalance in depth and potentially inhibits profitability.

Characteristics of acceptable depth-building

Quixtar believes acceptable depth-building is an important part of building a balanced, successful business, along with the development of width and the sale of product. Acceptable depth-building articulates the following:

Any business-building strategy, such as a team approach, is optional and should be so stated.
Building a balance of both width and depth is vital and must be taught in a group as the basis of profitability. Width is important for profitability, depth is important for stability, and together they make a balanced business.
The line of sponsorship may not be restructured by use of the transfer rules for strategic realignment of depth.
Product education is vital and a requirement for a successful business, which is based on building a balance of product sales and recruiting.
It is important that each IBO has a prior relationship with his sponsor, who agrees to fulfill the obligations of being a sponsor.
It is every IBO’s responsibility to communicate and clearly educate all who enter the business that profitability comes from the sale of products and the development of both width and depth.
A team approach does not take away the fact that building a business requires hard work and it is the responsibility of each individual IBO to build his business.

Unacceptable practices associated with stacking

Claims from IBOs that they have a special deal with or special rules from the Corporation.
Confusion about the role of Quixtar and the role of the support organization.
The omission or denigration of the fact that the sale of products is part of the QUIXTAR IBO Compensation Plan or that profitability comes from the balance of selling and sponsoring.
The new applicant does not know his sponsor.
Applicants are placed in the line of sponsorship without regard to the sponsor having been involved in the sponsoring activity and being aware of and engaged in fulfilling the responsibilities of a sponsor.
The applicant is instructed to leave fields blank on the application, which is subsequently filled in by the upline.
The upline holds the applications until the end of the month to artificially control the volume for qualification or income purposes.
Guarantees or implied guarantees of swift downline results.
Requests for transfers or the use of the six-month inactivity rules to realign existing IBOs in groups in depth so that they provide more value.
Legs are 25, 50, or even 100 deep, with little or no volume or width.
I think we can all agree that these guidelines are proper and sensible and that our goal must always be to assure each new IBO understands the rules and is treated with respect and care so that he/she can have a positive and profitable experience from their business. Remember the key words: balance, profits, relationships, integrity, optional strategies, and no rewards without effort.

We want all of you to continue to have confidence as you grow your business, so please use these guidelines to successfully build your business in depth.

Sincerely,

Gary VanderVen
Director, Business Conduct and Rules

Jim Dornan
President, Network 21

TEAM: LEGAL UPDATE November 10, 2007

2007-11-11T23:42:00.000-08:00

Original Source

LEGAL UPDATE November 10, 2007
Sunday, November 11, 2007

Quixtar verse Woodward et al
Yesterday, November 9, 2007 Michigan Circuit Court Judge the Honorable Paul J. Sullivan issued his written ruling in the claim brought by Quixtar (Plaintiffs) against Orrin Woodward, Chris Brady (Defendants) and Team for allegedly violating the Preliminary Injunction imposed on Defendants on August 24, 2007.

In short the Quixtar claim against Defendants was DENIED (win for Woodward/Brady/Team).

In Judge Sullivan’s 10 page Order there are some interesting points and observations made that I think are important enough to try and explain here.

As you recall this ruling by the Court followed an evidentiary (take testimony from live witnesses) hearing that lasted almost three days in the middle of October. At the conclusion of that hearing the Judge ruled from the bench that he was not going to shut down the major conference meeting in Louisville, KY but that he would issue a written ruling on all of the other items in due course. This ruling is what was issued on November 9 and is a matter of public record.

Quixtar’s complaint centered around four allegations against Defendants.

Failure to comply with Preliminary Injunction.
Solicitation of IBOs to resign from Quixtar.
Inappropriate use of Quixtar’s Line of Sponsorship (LOS).
Team being in competition with Quixtar.

Let me summarize the Judge’s ruling on each of these items.

Compliance with Preliminary Injunction The Judge stated that both Team and Defendants had made good faith efforts to comply with the original court Order. Woodward did this by resigning as the “Manager” of Team and by resigning as a member of the Team Policy Council. Team’s good faith efforts as noted by the Judge were the closing down of over 100 Open meetings and the removal of BSM’s (tools specifically related to the Quixtar business). Summary – the Judge found no fault in Defendants or Team in this area.

Solicitation of IBOs to resign from Quixtar The Judge noted that Quixtar had evidence that 15,000 IBOs had resigned in September and the majority was affiliated with Team. He further noted that this number suggested more than a mere coincidence. However, the Ruling states, there was no evidence that the Defendants or Team were directly behind the resignations. He noted that Woodward and Bob Dickie (CEO of Team) both testified that no IBOs were solicited to resign and that Team did not provide a form resignation to IBOs.

The Judge went on to say that the fact of the matter was that there was evidence presented that there were MANY reasons IBOs chose to resign from Quixtar. He acknowledged that when the top Team leaders were terminated this could create resignations because of the loyalty among the various “legs” of the Team leaders. He also stated that Quixtar admitted that some IBOs might have resigned because of disagreement on the price of Quixtar products. And finally he said that it was important to note that Quixtar took direction actions against Team where by IBOs felt intimidated. This included various blog postings by Quixtar, emails stating the sale of Team business support materials were in violation of Quixtar Rules of Conduct and the requirement of IBOs to sign and return a statement saying they would no longer promote use of Team BSM and that failure to sign and return the letter would result in suspension. In other words the Judge acknowledged here that Quixtar itself had done much that could have caused an IBO to resign and that it was not clear at all that Defendants had coerced anyone to resign.

The Judge did say that testimony was given whereby there could have been technical violations of the Order by at least one and possibly two members of Team. He pointed out that there was significant evidence that Mr. Stroh suggested people should disassociate with Team. The same type of thing occurred with Tyler Libby whereby he sent out a voice mail saying that it was not a good time to partner with Quixtar. Both of these could be considered violations of the Order but neither Mr. Stroh nor Mr. Libby were named as Defendants and that neither was in a policy making position with Team and there was not clear link that either Mr. Stroh or Mr. Libby were “aiding and abetting the actions of the named Defendants to violate the order”. In my opinion the message here is that even though the two IBOs mentioned above did not cause Defendants to be in contempt, NO ONE should encourage anyone to resign from Quixtar – which decision has to be one of personal choice.

Use of LOS Quixtar had claimed that because one of their private investigators they hired who went to a Team meeting (undercover I might add) was asked for his IBO number and upline Platinum that Team must be using this information (that Quixtar claims is unique to the LOS) improperly and without authorization. The Judge stated that it was inherently suspicious that the forms required to be completed by the private investigator at a Team meeting requested Quixtar identification information if it is a fact, as Team argues that it does not need the Quixtar LOS. Bob Dickie testified that the forms at that particular location were outdated and discontinued in 2006 when Team began allowing non Quixtar IBOs to attend Team meetings.

Evidence presented at the hearing was that Team used a separate form in addition to any Quixtar registration form when a person joined Team. While some of the personal information would obviously be overlapping Team maintained its own member list and personal information and therefore had no use for the Plaintiff’s LOS. The Court ruling stated that merely because there is an overlap in membership of Team and Quixtar does not mean Team “raided” or “looted” Quixtar’s LOS in violation of the Preliminary Injunction.

The Judge further stated that testimony was unequivocal that Quixtar’s LOS was never utilized to promote Team meeting attendance or for any other purpose. The individuals signed up for both Team and Quixtar appear to have been secured by Defendants and not referred by Quixtar.

In summary on this topic, the Judge said he was bothered by the fact that information belonging to Quixtar had been requested by persons attending Team functions since the August 24th Court Order and stated this might again be a technical violation of the order. However, the Judge goes on to say that there was no evidence that any of the Defendants ordered LOS information to be collected and in fact Woodward testified that he had not done so and Quixtar presented no evidence to the contrary. Finally, he stated that there was simply insufficient evidence to conclude a violation was such that the Defendants or Team should be found in contempt.

Competing with Quixtar Quixtar is claiming that Team, because it is no longer an authorized producer of Quixtar BSMs (which by the way as I have said before there IS NO SUCH THING OR NO PROVISION FOR BEING AN AUTHORIZED PROVIDER OF QUIXTAR BSMS – yes I am yelling) and only produces more generic Support Materials (SMs) that are not business or company specific that Team is now a competitor of Quixtar.

In other words Quixtar is claiming Team – or anyone for that matter they choose - can’t produce anything specific to do with Quixtar and now that Team has made that change and are now selling generic materials Team is a competing business – talk about damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

Quixtar claimed that the October conference in Louisville was to be the platform to publicly launch a new Team business; the court ruled there was little evidence to support this proposition. We now know of course that this was not the case but that Louisville was exactly as it was billed – a leadership development conference and part of the public relations cycle associated with the public release of Orrin and Chris’ book Launching a Leadership Revolution.

The Court stated that the business of the Plaintiff and that of Team have very different emphases. Plaintiff is a multi level marketing business which sells and distributes such things as energy drinks, soaps, and cleaners while Team sells motivational supplies and materials.

In summary the Court stated that as the actual businesses of plaintiff and Team appear to be sufficiently dissimilar, the Court cannot conclude that Team violated the original Court Order regarding competition.

Overall Conclusion by the Court

The Court found that there was no basis to sanction the Defendants or Team even though there are technical things that have been done on their face to appear to violate the order (some Team members encouraging IBOs to resign, mass resignations and asking for IBO number and upline names in order to by tickets or materials from Team). However, there was extensive testimony that the Defendants and Team attempted to comply with the Order and have taken significant steps to do so. The Judge stated that in the end there was simply insufficient evidence against the Defendants or Team and therefore Quixtar’s motion for contempt is DENIED.

The Court acknowledged that while the alleged violations did not meet the test for the court to impose sanctions that they could be violations of the Quixtar Rules of Conduct and would, if necessary, be decided by an arbitrator to determine if any relief is necessary – injunctive or compensatory, for either or both parties.

Again folks, my goals are to summarize the facts, offer my opinion, and put all of that in a manner that can be understood by the average non lawyer such as me. Hope this helped!

Posted by Ron Simmons at 11:42 AM

Full Document

TEAM: Judge rules against Quixtar in complaint against ex-distributors

2007-11-09T16:22:00.000-08:00

Original Source

Judge rules against Quixtar in complaint against ex-distributors
11/9/2007, 4:22 p.m. EST
The Associated Press

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A judge has ruled against direct marketing giant Quixtar Inc. in its request for a contempt finding against a group of dissident ex-distributors.

Quixtar is the name that Alticor Inc. uses for its U.S. and Canadian direct sales. Alticor is phasing out the Quixtar name and replacing it with Amway, its former name that remained in use outside North America.

Quixtar sued the ex-distributors, saying that they must abide by confidentiality and noncompete clauses until their disagreements with the company can be arbitrated.

In August, Kent County Circuit Judge Paul J. Sullivan issued a preliminary injunction that prohibited the ex-distributors from using their Quixtar networks for business purpose. He also ordered them to refrain from "disparaging or intentionally diminishing" Quixtar's reputation.
Quixtar went back to court Sept. 21, saying the defendants had violated the injunction by competing against the company and by harming its reputation.

The judge ruled Thursday that there was insufficient evidence that the distributors had intentionally violated his earlier order. He said an arbitrator could decide later whether Quixtar is entitled to damages.

Alticor is based in Kent County's Ada Township. It had $6.3 billion in sales last year.

QUIXTAR: Why we fight, part 2

2007-11-09T14:46:00.000-08:00

Original Source

Why we fight, part 2
November 9th, 2007 @ 2:46 pm ET…

We have been sharing information about the UK DBERR (formerly DTI) case against Amway on this blog for the past six months. The following memo was shared with our directors today:

To: Global Directors and above
From: Steve Van Andel and Doug DeVos
Subject: UK update
Date: November 9, 2007

We have important news from the U.K. that we want to share with you.

Despite recent, far-reaching reforms we have made to the UK market, the UK Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform has chosen to take the company to trial in London later this month.

We disagree vehemently with that decision and will defend the case vigorously on behalf of the 106 employees and 12,000 Amway Business Owners who have built the business since we opened the market in 1973.

Many of you know the background on this matter. Over a yearlong period, DBERR (formerly called the DTI) conducted an investigation of Amway UK, as well as sales organizations operating in the market, and took issue with the way some IBO organizations were promoting the business. Amway was criticized for not taking decisive action to correct the misrepresentations.

Since that time, UK and Amway Europe staff have worked tirelessly to address BERR’s complaints - and in the process, reinvented the UK business almost from the ground up. We have also initiated a global review of business practices to make sure we operate under the highest standards possible in all our markets.

Our self-imposed UK changes - which included steps like suspending BSM sales, a sponsorship moratorium and terminating or sanctioning IBOs - were comprehensive and difficult, but we made them without hesitation. After a terrifically successful September relaunch, we are on the right track to grow in a sustainable way, featuring a balanced business that works for ALL our ABOs and IBOs.

We have also taken a strong stance with the sales organizations, including refusing to renew the contracts of some leaders who would not endorse our reforms.

The fact is, in the wake of this sobering experience, every one of us - employees, IBOs, and others should renew our commitment to hold ourselves to the highest standards of behavior. The marketplace - and in the UK, the government - has made it clear that they expect no less. And when falling short of those standards exposes our company to such grave risk, there can no longer be any such thing as “business as usual.”

So you can see how seriously we have taken this matter. But still - despite these serious and significant changes - the BERR believes the best solution is to close us down in the UK. That is unwarranted and unnecessary and we will fight it in court with all our energy.

Please share this memo with employees and IBOs at your discretion. We will keep you updated on developments, either in emails or on the Amway Media Blog, http://amwaynews.alticorblogs.com. In the meantime, reach out to your friends in the UK and let them know we stand behind them.

We have faced significant challenges before. We are ready for this one.

Steve and Doug

QUIXTAR: IBOAI Board & Quixtar Partner for Success

2007-11-08T16:20:00.000-08:00

Original Source

IBOAI Board & Quixtar Partner for Success
November 08, 2007

"This was probably the best Board meeting I've attended in 20 years," said Jim Janz, Chairman of the IBOAI, following the Association's October Board meeting. "Board members and other IBO leaders worked in real partnership with our counterparts at Quixtar and Alticor."

Doug DeVos, Steve Van Andel, Jim Payne, Steve Lieberman, and other members of Quixtar and Alticor staff all made presentations and answered even the toughest questions posed to them by Board members on topics ranging from the future use of the Amway Global brand in North America to product pricing, QBI, and accreditation. Corporate reps, again and again, demonstrated a willingness to be flexible on both method and message.

"We focused on the solutions, and we accomplished a great deal that will be reflected in what all IBOs hear and see from Quixtar and from us in the weeks and months ahead," said Janz.

It is probably not well known to most IBOs that IBOAI Board meetings involve up to four days of intense sessions, with Board members - all volunteers - working 15 hours or more per day in full Board, Executive Committee, and subject-specific committee meetings. In addition, the October meeting involves electing the next year's officers and reporting the results of the election for new Board members from a pool of qualified Diamonds and above, plus the selection of additional members by the current Board.

The results of the elections are reported in full here, with Bill Hawkins elected as 2008 Chairman and Bob Andrews as Vice Chairman.

What comes out of the committee meetings are recommendations that are presented to Quixtar. It is too early to report the results of these recommendations, but we can say that:

The Awards & Recognition Committee, chaired by Bill Hawkins, made recommendations regarding QBI, achievement awards, and how a portion of Quixtar's advertising and PR budget should be used.

The Business Operations and Marketing Advisory Committee, meeting jointly and chaired by Kathy Victor and Sandy Hawkins, respectively, made recommendations regarding PV/BV, IBO websites, Quixtar's websites, sales leads, and Quixtar communication to the Field.

The Legal & Ethics Committee, chaired by Bob Andrews, made recommendations related to improving understanding and fairness of certain Quixtar Rules of Conduct, communication about Rules of Conduct, and improving the registration process.

Additionally, a non-Board Public Relations Committee chaired by IBOAI PR Manager Melissa Timmer announced wide-ranging plans for communication designed to improve IBO understanding about the role of the Board and the Association, dispel myths about the business, and improve all members' understanding about effective online public relations.

"We're looking forward to building on the platform of renewed trust built by the 2007 Board," said Chairman-elect Bill Hawkins. "We have an outstanding new compensation package and tremendously exciting new products and pricing. Hang on folks, 2008 is going to be fun, fast, and phenomenal!"

Posted at 04:20 PM

TEAM: Legal Update – November 7, 2007

2007-11-07T08:08:00.000-08:00

Original Source

Legal Update – November 7, 2007
wednesday, november 7, 2007

Simmons et al verse Quixtar
As mentioned in the original Legal Update, the ruling by Magistrate Judge Bush was objected to by Quixtar and was being reviewed by an appointed Federal Judge, the name of the judge is the Honorable Michael Schneider.

On Monday, November 5, 2007 Judge Schneider affirmed (agreed) with Judge Bush’s ruling and issued a Preliminary Injunction against Quixtar (win for IBOs) that essentially prohibits them from disparaging the Team business to the Plaintiffs and their Downline, prohibits them from interfering with the Plaintiff’s and their Downline’s business relationship with Team, prohibits them from suspending or terminating Plaintiffs and their Downline, and it prohibits them from refusing to pay bonuses to Plaintiffs and their Downline.

However, Quixtar continues, in my opinion, to be in violation of the orginal court order and now this one by refusing to pay Q12 bonuses and QBI bonuses earned by the Plaintiff’s and some of their Downline. Apparantely they are also refusing to pay the Q12 or QBI bonuses for hundreds of other IBOs or former IBOs that earned these rewards but happen to be affiliated with the Team leadership training system.

Further, Judge Schneider (as was recommended by Judge Bush) ordered the original complaints in this matter – which include multiple contract questions – and any further disputes in this case to arbitration in Texas with retired Magistrate Judge Robert Faulkner. Personally, I look forward to this process – and I assume Quixtar does as well – so that we can get some independent direction on the various Rules and contract issues that are in dispute. This is a reasonable way to settle business disputes – as long as it is a level playing field for all and that the scales of justice do not unfavorably tilt towards either party because of their stature or financial reserve.

There is no time table yet set on the beginning of the arbitration but I will let you know as soon as it is set.

California Case
It appears that some headway is being made on getting this case further along the arbitration path though admittedly the wheels of justice in this case are turning slow. Again, I believe all of the actual proceedings are confidential but I understand that some preliminary meetings ordered by the arbitrator have been set.

More to come as I have the information.

Posted by Ron Simmons at 8:08 AM

TEAM: The Moral Delema

2007-11-01T21:34:00.000-07:00

Original Source

The Moral Delema
Thursday, November 1, 2007

The product pricing structure is based on margin goals not volume goals. In other words a certain percentage of net profit must be reached for each product. From a competitive standpoint this puts the cart before the horse. By setting prices according to this margin Amway/Quixtar refused to follow the market trends by which any reasonable cooperation would indulge in order to remain competitive. This puts all IBOs in the field in a legal and ethical conundrum.

By marketing a networking plan in which product pricing is 200% higher than their market value the IBO is participating in an illegal pyramid. Most IBOs are unaware of this. They have been directed to the 1979 omnitron case, and are unaware of the changes that have taken place. Almost all of the IBOs are well intentioned people. If one of your Friends shows you the Quixtar plan don't get mad at them, the blame here lies with Quixtar/Amway. They are well aware that less than 4% of there volume is retailed, and that a good percentage of that is falsely reported. In fact they have even helped some IBOs learn how to falsely report retail sales.

These artificially high prices are a form of product loading. The founding families and management at Amway have been aware of this for years. The fundamental problem is Q/A is either too arrogant, lazy, or stupid to change. I believe its a combination of all.

Arrogance is the worst of sins, through the years many leading IBOs have pleaded to Q/A to change so the new IBO could have a business model that he or she could win with. Their pleads fell on deaf ears. Lets face it, the 2nd generation owners have taken over. They are spoiled rich kids who have no problem getting richer at the ex pence of the new IBOs registering each month. When you,ve been a billionaire since the day you were born you may be reluctant to change, that takes work (Lazy). Finally, they just can't stop themselves from hanging on to a relic of a business in the information age (stupid). Q/A is afraid of competing with team because they know they can't compete.

Posted by Q-Less at 9:34 PM

TEAM: Team Issues Statement Regarding Quixtar v. Team Lawsuit

2007-11-01T12:13:00.000-07:00

Original Source

Team Issues Statement Regarding Quixtar v. Team Lawsuit
NOVEMBER 01, 2007

Team has issued an update on the lawsuit that Quixtar filed against Team in the state of Nevada. This update was posted to Team's website this afternoon and the text is detailed below:

As most of you know, Quixtar has recently filed a lawsuit against Team in Nevada. In the Nevada lawsuit, Quixtar makes essentially the same allegations it has made in its lawsuits in Grand Rapids and elsewhere.

In Grand Rapids, Quixtar argued that Woodward and Brady (and Team) were in contempt of the Court's injunctive order because Team continued holding meetings and selling leadership development materials. Quixtar insisted on an immediate evidentiary hearing so that the Court could prevent the Louisville conference from going forward. The Court held an evidentiary hearing over three days, receiving testimony from live witnesses for both sides. At the end of the hearing, the Court ruled that the Louisville conference could go forward. The Court said: "I've listened carefully to what goes on at these meetings. I'm not at all convinced at this stage that it constituted improper competition with the Plaintiff in violation of the Order."

Soon after this adverse ruling, and before the Court could issue its full opinion, Quixtar ran to Nevada to file its lawsuit against Team, making essentially the same allegations. Apparently Quixtar did not like the evidence that came out at the Grand Rapids hearing or the Court's ruling that the Team convention in Louisville could go forward. Nonetheless, on its weblog, Quixtar explained that it went to Nevada to file another lawsuit because it "won" in Grand Rapids: "We filed suit because the single legal case we brought (and won) in this matter listed Orrin Woodward as a defendant."

We are convinced that the allegations in the Nevada lawsuit are entirely without merit, and that Team has at all times acted properly and righteously. We will continue to resist Quixtar's unwarranted claims, wherever they are filed. In the end, leadership transcends litigation. I wish I could assure everyone that these harassments and attacks will soon stop. However, the realist in me says that Quixtar will do everything within its power to destroy all vestiges of the leaders that had the audacity to challenge their very existence. But I can assure you of one thing: the leadership of Team will respond to every allegation made against us with the same class and grace that we have demonstrated throughout this entire dispute. I wish you all the very best.

Very truly yours,

Kevin Thompson

TEAM, Chief Legal Counsel

TEAM: Goose...Gander...

2007-10-29T18:01:00.000-07:00

Original Source

Goose...Gander...
MONDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2007

Thought this was a great post I found out in the blogosphere...I added my thoughts in red...

Original Source: http://thebattleagainstquixstarison.blogspot.com/

from Promises To Keep by Charles Paul Conn
"Van Andel and Devos (Woodward and Brady) were doing very well through the 1950's (early 2000's), however the condition of Nutrilite Products (Amway/Quixtar) as a corporation was deteriorating. A long period of internal warfare in the home office in California (Ada, MI) left the company weakened and in considerable disarray. Distributors like Devos and VanAndel (Woodward and Brady) were concerned about the lack of strong corporate leadership, and tried to intervene to help solve problems, but nothing worked. It became more and more difficult for Nutrilite distributors (IBO's) to operate effectively, and the growth of their business slowed."

"The two partners finally decided that Nutrilites (Amway/Quixtar) corporate problems were such that it could no longer be depended on to provide leadership. Their primary obligation, they felt, was to the groups of distributors whom they have brought into THEIR business. They had a commitment to these people, many of whom had left their jobs to build full time businesses, and sold them on a vision on a free and prosperous future. Those promises were not to be taken lightly, they had very little choice. (AMEN...Ditto this whole paragragh!)

"So in early 1959, the two partners made a bold, carefully calculated gamble. They sat in the basement office of VanAndels home (TEAM Office) and officially organized a new company. They cut the tie with Nutrilite (Amway Quixtar), and began plans to develop their own product line, and personally pledged to their distributors that they would build and direct a new enterprise in which their business would always be secure.""They called the new company Amway (TEAM!!). From the beginning of that new company, VanAndel and DeVos (Brady and Woodward) were motivated by more than just the bottom line. They were determined to make Amway work for all those people who trusted and believed in them. They had promises to keep.

(You get the idea...I'll let you make the mental inserts on this next excerpt!)

from The Possible Dream by Charles Paul Conn
"In the summer of 1958, at a meeting of their leading distributor's in Charlevoix, Michigan, they made their announcement; We intend to develop our own product line. We will continue to sell Nutrilite products (they explained) but we can no longer depend solely on that company to supply our distributorships with marketable products. It is up to us to make our own way

"With that explanation, the two partners gave the people there the opportunity to stay with them and the American Way Association or to remain entirely with Nutrilite. (Not computing...this sounds like they gave those folks a choice...doesn't sound like them...) To a person, the leaders at Charlevoix chose to head into a new territory with DeVos and VanAndel.""That was the cutting of the umbilical cord which tied the small group to Nutrilite exclusively. A few months later, in early 1959, Devos and VanAndel sat in the basement office of Jay's home in Ada, Michigan, and officially organized Amway Corp. It was a bold hopeful beginning, a gamble that they could make it alone, and go on to build an organization of size and permanence. With the beautiful blessings of hindsight, one can easily see that it would be a start of something big. At the time, one couldn't be so sure."

Two Words: Goose...Gander!
Posted by Q'Reilly at 6:01 PM

TEAM: BEHIND THE WALLS OF QUIXTAR PART 4

2007-10-29T17:28:00.000-07:00

Original Source

BEHIND THE WALLS OF QUIXTAR PART 4
Monday, October 29, 2007

Welcome to the latest installment and report from "Behind the Walls of Quixtar." I hope you all enjoyed your weekend. I certainly did, as I was able to share a few cups of coffee with some Quixtar employees. The latest information I learned from these rendezvous is nothing short of devastating to the Quixtar war machine. Unfortunately for many Alticor employees this information is quite frightening. So what did I learn from my "close warm personal friends?"

My CWPF's are telling me that the damage to Quixtar, both directly and collaterally, from the ongoing battle with TEAM is mounting quickly. The losses at Quixtar are piling up at a rate that could total more than 125 million dollars by the end of the fiscal year. I am sure the doubters and haters will just discount this information as an insignificant loss for a billion dollar company. Keep watching if you want to reserve judgment, but a company bleeding at this rate can't hide it for long. Additionally there is no end to these losses. Instead, as more and more people lose confidence in Quixtar or become disgusted with the entire situation more volume losses will result. The other thing to consider is that Quixtar desperately depends on sponsoring for survival. The importance of sponsoring and the volume associated with it are magnified due to their abysmal retention rates. I couldn't even imagine showing the plan and attempting to put a good face on the present day Quixtar.

If you don't believe how severely crippled a TEAM-less Quixtar is how about this. I have been told that early retirements and layoffs are now being discussed. This is not some reflex action. These talks are part of an overall internal evaluation of Quixtar. Quixtar is contemplating what it sees as serious "overcapacity" in warehousing and other areas of their business. Many people have speculated that Alticor / Amway / Quixtar are no longer committed to their North American business. Could this battle hasten their exit from North America and provide AAQ with a convenient scapegoat that being TEAM?

Quixtar's problems are chronic and are not isolated to the fact that they have failed to heed the dawn of Walmart and failed to adapt their business practices. Quixtar displays certain schizophrenic behavior by portraying itself as a cutting edge internet business all the while embracing antiquated thinking by denying the age of the consumer. As I have stated before in this blog, Quixtar currently suffers from systemic dishonesty. There is a pattern of deceit that emanates from its core. Whether these problems are fatal largely depends if their corporate leadership can make the needed decisions away from its currently navigated path and back to an ethical course.

Lets look at the current battle with TEAM. Quixtar, led by its legal department, has created a public relations nightmare of monumental proportions. From all accounts Alticor General Counsel Mike Mohr is calling the shots in the TEAM dispute. Well how is he doing? I don't know Mr. Mohr, but I would suggest that if he is calling the shots, that he lacks any degree of emotional intelligence. From the start of this conflict the animosity displayed by Quixtar has been over the top. This likely reflects their General's (Mohr's) attitude. Assuming Quixtar losses of 125 million dollars are correct, is Mohr worth the 125 million dollars? Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning signed a 7 year contract in 2004 for 99.2 million dollars. Manning delivered a Super Bowl title, and is consistently one of the top two quarterbacks in the NFL. That is what 100 million dollars will buy you. In effect Mike Mohr has cost AAQ 125 million or more. What did AAQ get for their money? AAQ got a frumpy fellow, who appears to be orchestrating one of the biggest debacles in American business history. Can Mohr orchestrate AAQ out of existence?

From the beginning Mohr completely ruled out diplomacy as an option. I know you are reading this Mr. Mohr so let me help you. Diplomacy is defined as: skill in handling negotiations, handling people so that there is little or no ill will; tact. Quixtar has and continues to make this out to be about the "evil" Woodard, Brady, and TEAM. But face it Mr. Mohr, you took this tack in spite of 40% of the IBOAI board sounding the alarm. Those were some of the largest business builders you slammed the door on. May God have mercy on you because the market won't.

In closing, I would suggest that we all pray for the employees of AAQ who find themselves in possible peril. Layoffs and early retirements are potentially life changing moments. In the case of AAQ it didn't have to be this way. Decision makers inside of AAQ made choices and the employees will likely face the consequences of those decisions. By the way... I paid for the coffee!

Posted by The IBO Rebellion at 5:28 PM

QUIXTAR: More on Quixtar Sales

2007-10-25T01:00:00.000-07:00

Original Source

More on Quixtar Sales
Thursday, October 25, 2007 by Todd Krause

Greetings from sunny Ada!

Thanks again for your input and questions regarding my last post on the changes the Sales Department is making. Several of you mentioned that, as corporate folk, we don't have the credibility to tell IBOs how to sell or build an organization - you're right, couldn't agree more! Our intended role is not to go around IBO leaders, tell IBOs how to build the business, or take over IBO organizations.

As mentioned in my article dated March 21, this business is based on relationships and technology can't take the place of sitting down face to face. We have lots of data and information that we want to share with IBOs about their specific businesses regarding renewal rates, activation of new IBOs with product, profitability, product mix, sponsoring, etc. and we think IBOs can use this to help make better decisions and to focus their efforts.

We can also share best practices that we are learning as we talk to more and more IBOs about the things that they do to help their business grow. We can also help guide them to training, or look for creative ways to bring our resources to bare in order to help move their businesses forward. But in the end, it is their decision because it is their business.

Over the past several years we (Sales) have relied too much on phone and email. I believe that for us to build credibility and stronger relationships with the IBOs we need to get out and experience their world first hand. We realize that we have to earn the respect and trust of the IBOs, and there will be many who will resist what we are attempting to do. We understand and respect that, but I do believe that this is the right way to go.

TEAM: Big Swing...AND Whiiiffff...

2007-10-24T21:08:00.000-07:00

Original Source

Big Swing...AND Whiiiffff...
Wednesday, October 24, 2007

They're back at it. The eager beaver legal team over at Amquix has decided to make another blind, legal stab into the dark. http://media.alticorblogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/nevada-complaint-quixtar-v-team.pdf
Reminds me so much of Cyclops in Homer's Odyssey drunkenly stumbling around his cave with a sharpened plank in his eye yelling "Nobody did this to me!" "Let's sue Woodward and Brady!" "Let's sue some nameless bloggers!" "Let's sue the TEAM office!" Keep streching guys...keep stretching. I actually found myself chuckling reading this 20 page legal document...let me sum it up for you..."We own these people...they won't stay...that's not fair...make them stay!" They are making it very difficult for anyone that has even a couple of functioning synapses to take their side of this argument.

Here is the wet paper bag full of fresh doo that they are trying to sell the judge : "The Line of Sponsorship is highly confidential...and we own it." Wrong and wrong again. The Line of Sponsorship is made up of MY family, friends, neighbors, co-workers etc...now...tell me again how that is"confidential" information?! Let's ask this question...If the computer system over at Amquix took a dump...who would be able to recreate this "confidential" information more quickly...Amquix or me?! Hmmmm...I'll help you with the hard ones...ME! I know these people personally...I spent the years in the living rooms creating this Line of Sponsorship. Amquix attached a computer number to them and now claims ownership? Wow...gotta put a quick call into Uncle Jack and let him know he has been picked up on a quitclaim deed...

Here is how it works in the real world...unlike the Alice in Wonderland called Amquix...
Bobby Bowden...Head football coach at Florida State...does what most good head coaches would do. When he first hires on with Florida State, he brings in a staff of coaches that he knows and wants to work with. They come together and create one of the top football programs in the country. No problem with that. But, recently they have been turning in lackluster performances, and they are plummeting in the National rankings. It is looking very much like Bobby will either be fired or resign at the end of the season. Either way, here is what Bobby is going to say to his staff..."Guys...we are family. I am sure that if you want to stay at Florida State, they will find a coaching job for you here. But, I think it is time for a fresh start. What do you say we all stick together and make another run at the National Championship with a new team?!"

Now, I am gonna step way out on a limb here and say that Florida State University is not gonna be suing Coach Bowden for stealing THEIR property! Not gonna happen...They are Bowden's family and friends...he assembled them...he taught them the strategies...he developed them as leaders...They have the right (and in my opinion the obligation) to follow their leader...

Posted by Q'Reilly at 9:08 PM

QUIXTAR: Why we fight, part 1

2007-10-24T20:45:00.000-07:00

Original Source
NOTE: Click on the title of this post to see my response in the comments.

Why we fight, part 1
October 24th, 2007 @ 8:45 pm ET…

After being on the defensive for 20 straight legal attacks, we filed suit yesterday against the corporation that owns TEAM.

We filed suit because the single legal case we brought (and won) in this matter listed Orrin Woodward as a defendant—but Woodward then claimed to have magically disappeared as the manager of TEAM before the case was heard. (A legal trick like that is like pretending Rich and Jay have nothing to do with our company—but never mind. We’ll straighten it out.)

We filed suit because TEAM has had multiple chances to play by the rules in this dispute, but have gambled that they do not have to play by them. They have interfered with non-compete agreements. They have interfered with non-solicitation agreements. They refuse to arbitrate.

But most of all, we are filing suit because TEAM has taken proprietary business information from Quixtar that IBOs could be using right now to build Quixtar businesses.

If you leave your place of work today, you would leave behind your tools and information so that those who remain can carry on the business. You can’t help yourself to your computer, the stapler, the coffeemaker—or the company’s customer list.

That is ethically and morally wrong. It is also legally wrong. And that’s why we filed suit.

TEAM: Terminated...Part 1

2007-10-24T01:00:00.000-07:00

Original Source
NOTE: See the original for links to all referenced materials.

Terminated...Part 1
Wednesday, 24 October 2007

It's old news to most people that both Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady were terminated by Quixtar on August 9, 2007 a/k/a "Judgment Day." For some reason, I don't understand why Quixtar is attacking Team so viciously. Recently, they filed a contempt motion and argued in Grand Rapids that Team violates an injunction every time they host a meeting. In other words, they feel that Team has no right to exist. Quixtar lost. After suing 30 anonymous bloggers and trying to shut down Team, I'm curious to see the next move on the chess board.

I've recently had the opportunity to review the termination letter that Quixtar gave to both Woodward and Brady on Judgment Day. After reading this termination letter, something is seriously fishy. There are three main points that I'll make in three separate posts.

A. Timing

Why was Woodward and Brady terminated on August 9? Was it because they resigned? If that's the case, it seems absurd that Amway would say, "You can't quit because you're fired!" Amway's story has been that Woodward and Brady were terminated because of bad business practices. I find it a strange coincidence that Amway would drop the hammer on Woodward on the same day that he resigns. In Randy Haugen's affidavit, he gives his account of the Judgment Day meeting within one week of the event. In his affidavit, in paragraphs 5, 6 and 7, he states, "Early in the meeting, I expressed my concern regarding the new business model. I felt my organization would never be able to survive the coming changes without an effective change to the product pricing strategy. Specifically, I said, 'this new business won't work for us. I just don't want to do this model.' I further stated, 'I just can't put my life in this model.' Both Jim Payne and Rob Davidson said that they could understand my problem in promoting a business I no longer believed in and also stated they respected my choice."

Randy statement is corroborated by Mike McCormick's affidavit, who was serving as Randy's attorney at the time, and Orrin Woodward's affidavit. In Woodward's affidavit, in paragraph 13, Orrin wrote, "I plaintly stated [to the Quixtar executives], 'I just can't continue.'" In paragraphs 20 and 21, he wrote, "After we talked for over an hour, the Quixtar executives wanted to take some time to think about a separation plan. Before leaving, Mike Mohr asked if I'd like to see the 'remediation package.' Since I clearly communicated my intent to negotiate an amicable departure, I felt it unnecessary to review any BSM issues for a business I was asking to leave."

Woodward's and Haugen's affidavits are corroborated not only by the affidavits of Robert Dickie, Ron Simmons, and Chris Brady, but by the two attorneys that were also present: McCormick and Thompson. Furthermore, it seems that their affidavits were also corroborated by Todd Krause's affidavit. Todd Krause is a Quixtar executive that was also present at the Judgment Day meeting. In paragraph 21, he states, "However, Quixtar was never able to present these points [that Woodward and Brady were in default of their contract] at the August 9 meeting. The meeting began by Haugen (an IBO invited by Woodward) requesting an opening statement. He then voiced his disagreement with the new direction of the company, and stated that he was looking for a way out."

So Woodward and Haugen open the meeting by effectively resigning, then Quixtar asks Woodward if he'd like to correct certain BSM issues, Quixtar requests a break to discuss separation terms, considered Woodward's proposal, and they terminated Woodward and Brady for contract violations. Hmmmmmmmm. This scenario is more messed up than a soup sandwich. Since the genesis of the termination letter is so messed up, it makes me wonder if the grounds for termination are even authentic.

For now, I encourage you to take the time to read over the affidavits and see if you can start piecing this complicated puzzle together. You just might make this case your new hobby:)

QUIXTAR: Training & Education -- What's Your Wish List?

2007-10-23T13:34:00.000-07:00

Original Source

Training & Education -- What's Your Wish List?
Monday, October 22, 2007 by Alison Hague

Those of who follow the Opportunity Zone may recall a post from Jim Payne last spring titled "One Step Closer to World Class Training," in which he introduced me, Alison Hague, as Quixtar's new Director of Training & Education. I'm sure the title of that post sparked many different thoughts among readers. All I could think was ... "Gee, no pressure there!"

I'm happy to report, however, that in the months I've been here, I've been privileged to work with an amazing team of talented and hard-working professionals who have made great strides in providing excellent training resources for some other talented and hard-working individuals -- Quixtar Independent Business Owners.

We've researched the competition and solicited input from IBOs at all levels of this business and we've heard over and over again from you about the importance of training. We're responding with courses to help you develop business-building skills and product knowledge to support you as you grow a successful business. All of this training is available under the umbrella of "Quixtar University". You will have the option of taking instructor-led training, online training and audio courses so you can learn anytime, anywhere, and in the way you learn best.

Some recently launched courses include brand courses specializing in Artistry, Simply Nutrilite, and Ribbon; basic business skill training courses; and Welcome to Quixtar Orientation, an easy-to-use, easy-to-understand orientation to business.

By reviewing your feedback, I have an indication that we're on the right track with the training we're providing. For example, after its launch, QU had visits from about 300 users. This number grew to 10,000 quickly and since it’s been promoted, the number has reached more than 40,000 IBO users. Now that the Welcome to Quixtar Orientation has launched, we expect thousands more.

And the response to the online training courses has been very favorable. Here's what some IBOs like you are saying:

“Thank you, every single thing that I can learn through Quixtar demos and educational knowledge will only benefit me.”
“Who else but Quixtar would go the extra mile to see us succeed? Thank you from the bottom of my heart!”
“I'm so excited about this educational program. I can't wait to see what's next and get out there and use what I've learned!!!”
“I believe this is an excellent way to educate new and seasoned IBOs. I work for a Fortune 500 Company and this is the type of training that's utilized within the company I work for. Thank you Quixtar for giving your IBOs the most up-to-date resources to grow their business. I'm proud to be an IBO.”
While such feedback has been extremely encouraging, there's certainly much more that we can do to meet your education and training needs. I'm interested in ideas, concerns, wish lists, etc. regarding the content and delivery of training you would like to receive from Quixtar. With your guidance, I have no doubt that we can provide you with "World Class Training."

We're all a Partying In Louisville

2007-10-20T12:34:00.000-07:00

Thursday, 6pm, the last comment was posted here. I went to check the site, and there was no activity. "Strange" I thought. Then I remembered, we're all in Kentucky!

What touched you the most?

QUIXTAR: One motion, one meeting

2007-10-17T22:12:00.000-07:00

Original Source

One motion, one meeting
October 17th, 2007 @ 10:22 pm ET…

We were back in court in Grand Rapids today, seeking a contempt motion that would have halted a planned TEAM meeting in Louisville.

We don’t have the ruling yet—we’ll post it when we do—but the judge said he would not stop the meeting.

Not what we wanted to hear.

But it was one motion, and one meeting.

Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady are still under injunction.

The TEAM leaders we terminated still have a contract to honor.

Their California lawsuit, with its outrageous claims, is still gone for good.

They still have liability for the people and businesses they hurt.

And they still must arbitrate to settle this dispute.

We will prove these claims in arbitration.

That’s fine by us. Because the facts, the law and common sense are still on our side.

TEAM: Partial victory for former Quixtar distributors

2007-10-17T21:46:00.000-07:00

Original Source

Partial victory for former Quixtar distributors
Updated: Oct 17, 2007 09:46 PM
By JOE LaFURGEY

GRAND RAPIDS -- A group of former Quixtar distributors will get to party in Louisville this weekend.

This after Quixtar, the e-commerce arm of Alticor, tried to convince a judge that the former distributors were in contempt of court.

Three days of testimony wrapped up just after 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Kent County Courthouse in downtown Grand Rapids.

In the end, it was at least a partial victory for some former distributors involved in a bitter divorce from Quixtar.

Judge Paul Sullivan told the former distributors he would not issue an injunction to stop a large meeting of Quixtar distributors scheduled for Louisville this weekend. The gathering is an event for TEAM, the sales training and support company started by two former Quixtar distributors.

TEAM is already the subject of an August temporary restraining order that Quixtar claims it violated.

The final decision on the issues that prompted the restraining order will go before an arbitrator.

At issue is whether those distributors were using proprietary information they collected over the years as a support organization for as many as 100,000 Quixtar distributors to start a business that would compete with Quixtar. At least 16,000 of those distributors have left Quixtar.

The Ada-based company claimed the Louisville gathering was part of a bigger conspiracy to convince even more to leave.

Judge Sullivan was not convinced by the argument, noting the meeting was scheduled long before the split between Quixtar and the distributors occurred.

"For the 20,000 people who are going to Louisville, this is a huge victory on their part. We're very pleased," said Chris DeWitt, a spokesman for the former distributors.

Judge Sullivan held off ruling on the rest of the claim. But he did say the testimony led him to believe if there were violations of his earlier order, they were more technical in nature, not the result of witnesses lying on the stand.

A Quixtar spokesman says they're disappointed in the Louisville portion of the ruling, but convinced they'll prevail in the rest of the case.

"We believe the people involved in this business are building it on the backs of ours," said Alticor Spokesman Rob Zeiger. "And that's not right. That doesn't abide by the contract and that's one of the things were going to settle in arbitration."

There is no word on when the judge will release the rest of his decision.

QUIXTAR: What's on your Reading List? Part One

2007-10-17T20:35:00.000-07:00

Original Source

What's on your Reading List? Part One
Wednesday, October 17, 2007 by Susan Julien-Willson

Reading is a way to learn new skills, inspire ideas, broaden your perspective. I read to become a better writer, a better businessperson, a stronger leader, a better person.

My favorite business books are not just about sales and marketing. They're about leading, about teaming, about design, about writing, about blogging, about creativity, and about communicating-particularly listening.

Today, I'll talk about what I've read and enjoy ... and later this week, I'll continue with the list. Next week, I'll write about my Books to Read list. It just keeps getting longer and longer. So many books, so little time!

Little Red Book of Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer

by Jeffrey Gitomer
I love Gitomer as much as I don't like him. His language and humor seems unprofessional to me, but for the most part, this guy knows his stuff. He's not a writer, but he can make a point. And this little book is easy to read and refer to often - I also subscribe to his newsletter. He reminds me that it's about relationship and being real. It's about value, not just about price. This book is worth reading if you can handle his language. He apparently did not have the same English professor I had-this professor told the class if you had to resort to four-letter words to make a point, you needed to work on your vocabulary and your writing!

The Sales Bible by Jeffrey Gitomer

by Jeffrey Gitomer
Another good sales book by Gitomer. Meatier than the Little Red Book ... I refer to this book often for tips and advice. And I mean often!

Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, M.D.

by Spencer Johnson, M.D.
A parable that makes many good points about dealing with change in your work and in your life. If you haven't read it, do so. It's a quick read and worthwhile.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

by Stephen Covey
I took a 3-day seminar on this - and also read the book. Highly recommend reading this and applying the principles to your professional and personal life. I think I need to re-read it!

Naked Conversations by Robert Scobel/Shel Israel

by Robert Scobel/Shel Israel
This is all about business/corporate blogging and how it's changing the way businesses talk with customers. It's about being real and transparent in a blog and allowing the customer to talk back so you're talking with each other, rather than at each other. Great read. Loved it. It was the first book I read on blogging and it's still my fave. If you want to read about blogging, pick this book up.

Lovemarks by Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi

by Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi
Heard about this book at a National Catalog Conference a few years back. It's about lovemarks with emotional resonance that are "owned" by the people who love them-about connecting with consumers and understanding them. It's about passion for the brand, involving consumers in new product development, celebrating loyalty, find and share great stories/testimonials from people who love the brand/products. It talks about the mystery, sensuality and intimacy of lovemarks like Olay, Tide, Coca Cola, Lexus. Very interesting.

The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier

by Marty Neumeier
This was given to me by an ad agency and it's a little gem. It's about bridging the distance between business strategy and design. It really clarifies what a brand is - a person's gut feeling about a product, service, or company.

BrandSimple by Allen P. Adamson

by Allen P. Adamson
I can't say enough about this book. It's an easy read and enlightening and informative. Really like the discussion of the best brands keeping it simple and succeeding. Rdknyver recommended it on Sales Speak awhile back. I recommend it, too.

The Identity Trinity by Glenda Shasho Jones

by Glenda Shasho Jones
This is a book about brand, image and positioning for catalogs. Not sure it is still in print, but I believe the author presents at catalog and direct marketing conferences. She's great. The book is a tad outdated, but the principles of good cataloging presented in this book still ring true.

More books coming later this week in Part Two. Until then, keep reading, keep writing, keep sponsoring, keep SELLING!

P.S. Many of these books are available at our Partner Store, Barnes & Noble.

QUIXTAR: Former distributor testifies in Quixtar case

2007-10-16T18:46:00.000-07:00

Original Source

Former distributor testifies in Quixtar case
Updated: Oct 16, 2007 06:46 PM

By JOE LaFURGEY

GRAND RAPIDS -- Testimony continues in the case against a group of former Quixtar distributors, as lawyers for the e-commerce arm of Alticor claim those former distributors violated an August court order.

At that time, the judge ruled the distributors, who were fired from Quixtar, must stop using sales training and other material supplied by Quixtar to the company. Those distributors were part of an effort to convince large numbers of other distributors to leave Quixtar.

The distributor at the center of the controversy, Orrin Woodward, testified Tuesday he did not violate the court orders. Woodward is among the distributors who sued the company, claiming it's a pyramid scheme.

This is the first time Woodward has spoken publicly about the messy divorce between the distributors and the company.

He was living what many would describe as the Amway Dream. The former GM engineer followed the plan and became a successful Quixtar distributor. "After a couple of years, I reached what they call direct or platinum level."

Woodward also devised a way to train distributors under them. He started his own company, TEAM, offering sales training and business set-up material to other Quixtar independent business owners (IBOs).

But he claimed Quixtar put the emphasis on recruitment instead of sales.

On the stand, Woodward denied he was breaking Quixtar's rules, and his lawyers provided a 2003 letter from Quixtar praising him for his business practices: "By growing right, you create a solid business foundation upon which you can continue to build."

He said he never heard anything different until he was fired in August.

But another witness who used to work under Woodward and TEAM said his associate threatened the distributorship she and her husband operated. Melissa Seeback testified that in an August phone call, "we better quit Quixtar and join the TEAM system or we wouldn't have anything left in business."

Testimony continues on Wednesday.

Preposterous

2007-10-16T17:39:00.000-07:00

So Quixtar goes on a rampage suing people left and right. They sue a mother of four and a guy who quit back when it was Amway.

Now QuixtarLostMyCents (mother of four) doesn't have much contact information or information about her. Her blog was started in September, a full month after all the shenanigans started. Is it really that hard to believe that a mother of four would feel just a little ticked about the overpriced products she's been buying, hoping to make a better life for herself? I *had* people on my team, who if they would have stuck around until August, they would have probably started a blog just like it. I talked to one of them last night. He is a father of seven, and was really apprehensive about talking to me because he silently bowed out. I talked to him last week and he said that he just could not justify the prices while trying to feed his family.

Now Ed Manley's site. How that one made the list is beyond me. Anyone who has been watching the blog comments (not his blog, but everyone else's) knows that Ed has no affinity for Quixtar/Amway/Alticor nor for Team. In fact, before he knew about the non-compete clause, he was actively trying to help people join Market America so they could continue to have an income without Quixtar. The Quixtar blog claimed that they were just trying to find out who these people were. Take a look at Ed's Profile. He's a male, 46, Aries, year of the Ox, full description of his career change from Amway to Market America. Who in their right mind would think he was a Team operative?

I named my blog Crazy World because I had for years been impressed with Amway, ever since I first joined. My upline all quit up to my Double Diamond (investing scam wiped out the leg), but I was always impressed with the education system and opportunity. When I saw what Quixtar was doing with the "firing" of their top "employees" and then the blog posts and emails, I thought to myself "What a crazy world!" (crazyworld.blogspot was already taken, as was crazyfunworld.blogspot.com, hence the crazyfunwildworld.blogspot.com address).

The more I watch what is happening, the more appropriate I feel my blog title is. Its like I've entered a bizarro world. A product company thinks it can take a leadership role away from its leadership organization in a couple of years time. As the whole process has shown, they are a product company with excellent management, but they are no leaders.

I am not directly in Orrin or Chris line of sponsorship. I, like most Quixtar IBOs, have just heard them on CDs for the last couple of years. I have a list of people I really enjoyed on tape/CD. Dexter Yager, Skip Ross, Jody Victor, Bad DeHaven, Ron Simmons, Rob Hale, Don Wilson, Randy Haugen, Bo Short (oops), Chuck Goetschel, etc., etc., etc. Until my *leadership* decided to join Team's system, I hadn't really put Orrin and Chris into my top CDs list (although I may just not have had the right CDs, I definitely have some now in my favorite list).

Then Quixtar tells people where they can go, who they can listen to, what they can buy. Why can't I buy Team CDs if the teach me how to be a better person, and a better Quixtar salesman? What right do they have to dictate my life in that way?

I understand that things can get heated. I understand that when you have grown up your whole life believing in a company that your parents helped create, how you would be hesitant to see it any different that perfect. But the intense persecution of Team and Orrin in particular is amazing. And then to go on a witch hunt of bloggers just adds to it. Don't they understand that the little bit of negative on the internet was nothing compared to the bees nest they are stirring up now? Before it was a few disgruntled, disillusioned or just plain negative people posting "issues" with Amway/Quixtar online on a regular basis. Now there are possibly 50,000 or so people who would probably have been silent and just slid away quietly to await their 6 months non-compete.

But they have stirred the bees nest and want to blame Orrin for it. The only way for them to really believe that (especially given that at least 7,000 IBOs have left) is that we are all brainwashed and do not think for ourselves, just like the negative website have been saying for years. Statistically speaking, 30 out of 7,000 is very likely to just be IBOs who, after the curtain was pulled back by Chuck Goetschel, Ron Simmons and Randy Haugen, found themselves reevaluating their feelings towards the company they had promoted for so many years. As a matter of fact, I get the feeling that if I asked my upline (and I bet Orrin is the same way) about posting to this blog, I bet he would discourage it (hence why I write under a pseudonym).

Quixtar started this. They are bringing it upon themselves and they are only making it worse by not letting the whole thing just slide away quietly. If they wanted to end it right now, they have the power to do it. Team is leaving. There is nothing they can do about that. Over 7,000 IBOs have left. Many are just going to let their IBO number expire at the end of the year. Just let them go. I bet if Quixtar legal sat down with Orrin and said, "Look, our bad. Encourage your people to pull all that negative off the internet, and let's agree to just drop all the legal." I bet he would. They would be no worse off. We would gladly scrub all the websites and postings. And we could just all get on with our lives.

I tried to find it earlier, but couldn't. I could have sworn there was a blog posting from the IBOAI or Quixtar that said something along the lines of "Lawsuits should be a last resort. We are disappointed in Orrin for filing this lawsuit." Hello. He wasn't asking for damages. He was just asking to get on with his life as soon as possible. But Bo Short left too nasty of a taste in Quixtar's mouth, I guess. Now they are suing individuals for monetary damages? And not even just ex-IBOs (if you were in Amway, you're an ex-distributor, you were never an IBO, but then of course were any of us ever IBOs).

Preposterous

QUIXTAR: Reputation & Me & You

2007-10-16T01:00:00.000-07:00

Original Source

Reputation & Me & You
Tuesday, October 16, 2007

I was asked to write an article on reputation recently and, while doing so, it really impressed upon me again how important a topic this is not just for companies and brands but for individuals. Certainly a company's reputation is important if it hopes to spur some sort of participation on the part of the public, whether that be as a customer or a representative.
Personal reputation effects so many things that are even more important, in my opinion. For instance, a teen earns a reputation with his or her parents for being trustworthy or not. Caught in a lie about going to a party, the teen will have lost the trust of the parents who will now question every statement made about who, what, when and where. A husband who has been dishonest with his wife and is discovered loses credibility with her, causing her to question his fidelity and his love for her.
I'm a member of the Public Relations Society of America, and it is in the PRSA code of ethics that a member cannot spread lies as part of their communications programs on behalf of a client. I can honestly say that I have not spread lies. In fact, even when it hurts I think it's better to share the truth and maintain credibility and trust rather than be discovered in a lie. By the way, the lie is always discovered. I also become irate when asked to "spin" something. That's a political trick and one that's meant to confuse and obfuscate.
There are times I'm not able to talk about something. There are times I choose not to talk about something. But if I share information with you, it's because I believe it to be true.
I can speak from experience that, as a kid, I did things that probably eroded at the trust my parents had in me. The same is true for my relationships with my wife. After 20 years together (we started dating 20 years ago this month), I think I've come a long way. But I've had plenty of stupid moments. One thing I now know: Truth always is better.
In our business, sometimes sharing a truth may mean you lose a prospect. Sometimes a prospect will believe somebody else's spin and think that our business is not for them (and sometimes they're right--our business is available to anyone, but isn't necessarily right for everyone). I think it's better to share the full truth about our business with a prospect and keep their trust, rather than simply telling them what they want to hear. It's about managing expectations. In the end, they will experience our business for themselves and they will be matching up that experience with what they were told. It is at that point that personal reputations are born.

QUIXTAR: Quixtar and distributors back in court

2007-10-15T21:00:00.000-07:00

Original Source

Quixtar and distributors back in court
Updated: Oct 15, 2007 09:00 PM
By JOE LaFURGEY

GRAND RAPIDS -- Quixtar, the online version of Amway, was back in court Monday fighting the distributors who sued the company two months ago.

Quixtar claims the breakaway distributors, who run their own sales training business, have violated Judge Paul Sullivan's ruling in August.

The judge ordered those distributors to stop using proprietary information in their sales training business, to turn over those materials to Quixtar, and stop recruiting other Quixtar distributors, known as independent business organizations, or IBOs.

Lawyers for Quixtar claim the breakaway IBOs have convinced over 7,000 distributors to leave the flock since August.

A separate, federal case filed in California by the breakaways claimed Quixtar is part of a pyramid scheme, claiming the company's business practices made it tough for distributors to do business. The California case was dismissed.

Both sides will have four hours to argue their side of the case. We expect to hear from the distributors on Tuesday, and 24 Hour News 8 will be there for the testimony.

The Sued Bloggers

2007-10-15T12:08:00.000-07:00

Original Source

Here are the list of offending sites from the Quixtar lawsuit:

http://freetheibo.com/
http://forums.freetheibo.info/index.php
http://www.drinkxs.biz/
http://theiborebellion.blogspot.com/
http://qreilly.blogspot.com/
http://freetheiboblog.typepad.com/
http://quixtarlostmycents.blogspot.com/
http://saveusdickdevos.blogspot.com/
http://teamfoundingfathers.blogspot.com/
http://chrismcstu.blogspot.com/
http://quixtartoday.blogspot.com/
http://integrityisteam.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRVi3FRYXw8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC7NiVKEeMk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWCx7DB678Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGv7y8gj2cQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvj-jLqqq3c&NR=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo-AaSHbUIo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2pFmXWyDV0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAwJrP1_ZeE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH1Bc4ibOa0
22-30 Unknown parties who, on information and belief, have anonymously posted defamatory material on the Internet about Quixtar and its principals under various pseudonyms.

I love the vague #22-#30. Am I in that list?

UPDATE:Of the videos on YouTube, only the Shamus (#17) actually works. I may have typed in the video ID wrong from the lawsuit, but I would think I would have gotten more of them right.

Amway Has Such A Great Image

2007-10-15T08:40:00.000-07:00

I was browsing the web today and found this cartoon from Joy of Tech.

If You're Coming After Me ...

2007-10-13T22:24:00.000-07:00

Quixtar,

If you are coming after me in you 30 or so lawsuits, please just email me ThomasEvanAnthonyMorris at gmail dot com. It will save you having to fork out the money to reimburse me for the legal expenses, and my attorney says that if you do come after me, we can probably get quite a bit for legal harassment in a countersuit.

I don't want to go down the legal road if I don't have to. Please, just email me. We can setup a phone call or meet, whatever you need to assure you I am a lone gunman. Along those lines:

I am acting of my own accord. I have never met Orrin Woodward, Chris Brady, Randy Haugen, Don Wilson, Ron Simmons or any of the other plaintiffs in the California suit in person. I have heard many of them on tape and CD over the years. This blog, however, is not, nor has it been, encouraged by any of the Mighty 15, nor by my mentor.

As you may guess by looking at my email address, my real name is not Tom. I write under a pseudonym, not to hide from the law, but to allow me the freedom of expressing myself without the worry that it will reflect poorly on my mentor or team. Neither my mentor nor anyone on my team know that I am maintaining this blog.

QUIXTAR: A New Direction for Quixtar Sales

2007-10-12T01:00:00.001-07:00

Original Source

A New Direction for Quixtar Sales
Friday, October 12, 2007 by Todd Krause

There has been a lot of talk about the transformation of the Quixtar business and I wanted to give you an update on the changes happening in the Quixtar Sales department. In an effort to build IBO partnerships and strengthen the Quixtar team environment, Quixtar Sales is currently undergoing a departmental reorganization to take on more of a consultant role with IBOs.

Ideally, a consultant is a provider of valuable expertise, insight, and third-party perspective that you can't necessarily always get from your own inner circle. Obviously, we have expertise and insight into the Quixtar business that could benefit IBOs. As consultants, we will not only listen to IBO concerns, resolve problems, and manage relationships, we also will provide IBOs with more business data that will equip them to make better business decisions and maximize the results of their efforts. Our mission in Sales is to deliver data-driven insights and consultation that leads to responsible, measurable and sustainable growth.

The plan to shift to more of a consultant role consists of three steps:
1. Drive Internal Change Management: The key to moving this concept forward and allowing it to succeed will be both internal and external change management.
2. Refine Existing Solutions: Members of Sales currently have information tools and training to help them be effective when consulting with Platinums and above.
3. Increase Line of Affiliation (LOA) Involvement: We can only be successful when we work in partnership with leaders and their organizations to help them define and reach long-term profitability goals.

The most important tool for internal change management is communication. We've been communicating in department, team, and one-on-one meetings, keeping other departments and IBO leaders in the loop on what we're doing.

As Sales transitions to a focus on Business Solutions through consulting, many organizational changes will take place. Business Solutions will no longer be a stand-alone concept within Sales, but instead will be the only way that business is done. Quixtar Sales also will recruit, develop and retain people who increase the department's capacity to conduct credible business consulting.

We'll increase our Sales team to better support our contact with IBOs, their downline, and the emerging leaders. We'll add LOA Field and Home Advisors who will meet one-on-one with IBOs and provide them the data and information they need to succeed. This means that the Sales Advisor will no longer be a voice on the phone, but a presence in the IBO's hometown.

Other than the obvious difference in LOA Field and Home Advisors (Field will be traveling and Home will be stationed at Quixtar), the two positions share many similarities. Their common responsibilities will be, but are not limited to:
-- Participate in quarterly LOA planning meetings
-- Participate in or conduct select Platinum and above meetings
-- Analyze and recommend areas of improvement for Platinums and above
-- Participate in LOA/Quixtar Events
-- Trials day

Stay tuned for more information via email and voicemail about this new plan. We want to keep IBOs informed about the direction we're taking and manage expectations up front.

QUIXTAR: Guerrillas in the midst

2007-10-12T01:00:00.000-07:00

Original Source

Guerrillas in the midst
October 12th, 2007

Yes, we did.

We filed suit this week in Ottawa County, Michigan seeking to learn more about a number of “John Does” who have cropped up online since our dispute with Orrin Woodward and TEAM began.

Because we believe we can prove that some of their sites and posts were engineered or directed by Woodward, TEAM, their lawyers or their PR agency. And that those sites were purposely used to post material that violates a court order.

To us, this is a necessary measure in a commercial dispute. Because we believe the TEAM machine has been fighting dirty, abusing the online discussion and end-running the court.

(It’s also a necessary step in a technical sense – the companies that host these sites will not divulge information without a subpoena. You can’t get a subpoena without going to court. So if you want to demonstrate that Blogger X’s “spontaneous” site is actually part of a planned-and-paid-for strategy of commercial attack… that’s the road you have to go down.)

So we are seeking to support the legal system – and not attack First Amendment speech. Tough line to walk, but we’ll walk it. Because we believe in both principles.

It could very well be that some of these sites truly are spontaneous, just angry citizens independently voicing their opinions without direction from anyone else. We have no problem with those folks. We don’t want their money, we regret wasting their time and we will even offer to reimburse their costs.

There are plenty of individuals out there posting critical comments about our company, on this site and others. We welcome the debate and value their opinions. (Don’t believe that? Scan through the 4,000 comments of all stripes we’ve posted here since August.)

But e-guerrillas who won’t own up to being bought and paid for in a commercial dispute so they can end-run a court of law are another matter. We invite them to come on out – and fight in broad daylight.

Here is the 30 John Doe suit. I *highly* suggest you read it. It is a really good read.