Shaklee - Sweat Equity in a Participating Economy

The strong growth in the health supplement industry is driven by higher awareness of alternative and preventive care. Shaklee uses the direct selling model which Roger Barnett says is using social marketing to harness sweat equity and turn it into income and growth.

Shaklee's combination of product guarantees and green practices to create what looks like a benevolent organisation has paid handsomely with the company's valuation growing many times over Barnett's US$310m 2004 acquisition cost . Should a few bad MLM apples spoil the entire industry? Do health supplements work? Is there a need to make them unversally affordable? These are some of the issues we discuss.