Candace Matthews – Chief Marketing at Amway Corporation

April 2010

By Caroline Cox

Accomplishing your big-time career goals isn’t easy- just ask Candace Matthews, chief marketing officer at Amway Corporation, a multi-billion dollar company that sells a variety of health, beauty, and home care products using multi-level marketing.  As the youngest of 18 children, Matthews worked her way through college and eventually graduated with an MBA from Stanford.  She has held leadership roles at companies such as L’oreal USA, Coca-Cola, Bausch & Lomb, Proctor & Gamble and General Mills, and she credits her success to the constant support of her siblings, the nurturing spirit of her mother, dedicated mentors, and her own unwavering drive.

Matthews manages a team of more than 600 employees around the world, is involved in numerous charity organizations, and still finds time to exercise. With all of those achievements, you’d think that she would be ready to slow down. Not so: at age 51, she now guides others on their own paths to success and focuses on being a role model to her three adopted children and adopted niece. Matthews offers up herself as an example of how to overcome challenges and reach the top.

She talks to PINK about the importance of education, current issues professional women face, and how she effectively leads a global network.

PINK: What motivated you to climb the corporate ladder?
Candace Matthews: When I was in college, I thought I was going to end up running a steel mill; my undergraduate degree is in metallurgical engineering. I entered college in the late 70s and by the time I graduated, the steel industry had moved overseas. I was very fortunate to have an advisor who said, “If you’re going to get an engineering degree, you should consider augmenting it with an MBA. And if you’re going to get an MBA, go into a place where it will really count, because MBAs will be a dime a dozen.” That was in 1980 and that’s what motivated me to go to Stanford.

PINK: What would you say to women who are just starting out in their careers or who may be facing challenges?
C.M.: No one can ever take your education away from you. If you value education, you should go as far as your heart desires. Learn how to be resourceful, because lack of finances should never be the reason that you don’t get an education. I am the youngest of 18 children. My father passed away when I was 10 and by the time it came for me to go to college there were zero financial resources. I grew up with a mother who had three mantras that guided me: she always said, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” “When the Lord closes a door he opens a window,” and “Unto whom much is given, much is required.” So I never took ‘no’ for an answer. I figured out that there are a lot of people you can ask as resources. We didn’t have the Internet back then. There are resources—you just have to look for them. I don’t like when people feel limited by money or education. If education is what you value then it is absolutely worth it.

PINK: Would you say your mom motivated you to succeed?
C.M.: Yes. My family encouraged me to go and do whatever it was that I had a desire to do. There was no limit put on me, regardless of what our resources were. When I was in business school, I was very fortunate to meet a woman from General Mills who said, “I’ll teach you everything you need to know to be successful in business, and in turn I just ask that you teach somebody else.” So, early on, I had a mentor who was instrumental in my career and not only stayed instrumental but became a good friend. Her name was Ann Fudge, and she ultimately became the highest-ranking African-American woman in corporate America.

PINK: So, for you, connections are key?
C.M.: One of the things I’ve learned in the workplace is that you have to connect with people. Being the youngest of many, I learned from all of my older siblings. I ended up being a walking trivia, which enabled me to converse in many ways with people. As I began to move up in the organization, I brought the nurturing I had received from my mother. She made every person she spoke to, particularly her children, feel they were the most important person at that moment. That helped me build relationships and trust, mentor others and lead.

PINK: What are the secrets to your professional success?
C.M.: You have to have a personal drive for excellence. No matter what anybody is asking of you, you’ve got to be giving your all, all the time. Also, always remain true to yourself through authenticity and integrity. Do not become somebody else to be successful.

PINK: How can career women overcome the obstacles they face today?
C.M.: Fewer women are getting married, so finding a support system, be it a spouse, a life partner, will be invaluable to your success and personal health. In this day and age, it’s not as easy– it’s not guaranteed that everyone will find that mate. That’s a real issue because you have to figure out where you’re going to get your support when you have tough days and you want a shoulder to cry on. You need to build that support system around you, regardless of who it is, so that you aren’t going through it alone.

PINK: How do you find balance?
C.M.: I am very fortunate that my husband stays at home with the kids, but that’s not always the answer for everybody. Not to say that your job is not important, but it’s not the only thing in your life. I have four children- three of them are adopted and one is a niece we have custody of. I had fertility issues that I faced because I married late in life. We still have a family, we just did it differently. I always encourage women to not feel like they have to sacrifice who they are to be what they really want to be. I often say, “You can have it all, you just may not have it all at one time.” At different stages in your life, you make different trade-offs, and that’s OK.

PINK: In what other ways to you balance Life/Work?
C.M.: I encourage women to take care of themselves. We have a tendency to put everybody else first and not take care of ourselves. Exercise is critical, and doing those little things that make you feel good. Go get a manicure and pedicure, because that hour is therapy for you. It’s very important for women to not neglect themselves.

PINK: What is the best career advice you’ve received?
C.M.: Make sure you understand what skills are your strengths and where your opportunities lie. You need to surround yourself with people who complement you.

PINK: What are some career or personal goals you’d still like to achieve?
C.M.: My first career goal was when I was 26 in business school and I said I wanted to be a division general manager by the time I was 50. When I was 42, I became the president of the Soft-Sheen Carson, Consumer Products Division of L’oreal. Then it became, “Oh my gosh, now what’s my next career goal?” I’m now 51 and I think of career goals very differently than I did when I was 26 because, in many ways, I have achieved beyond what I ever thought I would. Now it’s about how I’m laying the path for others. My goals now are about making sure I’m being a great role model to help people get to where they’d like to be in life. I’m beginning to serve on public and non-profit boards, and putting myself in places where I can help others. I’m very happy to be here.

PINK: You oversee more than 600 employees. What is your leadership style and how do you motivate your team?
C.M.: I have found a way to be very nurturing and demanding without being demeaning. I expect a lot of my people. I let them know what those expectations are, and then I give them the space to deliver. I set very high standards without micromanaging. I try to make my team feel very comfortable around me, so they feel like they can come and talk and ask questions. Laying out a vision and making them fully aware of it. Also, I try to understand them as people and know what drives them. My role is global, so I’m not only dealing with employees in the U.S. but also in 58 other countries and 80 territories, so I am all over the world. When I go to other countries, I try to do something with that team that is native to that country. I make them understand that I want to adapt to them and understand their culture.

PINK: How do you use technology to communicate with a global network?
C.M.: We do a lot of webcams and webcasts. We do global teleconferences, where it could be 7 o’clock in the morning here and 2 o’clock in the afternoon in Europe and 5 in the evening in India on one call. You learn that the world is very small, especially when you’re in a global role. You have to have no question about going to see somebody where the flight might take you 15 hours and you’re there for a day and a half. It’s the personal connection and relationship that is germane to our business. Amway is a relationship company and it’s really about that connection. I have to stay connected with my employees, with the distributors, and I have to understand the consumers all around the world.

PINK: What new projects excite you most?
C.M.: We launched an iPhone application that you can download yourself. It’s our product catalog and it’s for consumers and distributors. It’s to help our distributors explain and show our products to potential customers. It has online beauty, nutrition products, and you can order it right there.; We’re trying to make sure our distributors can explain and demonstrate things to the customers.

My focus is wellness and beauty, so you can be looking for a lot of new products. We just launched a brand called “beautycycle” (TM) in Russia, Europe and Australia. Customers will be seeing more advertising and social media from us. We have distributors in more than 80 countries and territories around the world, so we were built on connections and relationships. We were social networking before social networking became a thing!

PINK: What do you do in your free time?
C.M.: I am dancing in the Dance for the Cure Grand Rapids to raise money for cancer research. I’ve been paired with a professional dancer and we’ve been rehearsing for about five weeks. For me, it’s the best of everything: it allows me to get some great exercise, I love to ballroom dance and it’s for a worthy cause. It’s win-win all the way around. Working out is very important, but so is giving back. I’m on the board of Figure Skating in Harlem, a New York City-based organization that provides discipline and self-esteem to young girls through figure skating. A lot of what I do centers around making sure youth know what they can become.

PINK: Any last words of advice?
C.M.: “If you see someone without a smile, give them one of mine.” I smile all the time because you have to be a beacon of light to everybody you come in contact with. I believe in passing on a smile.