To Russia with Love

By Michael Dean, Chief Executive Officer

Russia, the Ukraine, and neighboring countries represent Nature’s Sunshine’s largest international market, and our visit to Russia had a two-fold purpose: 1) to demonstrate to Russian managers and leadership our confidence in their success and the great potential of their market and 2) to learn about the positive things our managers, distributors and even staff members are doing so that we can better support each of them.

We spent an entire day in one-on-one meetings with key leaders, listening and learning about their different approaches to the business, so that we could understand them in a deeper way to better know how to support distributors as they seek to grow their businesses in those markets. Learning these things more effectively prepares Home Office leaders to help managers grow now and in the future. We came away with a better understanding of their business models and of the strong relationships between NSP business leaders and local office personnel and the field. Our visit was capped with lots of great food, including more borscht and okroshka than any man can handle!

It had been many years since an NSP CEO had visited Russia, and I believe this trip signaled to our company the importance of the Russian market and its many hard-working distributors and office staff members. It also served to underline the huge potential we see for this market.

It was encouraging to see their incredibly talented leaders building strong businesses. It’s also interesting to observe that in both the US and Russia, NSP distributors have a unique skill set and have built valuable businesses using vast knowledge and expertise. Both markets boast loyal, caring individuals who consistently work to help others with their health and to grow strong businesses. These parallel efforts of the distributors in our two largest markets help Nature’s Sunshine maintain a valuable and consistent brand around the world.

We were extremely impressed with the reach of the Nature’s Sunshine business opportunity and the strength of our brand in the Russian market. It was a proud moment for all of us. We feel that, together with our distributors, we have a very bright future.