Amway Japan Limited (AJL) must develop a strategy for rebuilding growth after its performance decline in 1997, as well as for delivering growth in both near-term and long-term sales. AJL has experienced a significant decline in net sales, which in turn, impacted net income. Bruce L. Stephens, President of AJL, must figure out a way to reverse this downward slope.
             Strengths: -"network marketing"
             - low costs
             - support staff
             The method referred to as "network marketing" serves as a strength to the company because distributors purchase products wholesale from the manufacturer and sells them directly to the end customer, cutting out the cost of the middle man. Independent distributors often sponsored subdistributors, who in turn recruited others to expand their sales network. In cooperation with their suppliers, Amway products are imported from other countries and are developed with the help of other companies, such as Sharp Corporation. This also reduces costs for Amway since they are splitting costs with other companies.
             AJL provides distributors with a variety of supports to help them grow their businesses. Major areas include customer service, distributor relationships, logistics, marketing, and public relations. This lets know distributors know that there is help available when needed so they can focus on increasing their productivity.
             As a result from the above factors, Amway also realizes low costs associated with having distributors directly purchase from the manufacturer and directly sell to the customer. Low costs enables companies to reallocate some of those savings to different areas such as the development of new product lines.
             Weaknesses: - exclusive distribution
             - vertical relationship between the sponsoring distributors
             - CS database only accessible by ma...