As direct selling leaders promote economic opportunity and confront challenges facing their own businesses, they also influence the conversation on those issues at both the local and global level.
Tupperware Chairman and CEO Rick Goings has followed up his participation in the World Economic Forum in Davos with a call for business and government leaders to pursue women’s economic empowerment, both in developed and emerging markets.
Published in The Huffington Post, Goings’ commentary on “Changing the Tone When We Talk About Gender” highlights the role that gender plays in income disparity, which the Forum’s Global Risks 2014 report calls the No. 1 challenge facing the world.
Particularly in emerging markets, Tupperware has experienced the ripple effect within families and communities when organizations equip women with “pragmatic tools and personal training-based contribution” to increase their income level.
Read Goings’ full piece for The Huffington Post.
Amway Chairman Steve Van Andel, who currently serves as Chairman of the Board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, also wrote a recent op-ed addressing the need for stronger economic growth in the U.S.
Writing in Florida’s Sun Sentinel, Van Andel focuses on the priority of expanding international trade, particularly through two free trade agreements: the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TIPP).
Through TPP, U.S. businesses would receive access to the Asia-Pacific region, a center of global economic growth. The TTIP would eliminate all tariffs on EU-U.S. trade, bolstering investment and standardizing regulations. Both agreements depend upon the passing of the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), which authorizes Congress to guide trade negotiations and grants it the deciding vote.