Tag Archives: future

Optimal Health, Reflections, Today's World

Going on Tour, and Going Full Circle

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Last month, Francesca and I toured through Asia visiting China, Thailand, Malaysia, and Taiwan. The trip was an opportunity for us to talk about Amway’s leadership as a Health and Wellbeing company and to begin celebrating the upcoming 90th anniversary of Nutrilite.

Throughout my visit, I spoke to employees, company leaders and – from the stage – tens of thousands of Amway Business Owners all of whom were eager to learn more about the legacy of the Nutrilite™ brand and the power of nutrition in today’s world. Many leaders have enthusiastically embraced the Product of the Product philosophy and are doing all they can to improve their health and wellbeing, and their outlook about the future. 

In the Beginning

It’s what my father, Carl F. Rehnborg, envisioned when he founded Nutrilite nearly 90 years ago. He was an adventurous man who was innately curious. As a young entrepreneur living and working in China in the early 1900s, he spent lots of time building his business by traveling throughout the Chinese countryside.

While doing so, he made the quintessential observation that ultimately led to the creation of the Nutrilite™ brand: People living in the countryside were much healthier than people living in the city; they were more physically active, and they ate more fruits and vegetables.

Historical image of man standing in front of steps leading up to a building facade.
Photo of Carl F. Rehnborg in Shanghai, Picture During the Years of 1915 and 1916, Carl F. Rehnborg was an accountant with standard Oil Company of New York, in Tientsin, China, which is in the northern part of the country

But let’s rewind and think about this. Just getting to China from the United States in the early 1900s was a monumental task. For him, it included traveling across the continental United States, and then extended passages across the Pacific Ocean where he had lots of time to dream about the future, and the opportunity to learn about a completely different culture – and build a business.

As a young businessman, he started off in China representing Standard Oil selling cooking oil traveling up and down the Yangtze River. But, again, based on his observations, he believed that selling canned milk in China would serve an immediate need and benefit the Chinese population. He soon returned to the States and was able to convince Carnation Milk to let him represent their company in China.

It was while selling canned milk and becoming more embedded in Chinese society, that he realized most people he was interacting with had nutritional gaps in their diets that plant materials could help fill. He also soon understood that eating well, exercising, and leading a healthy lifestyle was the best way to combat poor health. Simply because it helps prevent problems from occurring in the first place.

So, from the very beginning, through my father’s observations, a deep understanding of health and wellbeing has been engrained in the DNA of the Nutrilite™ brand.

The New Opportunity

Today, Amway understands how Health and Wellbeing can help improve peoples’ quality of life and help increase health span – helping people live better, healthier lives. The commitment to Health and Wellbeing is coming to life in different ways across the globe, but everything is rooted in a consistent direction.

Together, we are focused on six interconnected domains that illustrate how a healthy body, a healthy mind, personal growth, community connection, financial wellbeing, and taking care of our planet can positively transform our overall wellbeing.

Going Full Circle

An exciting part of our Asian trip was the opportunity to share the stage with co-chairmen, Steve Van Andel and Doug DeVos, and CEO, Milind Pant. Spending quality time with them in each country we visited made me realize how interconnected we are and how important our partnership is.

During our final presentation in Taipei, an on-stage interview session between the four of us and Michelle Lin, Managing Director of Taiwan and Hong Kong, I heard Doug say something that truly resonated.

The whole team onstage at the Platinum Rally in Taipei.

While speaking about the direction we are going as a company, Doug said:

“Health and wellbeing is who we were in the first place. And now we’re discovering more about who we are. And if we do that, we can build an even better future together.”

Listening to Doug speak, I realized that we are – in many ways – going full circle.

What my father observed so many years ago is as important today as it ever has been. And it is now at the center of the future Amway is pursuing.

What an incredible opportunity!

Cheers!

Blast from the Past, Optimal Health, Reflections

The 90th Anniversary of Nutrilite

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Believe it or not, next year marks the 90th anniversary of Nutrilite. Many amazing things are in the works to celebrate this important milestone.

For starters, something I’m truly excited about is the upcoming release of The Nutrilite Story, 3rd Edition. The updated version of the book will not only to tell the ongoing story of the Nutrilite brand, but its release will also coincide with the 90th anniversary.

The book tells the story of my father, Carl Rehnborg, and how his insatiable curiosity and dogged determination created Nutrilite. It also shares how my personal journey from childhood up to the present has helped Amway and Nutrilite become what it is today. You’ll be able to get a copy of the book early next year.

That’s not all we have been busy with lately. To help people better understand the Nutrilite story and how my personal life has been so intertwined with health and wellness, I spent several days in a production studio capturing my impressions about the past, present and future.

Here’s a teaser video we put together to give you a taste of the content you will soon be able to see.

There’s even more. During the last two weeks in October, I will be touring Asia – stopping in China, Thailand, Malaysia, and Taiwan – to begin celebrating the 90th anniversary of the brand and all the amazing things happening with Amway and Nutrilite.

So make sure you stay tuned to my blog for updates about my trip.

I’ll talk to you soon!

Cheers!

Blast from the Past, Reflections, Today's World

Harvesting Protein from the Sea

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My father, Nutrilite founder Carl Rehnborg, was ahead of his time, he was able to foresee outcomes before they happened. And he was always looking for ways to improve the health of the planet and our prospects as individuals – even in unconventional ways.

If you’ve read The Nutrilite Story, you might know the story of the Acania a ship he purchased to harvest plankton from the sea off the coast of Alaska. If you want to know more about Nutrilite history, understanding the story of the Acania is a good place to start because it embodies my father’s forward thinking-nature, the type of thinking that translates into the foundation of the Nutrilite brand.

The Acania designed by John H. Wells and built by Consolidated Shipbuilding Company in 1930. Seen here as Research vessel in Juneau, Alaska (1987)- Southeast Alaska. By Gillfoto – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75

An Eventful World Tour

In the early 1950s my father was entering the retirement phase of his life, having turned 65 in 1952. But he wasn’t slowing down by any means.

A year later, his insatiable curiosity led him to embark on a world tour with his wife Edith that took them to Europe, the Middle East and Asia. During his travels, he was analyzing the character and culture of ancient places that were brand new to him. And in doing so he couldn’t help but view things through his own particular lens – nutrition. 

He visited Europe when it was still recovering from the devastation of World War II. He theorized that proper supplementation could help bridge nutritional gaps in people still recovering from the traumas of war. And throughout his travels across three different continents he saw stark reminders of poverty and malnutrition.

He returned home inspired to find ways to make the world a better place and to do what he could to help eliminate poverty and starvation. He saw that people were not only suffering from a lack of vitamins, but also from an inadequate intake of protein.

Observations while Sailing to and from China

Decades earlier he had sailed to and from China across the North Pacific, where he saw plankton blooms glowing in the dark seas at night. Memories of those passages across the ocean gave him an idea for a solution. In the fall of 1954, he decided to find a way to harvest plankton straight from the sea and use it to make a protein supplement.

Why plankton? More bang for the buck, he figured, or more protein by the pound, to be more accurate. Sure, one pound of plankton might be roughly equivalent to a pound of fish, but a lot of food value was lost between the plankton and the big fish that humans ate.

He purchased a 126 foot luxury yacht called the Acania and he refitted it for harvesting plankton. By the summer of 1956, the Acania set sail, bound for the waters off Alaska. I was able to join the crew during my summer break from Stanford University, where I had just completed my sophomore year studying chemical engineering.

How it Worked

From the Acania’s deck, we would send these big coned-shaped nets down 100 feet in water to scoop up the protein-rich plankton. We would follow the plankton on sonar. We could see the fluorescent plankton rise at night with the dwindling sun when we could get close enough to harvest it. We would bring it onboard via big pumps that sucked it out of the water and into the bowels of the boat, where it was spray-dried with relatively little treatment. Every night, we would catch 100 pounds. It produced a very high-quality material that was 85 percent protein.

The trip was a success, proving that plankton could indeed be harvested, and a healthful protein supplement easily made from it.

Unfortunately, the operation wasn’t economically viable. Harvesting plankton was simply too costly at the time to produce a supplement whose primary market would be the world’s most poverty-stricken areas.

The Acania Today

The current owners of the Acania reached out to me earlier this year to compile historical details about the vessel. The ship was built in 1929 and it’s had a storied history with multiple owners. Nutrilite owned it from 1955 to 1960 after which the boat was sold to the Stanford Research Institute.

The ship is being restored after it sank at the dock in Everett, Washington in August of 2017.

I hope to be able to visit the current owners sometime in the near future to share personal stories about my time on the Acania and to relive some of the wonderful memories I experienced as a young man helping to build the future of the Nutrilite brand.

Recent photos of the Acania undergoing restoration after being salvaged from the harbor bottom.

A Friend of the Sea

Friend of the Sea Logo

Today, Nutrilite ingredients harvested from the ocean are Friend of the Sea® certified. That includes the entire supply chain — the fisheries, the fish oil producer, and our products. Specifically, it relates to our new Omega and Advanced Omega products that have begun rolling out this year. It’s another step toward sustainability and care for the planet we call home.

Friend of the Sea® sustainable fisheries and Omega-3 certification ensures certified products minimally impact the environment. Following Friend of the Sea® requirements ensures healthy fish, supports endangered species, and encourages an abundant supply for the future.

My Father’s Legacy

My father was focused on sustainability, social responsibility, and other innovative methods to help alleviate global challenges like poverty, malnutrition, and climate change. He was doing this even before the modern environmental movement was born.

It’s the type of thinking we need more of today as we slowly realize that the future is now. And we can’t pass our problems to the next generation anymore.

Cheers!

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Blast from the Past, Reflections

Seeing the Future in the Archives

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My recent trip to Amway World Headquarters allowed me to see the future when I visited the archives and records department. That’s where I found a dedicated team of people keeping track of all the materials and artifacts we’ve generated over the decades.

From left to right: Mckeyia Neely, Sue Bowerman, Dr. Sam, Sue Burd, Stephanie Bustraan, Maritza Andrade – not pictured

The climate controlled, state-of-the-art facility is preserving Nutrilite and Amway history, and it’s providing a glimpse into a future that’s still connected to our past.

Let me explain with a brief history lesson.

The Nutrilite story started when my father, Carl Rehnborg, discovered the power of plant-based nutrients, and their impact on human health, while living in China more than 100 years ago.

While traveling the country, he saw that people living in rural areas were much healthier than those living in the city. They were more physically active, and they ate more fruits and vegetables. By contrast, city dwellers were more sedentary, and their diet was less diverse.

He realized that people who were missing these plant-based nutrients that, at the time, he called “associated food factors” – later they would be known as phytonutrients – were not as healthy as they could be.

He personally came face-to-face with the reality of poor nutrition when he and his family were trapped in an isolated settlement in Shanghai during civil war battles in 1927. During this several-month period, the whole city was essentially locked down while warring factions fought.

With food supplies growing short and noticing the signs of malnutrition among other inhabitants, he would gather whatever greens he could from the settlement’s parks and gardens and whatever foodstuffs he was able to persuade the guards to bring him to prepare soups and gruels.

He even added rusty nails and bones to his concoctions whenever he could, knowing that they would provide supplemental iron and calcium and other valuable minerals. He passed out samples to his friends and neighbors. Dad and the family ate it, and he encouraged everyone who would listen to do the same.

He survived the experience and returned to Southern California later that year with $40 in his pocket.

The time he spent in China and the simple observations he made about nutrition became the seeds of an idea that inspired him to create what is believed to be the first multivitamin/multimineral food supplement in the North American marketplace in 1934. He founded Vitamin Products Company, and later changed the company name to Nutrilite in 1939. It wasn’t without personal trials and tribulations, but my father believed in his dream and worked doggedly for many years to turn it into reality.

The fundamentals of the Nutrilite origin story still hold true. Carl Rehnborg believed in eating healthy, colorful whole foods, supplementing the diet with plant-based nutrients, regular exercise and activity, and a positive mental attitude based in curiosity about the world.

Simply put, these ideas of prevention and optimal health still hold true for the Nutrilite brand and Amway of today and in the future.

What I saw in the Archives

At this point I’m sure you’re wondering what I saw when I visited the archives. Here’s a gallery of photos and ads from the early days of Nutrilite.

That’s me at work in the lab during my early days at Nutrilite.
The first Double X.
1950s product lineup.
Nutrilite letterhead and business cards circa 1950s.
A modern photo of the past.
Presenting at the Biltmore in my earlier days at Nutrilite.
Nutrilite storefront in the 1950s.
That’s me in the alflafa fields in the 1980s.
A magazine advertisement from 1953.
A Nutrilite magazine advertisement from the 1950s.

I hope you’re able to see the future in our archives just like I did. We’ve come a long way in nearly 90 years.

The future is bright.

Cheers!

News & Views (Amway & Nutrilite), Optimal Health, Reflections, Today's World

Following the Good Thread

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At the end of February, I traveled from California to Michigan to visit Amway World Headquarters where I experienced some of the incredible work that is underway to build the future of the Nutrilite brand. I spoke at an employee meeting, met with teammates, toured manufacturing facilities, and visited other departments on the Ada Campus.

Speaking at the Amway Employee Meeting with Doug DeVos.

It was a good week. And my time in Michigan reaffirmed my belief in the future and helped me see that the Nutrilite brand and Amway are on the right track.    

One thing that stood out to me were the bonds that exist between employees, a thread between good people and good work. I believe a key component of a successful company is happy employees who find meaning and purpose in their jobs. Part of that magic stems from a workplace culture that prioritizes overall wellbeing and a balance between work and play.

Yes, we all need to provide for ourselves and our families, but our work life shouldn’t necessarily define us. It’s just one component of our identity.

That’s why I was pleased to interact with employees who really get it, those who have figured out how to find the balance between career success and family. Everyone is unique and different; they bring their own perspective and experience to a community that is working tirelessly to create positive impact in our world. That’s the good thread.

I met with the Nutritional Products Plant team.
The eSpring team shared a sneak peek of the next generation with me.
I was given a great tour of the Spaulding Manufacturing facilities.
I visited the wonderful team in Archives.

It’s all about PREVENTION

You’ve heard me discuss Prevention before. But I want to reiterate its importance. This simple concept can change the trajectory of our future. We need to start now, taking care of our health, taking care of our community, and taking care of our planet. It’s the triple bottom line approach that Amway and the Nutrilite brand have adopted. You see it on our farms, in our laboratories, in our manufacturing, in our offices and in the community of ABOs spread throughout the world who believe in the power of optimal health.  

The future is bright!

I’m pleased that we are following a “good thread” – that we are on a positive path to the future that can make the world a better place. It’s time to be proactive and creative.

We need to constantly search for innovative ways to protect and improve our prospects in a world where technology and things like artificial intelligence are disrupting how we think about things we’ve taken for granted for a long time.

While it feels like everything is speeding up, the goal is to slow down. If you can do that, you will find meaning and purpose in a world where it feels like everyone, and everything wants our attention all the time.

So take a walk, read a book, enjoy a healthy meal with your family and friends. Breathe!

You’ll be glad you did.

Cheers!

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