Introduction to the Net Work Marketing or MLM business

Some time in 1992, through the referral of a friend, I was engaged by a successful International MLM company based in US to incorporate a company in Malaysia. I was not involved in the operations of the company but was maintained as its consultant for compliance with Statutory requirements only. About four years later, to my surprise, I was approached by it's legal counsellor and the President to take over the management of the company in Malaysia. I had learnt that after four years of it's operations, the company was financially in the red with a host of management,financial,systems and distributor marketing problems.

It was my first time walking into the management of a MLM company and one with drastic problems too at that time. I resorted to my pool of expertize in management, technology,finance and people skills to turn around the company within a year to be finally acquired by an investor group from the US. I had by that time put new management in place, new distributor leaders, better financial controls and systems which overall uplifted the image of the company to later on become one of the leading MLM companies in the country. The legal counsellor who later became president of the company after several merges and acquisitions remains a close friend to me today.

I had discovered from my experience with the first company that I was like 'a duck in a pond' when working in the MLM industry. Not long after my contract had ended , the same friend that introduced me to the first company introduced me a new American company with just a single product and asked me what I thought of it. My confidence had already increased by then and told him to tell the founders I could to start up operations in Malaysia from ground zero with the promise that I could gather 10,000 distributors at their opening convention. They immediately flew their VP of International to see me in Kuala Lumpur and I was immediately given the mandate to proceed. The end result was that I grossed RM100 million for the company in just one year from ground zero in the beginning with 50,000 distributors in the database at the official opening ceremony of the company. (Read the media coverage) I believe my leadership contributed to putting Malaysia on the map ranked 12th in the world for direct selling. (Read Direct Selling News July 2006)

My contract with the American company lasted for 5 years. Following that I assisted a Singaporean friend, who was also managing an American based MLM company in the region, for its Malaysia operations. He faced a tougher time with the management of the American based MLM companies and went through several US companies faster than I did. From his experience combined with mine, and the information I have gathered from several other Asian managers in the region representing American MLM companies, I have become influenced to make certain conclusions on the fate of American companies in Asia.