William S. PinckneyMD & CEO, Amway India Enterprises Pvt.Ltd
This company would forever be remembered as a pioneer with respect to two things; firstly for introducing the concept of multi-level marketing in India and secondly for the money back guarantee, the usage of which was relatively unheard of in marketing circles previously. No prize for guessing, we are talking about the $8.4 billion Amway. Present in 88 countries across the globe, the company’s direct selling approach for its products is a legendary case study in the ares of marketing knowledge. And the strategies adopted by William S. Pinckney, MD & CEO, Amway India Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. to overcome all the roadblocks in order to popularise the concept in India is certainly nothing less than a lesson of how to sell to masses. But then, it’s actually his multicultural personality (born in the USA, married to an Australian, his daughter is settled in China, and he is working and living in India) and an experience of almost three decades that has made William understand the versatile Indian buying behaviour and play his cards so successfully.
In 1998, William navigated his way into India to set up Amway’s operations here. One thing that motivated him about India was its people; and on a lighter note, he says, the thing that de-motivated him (to be exact, “scared him”) was Indian food. He recalls, “Me and my wife were actually worried that our waistlines will become thinner due to lack of our own food as we found Indian food very spicy and scary at that point of time.” But that was during his initial years. Over the past ten years, William has developed a hitherto hidden penchant for Indian palate and culture. This was apparent from the idol of Lord Ganesha kept on his table. Later, we also came to know that every year he even gets a pooja done on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi. The people and their culture have truly attracted William and he claims to be very much familiar with the consumer-psyche of this country. However, he admits that he is still struggling to find an answer to his biggest challenge in India – lack of awareness and interest in consumers about Amway’s products.
Nevertheless, bucked up with his knowledge of Indian consumer behaviour, equipped with his deft strategies and with an investment of Rs.151 crore, William has achieved a turnover of over Rs.1,407 crore for the year ended 2009. Moreover, with a team of 450 people and seven contract manufacturers, Amway India is now manufacturing all the products within the country. But William has bigger plans for this country as he says, “We have our own manufacturing plants in the US, China and now in India also. We plan to source our products from these countries to the rest of the world, and thus would be investing more in India.”
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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
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